MORFORD: Kneel Before The Meteorologist

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/28/5 | Mark Morford

[SmithL]

At last, one scientist BushCo will definitely -- albeit resentfully -- listen to. Sometimes.

So now we know. This is what it takes. This is how far the nation has to crumble and this is how many people have to die and this is how many tens of billions it has to cost and this is how far his dirt-low poll numbers have to fall before Bush will finally come out and say he agrees with one of those godforsaken gul-dang book-learned scientist types.

You know the ones. Those informed and well-educated data-crunchers he normally despises like a kid hates broccoli and whom he normally thinks are lower 'n a snake's belly to a mud puddle and whom the GOP normally treats the way a cockroach treats a dunghill. Which is to say, not very well at all.

It takes a hurricane. Check that: It takes two hurricanes of such lethal and undeniable force that even the Bush administration is forced to kneel in abject deference before the great altar of the professional "forecaster," a.k.a. the trained meteorologist, a.k.a. the atmospheric scientist, those smart nerdy button-down types most of whom work for the nonpartisan National Weather Service and who put out all those dire warnings about imminent storms and deadly heat waves and massive floods and who actually are, sorry Dubya, well-trained scientists with genuine university degrees and who can do all that complex math and research and other stuff Bush loathes the way Paris Hilton hates polysyllabic words.

And now, whenever these damnable weather dudes march into the Oval with bad news of some damnable upcoming lethal storm readying itself to smash into the nation, well, Bush has to wake up from the hammock and take notice...

[Sam Cree]

So, you are saying that trees are a cause of "global warming?"

[mesoman7]

As one of those govt meteorologists, I agree with the hurricane experts. Cat 5 storms are not unprecedented. Global warming? Most of the operational types (like myself) who deal with weather on a day-to-day basis are skeptical. I see the variations in temperature observations. Move a thermometer 50ft and you will get quite a different reading. Sensors are only so accurate. When I see the global warming "experts" claim proof as a 1 or 2 degree change in global temp...I have to wonder. If there is indeed warming...I seriously doubt that mere mortals have anything to do with it. In other words...it is natural, so deal with it.

[Evacuee]

Wow, that is truly the nastiest, most personally vindictive piece of writing I have ever encountered. Someone forgot to take his happy pill this morning.