[Tom D.]

Mr. Steyn is particularly sharp this morning.

I don't know what its been like elsewhere, but it's been pretty chilly around Eastern North Carolina lately.

[sig226]

Excellent. Thanmks for posting it.

[indylindy]

You would think most could see right through all this hysteria. Everyday we see the pushy hard sell tactics of the left. Steyn nails this one.

[kanawa]

Globull Warming Bump

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

[I-ambush]

Yes, there's frost on the ground here in Laurinburg.

[Condor51]

There's 'climate change' alright.

I'm approx 26 miles SW of downtown Chicago and right now, it's -7^oF with a wind chill of -18 F. Over night it hit -10.8^oF. And last night about 6:00pm the wind chill was -24^oF. (One independent 'weather station' two mile from the house (Lisle, IL) says it's -11^oF as of now)

So Al and Heidi et-la, take your 'climate change' and global warming crap and shove it.

[SIDENET]

Steyn is great, as usual.

If anyone has a Mark Steyn ping list, please add me. Thanks.

[KeepUSfree]

I have been arguing about this with some "believers" over on a catus forum I am a member of. I posted the following diatribe the other day. I am very proud that my dissertation touches on many of the points Mark makes in his. I am also consistanly amazed at how much better MArk says it (sigh). Here it is: "The sky is falling - The sky is falling" - Chicken Little circa 1955 I have no "political agenda". I don't let political or emotional "feelings" get in the way of "the truth". I neither love nor hate George Bush. I neither Love nor hate Bill Clinton. I do have an opinion on which was a better president - which I won't discuss here. However, I do have alot of common sense, long-term historical perspective and a keen sense of observation of nature. I keep reading and seeing and being bombarded with all these doom and gloom scenarios - which are identical to the untrue doom and gloom scenarios I've heard all my life (as I said in a previous post, I have a big stack of National Geographic "Weekly Readers" here I saved from 1969-1973 - many of which have the predictions of:

Overpopulation will kill everybody.
Man-made Pollution is going to kill us - and all wildlife.
Fish stocks in the ocean will be gone by 2000.
We'll be out of oil sometime in the 1990s.
My personal favorite:"The Next Ice Age".

Since then, we've had Ozone holes, AID's epidemics, Bird Flu.... the list goes on.

The only thing all of these "problems" have in common is this:

NONE of them happened - Not one.

Now, add to that a study of Climate history and one will find that, since the earth cooled, The climate has been changing. I have Palm Tree Fossils from the Mountains of West Virginia - there's no palm trees there now.
We've had anywhere from 5-20 "mass extinction events" on this planet - depending on your school of thought. We have had at least 6 Ice Ages.
In between the Ice Ages - which is where we are now - we have had periods of much higher temperatures.

None of this was man-made.

Everyday, we have a warming and cooling cycle - we call it a "day & night".

Every year, we have a warming and cooling cycle - we call it "summer & winter".

Now, suddenly we happen to live in a time where we can "notice" the 1500 year long heating and cooling cycle - and we're doomed.

And, not only are we doomed - it's also "our fault"

No, we're not doomed.

And no it's not "our fault".

It is no more "our fault" than the daily and yearly cycles are "our fault". And, even if this bigger cycle would kill us (which it won't), we can no more stop it than we could stop summer from arriving.

Nor would we want to.

Could you imagine the devastation that would occur if we could stop the tilt of the earth on it's axis in order to prevent winter??? It would be 10 times worse than the effects of winter itself. Back in the old days, before science learned a few things, a comet would appear in the sky or a volcano would explode and the natives would think "we made the Gods angry" and they would go and cut out the hearts of a few perfectly good virgins or burn them alive on the altar.
Now, we know that the natives didn't have the power "to make the gods angry", and what was happening was a natural occurrence.

Not surprisingly, most of the time, the leaders of these people knew that the sacrifices actually did nothing to appease the Gods either - but it sure helped them keep hold of thier power-base.

Fast forward 2000 or so years and just look at new sophistication. Oh, sorry, there IS no new sophistication. The natives are doing the same thing!!
The climate is changing. We don't "understand it". Our leaders tell us it is because "the Gods are angry at our evil SUV's and our evil indulgent lifestyles".
Our only "new sophistication" comes from knowing that sacrifing virgins won't do anything. Instead, we'll install new laws to tax and cripple the best economies in the world - while, once again, cementing the hold on power by those in charge.

Same ploys, same tactics, slightly different parameters - and the natives STILL fall for it. Amazing.

The only thing that would cause me to worry is if the climate ever stopped changing.

Mars is undergoing "global warming". Experts believe Pluto is also undergoing "Global warming". Hmm.... what's the common thread.
Could it be this:

As I have said many times, look around. Think for yourself. Follow the money. When one has a car inspected to get tags and registration, they ALWAYS find something wrong. Why, there's no money in not finding anything wrong. Same thing holds true in Climatology - only the dollar amounts are much, much bigger. So relax, enjoy the warmer weather. Grow more tropical plants. I myself, have 6 palm trees in my yard in Maryland. They're doing great! And, call me vile, but I am smugly happy about it.

[xcamel]

We'll give this a try - most likely will be a high-volume pinglist:

FReepmail me to get on or off

[libertylover]

IF, repeat, IF there's climate change, here's the equation:
CLIMATE CHANGE = NATURAL FACTORS + MAN-MADE FACTORS.

Even though we know from the geological record that periods of warming and cooling have occurred in the past (long before Algore's hot air came into play), I've never seen any attempt to define how much of this alleged change is being caused by NATURAL FACTORS.

[non-anonymous]

to... deny much of the developing world access to the healthier and longer lives that capitalism brings.

This is the effect of it. Let's assume for a second that the worst case scenarios are true; what's the best course of action? Do we put a huge drag on the world economy for the sake of a few fractions of a degree C, leaving the poorest where they are to weather whatever storms and floods are in store for them? Or do we instead allow them reach a level of prosperity to where dealing with changes in the weather isn't such a hardship?

You're not going to see Kyoto-burdened economies driving the creation of third-world wealth. It's going to be the US, China, and India, among others. Sadly though, it's going to be these nations who are blamed by the environmentalists for turning the third world into a bunch of consumer critters - out of their 'equilibrium' with nature (that's how they would prefer it - nature getting its fair shot), and onto their couches listening to Tunak Tunak Tun on their iPods.

[Sam Cree]

*

[BibChr]

...melting faster than a coed's heart at an Al Gore lecture

This is what makes Steyn fun.

[capitalist229]

It is only 150-200 years since the 'Little Ice Age' ended. Of course it's getting warmer !

I'll start taking it seriusly when Babs turns in the keys to her jet.

BUMP

[Puckster]

It was -21 degrees without wind chill in Pine City, MN, this morning. Yes, we had a mild December and most of January, however, September and October were some of the coolest on recored.

[NonValueAdded]

If anything, we should be taking steps to hasten Global Warming. After all, it is inoculation against Nuclear Winter and some states are surely taking steps to make that a reality.

[Tribune7]

ping

[Reaganesque]

Bookmarked for later reading.

[COUNTrecount]

So does this mean that Mark won't be voting for Algore to get the Oscar or the Nobel? Just askin'.

[Tax-chick]

It's mighty cold in my house!

[thinking]

As I understand things...the earth's annual inclination, is responsible for the seasonal changes that we, in the higher latitudes, experience....in turn, the moon's position, relative to earth, moderates the inclination, if the moon wasn't in the precise position, that it is presently, the earth would experience greater or less than the 23.45 degrees of inclination, and as a result, the seasonal temperature variation would be greater, or less, dependent on weather the inclination angle increased or decreased....if the angle increased, the northern latitudes, would experience longer, and warmer summers, followed by longer and colder winters....conversely, if the angle decreased, then it would result in long winters, and virtually no summer.....

Laser measurements of the distance between the earth and our moon indicate that Moon, is slowly moving away from earth; as the distance increases, the stabilizing influence of the Moon on earth's annual inclination, will decline, and this decline will result in greater weather fluctuations here on earth

[kellynla]

"And, if you really don't like the global weather, wait half-a-millennium."

Nuff said.

Now we're off to the beach...
Gotta take advantage of this beautiful Southern Cali 80 degree weather before Al Bore predicts a "Global Freeze!" LMAO

GO COLTS!

[Beowulf]

bttt

[Savage Beast]

Kinda makes you long for the days when Y2K occupied the minds--Oops!--of the mindless "do-gooders".

This is the crux of the matter:

"The question is whether...we need to divert vast resources to a transnational elite bureaucracy so that they can do their best to cripple the global economy and deny much of the developing world access to the healthier and longer lives that capitalism brings."

Yes.

My wife and I owned a large tract of gorgeous, pristine wilderness, teeming with wildlife.

We wanted to keep it in its pristine beauty, permitted no hunting or fishing. We loved the animals. We loved the forest.

We're both vegetarians. We also recycle faithfully, are very conscious of avoiding environmental pollution.

The elite "Environmentalist" bureaucracy got into the act. They wouldn't leave us alone. We fought them for years. I told them that if they didn't leave us alone, we would have to sell the property, and the only person who would buy it would be a developer.

They didn't care. The bureaurocrats wanted CONTROL! They wanted POWER!

We sold it to a group of developers. They razed the forest.

I don't blame them.

The entire blame rests solely on the bureaucrats and the "Environmentalists" who delivered POWER and CONTROL to them!

The wilderness is now destroyed. The forest has been clear cut. The wildlife has been dispersed.

A lovely housing development has replaced the gorgeous, pristine wilderness, teeming with wildlife.

On the bright side, we made lots of money!

However, I said to my wife: "Here we are with all this money, and we are hearbroken." I have still not recovered from my grief over this. I wonder what happened to the animals.

This tale is completely true. It is also a parable. This is what elite "Environmentalists" and bureaucrats will do to the world if we are foolish enough to allow them to seize sufficient POWER and CONTROL.

[nuconvert]

Bump

[Moonman62]

Well, if smiles are the measure of quality of life, I'm Bill Gates; I'm laughing my head off.

And why is Bono asking Americans to be taxed to send money to them, yet sending none of his own?

[Rummyfan]

on "Larry King Live" last week, Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric science at MIT, remarked: "Heidi says the science is solid and I can't criticize her because she never says what science she's talking about."

LOL! Bunch of Chicken Littles yelling the sky is falling. Madness is overtaking the elites.....

[tioga]

If a few hundred Vikings doing a little light hunter-gathering can totally unbalance the environment, imagine the havoc John Edwards' new house must be wreaking.

he, he, he, he........

[Gritty]

You could take every dime spent by every government and NGO and eco-group to investigate "climate change" and spend it on Internet porn instead, and it wouldn't make the slightest difference to what the climate will be in 2050.

However, it would make a dramatic difference to the lifestyle of the "climate change" jet set.

Exposed!

If Steyn sets his laser sights on you, you are going to end up with no clothes, no matter how much ermine you are wearing!.

[AFPhys]

Incredible article by Steyn showing just what buffoons the global warming alarmists are.

[Matchett-PI]

"Up north, the western Arctic's a little warmer but the eastern Arctic's colder. So, if you're an eastern polar bear, you're in clover -- metaphorically, I hasten to add. If you're a western polar bear, you'll be in clover literally in a year or two, according to AlGore.

[SuziQ]

even before latest new IPCC doomsday scenario was released, the Associated Press was running stories like: "New Climate Report Too Rosy, Experts Say." The AP's "science writer" warns that even this "dire report" is the "sugarcoated version." It's insufficiently hysterical, in every sense.

Here's another take on the climate change debate.

[shield]

This sounds much like Rush did this week.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Those l'il malnourished villagers sure look awful cute dancing up and down when the big environmentalist activist flies in to shoot the fund-raising video.

And this is why I hate the "back to nature enviro-wacko Luddites".

You think poverty is quaint and colorful? Pah!

You try living it.

[goldstategop]

Bjorn Lomberg has documented elsewhere, if all the money spent on global warming was spent on the world's real problems, such as eradicatng hunger and disease, we'd be a lot better off. The billions being spent on addressing global warming will not directly improve our quality of life. Its money wasted so the world's jet set can get over their self-induced enviro chrondriac neurosis.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[fanfan]

Mark Steyn

Canada ping.

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