The Looming Danger of Global Warming ~ or, doings of the church
of environmentalism
                       SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SKEPTICS
According to Wikipedia, the Earth's average temperature in the 20 century, climbed by about  1.1 degree
(f) - plus or minus .04 degree.  So, the good news is, it may have been only 1.06 degree.  The bad news is
it might have been a degree and a little over.  When I'm stoking my wood stove to get the interior temp up to
40 degrees more than the outside temp.  I have a little trouble getting excited that a century from now it
might not require quite so much wood.  But, on the other hand, it might drop that much instead of climbing.
Who knows? If the earth goes into another cooling cycle, we may need all the "greenhouse gas" we can
get.  (A June 24th, 1975 issue of Time Magazine - hardly a right wing pub - warned of impending Ice Age)

But, Al Gore knows.  He read Rachel Carson's 1962 rant, Silent Spring and made it his bible.
                      See:   Rachel Carlson's Book Kills People

Al got a chance to harang the US Congress today (3/24/07) to bring them up to date on the issue - never
mind about such trivials as the terrorist war or the invasion of millions across our Southern border - the
world is heating up!  However, Al's church of environmentalism  will save us.  It took the Catholic Church
over a millenium to come up with "Indulgences" (Martin Luther railed against the practice when he nailed
his theses to the church door in 1519)  However, the environmentalist church has come up with them in
less than 40 years of existence.  If you have money, you can purchase an "indulgence" directly for the
high priest, Al Gore, himself (it's called a "carbon credit" or something like that)  So, if you are sinning by
driving an SUV, (or a  Lear Jet,  like Al's) or using too much electricity (like Al's mansion which uses 20
times what the typical US household uses), high priest Al will sell you an indulgence.  And, then you can
go on sinning without any problem of conscience.  Al has set up his own partnership (with offices in NY
and London) for just that purpose.  Maybe, if you are a good democrat, he will even give you a discount
What a way to finance a run for the presidency!!   GO  AL!! Obviously, Al does not believe
the crap he is peddling - And so far he hasn't sold his huge store of oil co. stocks.

Al's recent movie, An Inconvenient Truth assures us we are in line for a bunch of destructive hurricanes
on account of the world heating up.  He uses footage from Katrina to create the impression it was due to
GW
        SEE  KATRINA

   - - allthough he carefully avoids saying so - - because most reputable climate scientists say it was not.
Al also implies that the Aral Sea (a huge Russian Lake) went dry on account of GW.  However, the National
Geographic (hardly an extreme right wing source) did an extensive article about it, giving the much more
prosaic explanation that the Soviets caused it to go dry by diverting a couple of rivers that fed it.  It's my
observation that most puddles do go dry when their water supply is shut off and the Aral story is much
more one about how government is a very poor steward of the land (and water).

But, then some computer models predict the earth's temperature will go up by as much as ten degrees in
the next century.  And do those computer models also tell us what the temperature will be in Chicago a
month from now?  Well, no.  Seems they need a little more tweaking to tell us that.

Speaking of computer models, I must ask:  "How do they know what the Earth's average temperature is?
The Earth is a mighty big ball -- 8000 miles through - 24,000 miles around, which moves around the sun
turning at a speed of about 1000 mph. and changes it's tilt as it does so.  It would seem to me that to
guage it's temp is going to take more than a thermometer in it's mouth.  Sure, temperatures in and around
cities have been increasing because we keep using more and more energy.  But, since we humans only
occupy around three percent of the earth's serface, city temps don't seem to represent a very big amount
of the total earth. Temps vary constantly all over the earth!
I would say that it would take - at the very least a Billion DATA POINTS logged simultaneously to get
the necessary data for a reasonable earth temperature reading.  And then, to have a reasonable estimate
of temperatrue change, you would have to have such readings for several years.    Don't have that!

But then, we do have computer models.  Computer models are created by computer programmers.  I used
to hobnob with some of those guys in Mensa.  And some of them are pretty smart.  However, one thing I
observed about high I.Q. people:  I.Q. and judgement are two very different, not necessarily connected, things.
As one wag put it, "good judgement is what you get from using bad judgement".  In other words: experience.
We make good use of computer models in a lot of things - - where they can be tested against REAL LIFE.
On the other hand, without such testing, they are just "guestimates".  A century from now, we will know how
accurate they were - - NOT UNTIL THEN.

But, what about all the glaciers shrinking and the Arctic ice all melting away and the ocean rising as a result?
The question is, when did this all start?  Most natural scientists agree that at at least one time, the  earth was
coverd with ice.  There is plenty of physical evidence to back that idea up - -and some say it has happened
several times.  The bible confirms that in Genesis 1:2 "The earth was without form . . . and darkness was on the
face of the deep".  Without sun shine, you have a lot of ice.  Ice is very persistent stuff.  It takes a lot of heat
energy to melt ice. About the same amount of heat to melt it (raise it from one deg. below freezing to one above)
as it does to raise the temp of liquid water some 80 degrees.  Since the ice age, the sun has been working on
all that ice to melt it -- with a few little "ice ages" to reverse the process - and the sea level has been rising (on
the atlantic seaboard, (around ten feet in the past 400 years).  Logic says that process will continue and there
isn't much humans can do about it and it has little to do with whether you drive an SUV or ride a bicycle.

But, let us remember, water now covers about 70 percent of the earth - to depths even greater than the highest
mountains.  Philipine trench to about 35,000 feet as compared to Mt. Everest at a little over 29,000 feet.  The
ocean is quite large, so it will take quite a while before New York City has to move.  We have much bigger, more
immediate problems than weather changes.

Sending money to The Sierra Club so they can use it to "stop global warming" , or getting rid of your SUV, is a
little like the old saying (excuse my French) - Peeing in the ocean.                    . . . .  Marv Chastain

  GLOBAL FREEZING?

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