Thank God for Global Warming!
Home of healthy skepicism about Global Warming.

It certainly took a while but now its over.  We have found the cure for Global Warming.  I was a little disheartened at how long it was taking but as is the case with any great battle against an enemy of such a huge scale, its not the long path it takes to defeat them but the fact that you have that matters.

It was touch and go there for a few years with all the devastation we’ve seen from this huge problem.  I’ll pause here so you can recollect all of the devastation.  All of the family that was lost in this great battle and all of the carnage from huge events resulting from this terrible enemy.

Well the good news is that now it is over.  The battle has been won.  We now know the cause of Global Warming.  It’s happiness.  If we can eliminate happiness around the globe  we can defeat this enemy once and for all.  Think about it.  When we were battling Communism, there was no Global Warming.  When we were at war with the Nazis, there was no Global Warming.  Anytime we think back to those enemies, we think of starving people in ‘COLD’ conditions.  Ah ha, cold.  They were keeping the globe cooled off and we did not know it.  The unintended consequences of our many victories around the world is that we also defeated Global Cooling.  Now if we can just eliminate happiness we can finally defeat this new and greater enemy once and for all.

As you are reading this, governments around the world are looking at ways to limit this underlying threat to the world as we know it.  They are determining, with the help of scientists, how much happiness much be suppressed and who should be allowed to have it.  The possibility of happiness licensing is a distinct possibility. We as good citizens must be prepared for what they decree as the proper level of happiness that can be tolerated in our societies.  Only then can we have a mediocre life that is as long as they will allow and as productive as they need.

To my fellow citizens, keep up the good work but don’t be too happy about it.  The world is counting on you.

I live in the North Western US and winter rain and snow are the norm this time of year. However, this year the story is snow in the mountains around LA. In the West this year we are seeing a wet trend. How long will it last? I don’t claim to know but it makes the Global Warming argument interesting.

You may say that a local weather event doesn’t have any bearing on a Global debate. It is however the proponents of the “Crisis” that will go around pointing out every warm spot and blame Global Warming. At the same time they will ignore low temps or record rainfall. So I thought why not point out some of the weather news that doesn’t fit the Global Warming template. You see, it is known that we can expect a gradual increase in temps over hundreds of years. We have the geological evidence to back up the conclusion that we are coming out of a mini-ice age. What w don’t know is when this trend will stop or if it will stop in the foreseeable future. We don’t know because we don’t understand the whole picture of what changes climate on a Global scale. Instead, the basic premise that the proponents use is to say ‘What if we are the cause and making small changes to our lifestyle could save the planet?’.

I find this argument fascinating. It is a small sacrifice they are saying. Just a small expense or a few activities that are left behind. OK, that is a small price to pay but what are we buying. After this sacrifice the job is done, right? NO, then you just have to sacrifice a little more. Then when that is done, I’m sure you could sacrifice just a little more. It is the Irish family proverb, ‘There is always room for one more’. However, at some point you have given everything way. It is a new application of incremental-ism. By the time you figure out it was a waste of time, it’s too late and the little inconvenience has grown to by a big royal pain in the butt.

The problem with this whole Global Warming argument is that we cause it and that we can stop it. This is not a Hollywood movie. We can’t stop earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or large meteors crushing to Earth. We can’t pick up the planet and move it to a new destination in the Galaxy if our Sun gets too hot or too cool. Using 95 percent of the energy this year that you used last year won’t save the planet. IS it a bad idea to be efficient? No, it save money and resources. That is a good enough reason to do it. If the ideas being touted for being more efficient are so weak that only fear mongering can get them even marginally accepted then they will fall by the wayside. Using bad arguments to sell an idea, no matter how good it is, can tarnish that idea for a long time.

If the planet is doomed because of Global Warming, then it is doomed. If Global Warming will, as a result of natural forces, eventually become Global Cooling then this debate was the real disaster.

Make the world a better place and clean up the litter of bad arguments you run across along the way.

Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I appreciate what little we have received, but I was expecting more though.  Global Warming is wonderful and all but it’s so slow.  I mean come on, 1 degree in the last 100 years.  I was expecting summer in December.  Shorts weather from one end of the calender to the other.  No luck.  It’s winter and it’s still cold.  It’s rainy and snowy and cold.  I mean come on, where’s Global Warming when you need it.  I know, coming out of an Ice Age, like we are, is a slow process.  I understand that things like weather don’t change overnight.  Yeah, I get it, I’ll just have to be patient and wait for all the benefits that come with lower power bills in the winter and a higher level of productivity in the winter.   It’s just that  they got my hopes up.  I was hoping that I  wouldn’t need to chain up in the winter and that working outside could be done comfortably in a tee shirt all winter.

If I were to go by the media reports on the subject, I would think that this winters are different they used to be.  Their not.  It is a normal winter and the last summer was like most any other summer. Weather conditions are so very rarely average.  They are more or less or they are higher or lower in most any way you want to measure conditions on any given day, week, or month.  That’s how we get to an average, by throwing all of these extremes into a pot and averaging them out.

Global Warming, where have you been all my life.  At this rate, we’ll still be having cold winters for the rest of my life.  Bummer, and I was hoping for some tanning weather this winter.  Oh well, guess I’ll just have to bundle up and wait it out.

So according to the ’special reports’ on the news lately it’s caused by Climate Change.  Climate Change is the term used to avoid over using (too late) the term Global Warming.  “it’s”, referenced in the sentance above, could be any perceived problem in society or nature.   

In this case, it is the increase in the size and severity of wild fires in the West.  Well, there are some interesting facts (oops, I used the f word) that are ignored (with great effort by the diligent media) in these Climate discussions. 

• Population Distribution
• Logging Practices
• Forest Management Changes

The media are all a dither about anything they can link to Global Warming or Climate Change.  So the increase in the size of wild fires must be the result of the hypothesised 1 degree increase in temperatures in the West.  It is also the result of a longer fire season, say the experts tauted by the media experts , who’s ability to fly to the Rockies and look good in flannel is truly amazing.

They are talking about the fires like they are unrelated to us, but only a result of climate.  It’s at this point in the presentation that my hand is raised and the lecturer notices my questioning gesture with annoyance. 

I, just a Western native who has spent more time in the woods than a media type spends in a taxi or hired car, wonder about other changes that have occurred in the West in the last 15 or so years.

For example, the number of homes built in rural areas has skyrocketed, as wealthy city folk find luxury bargains in the sticks..  These people are less knowledgeable about living near forest lands than the people who made up most of these residents in past decades.  They therefore are not as savy about how to defend their homes from the threats of wildfire.  They may, for example, built in places where it would be difficult to defend a home from a fire or they may leave trees or other foliage to close to their homes, so wildfire can easily spread to these homes.

These experts never mention how the US Forest Service is allowing very little logging.  Areas that were logged in past decades, making natural fire breaks and clearing undergrowth from choked forests are now left to grow unchecked.  We are a lightening strike or a deliberately set fire away from a mega-fire.

Forests are now preserved as gems rather than conserved as resources to be managed and utilized.

We also aren’t talking about another new trend that coincides with the increased size of fires.  Intentionally set fires designed by arsonists to wreak maximum devastation.  Or the accidental fires caused by the increasing number of people out in our forest lands who are ignorant of fire conditions or safety.

It’s not that Climate doesn’t contribute to fire danger, it’s that only one factor is talked about as a significant contributor to the problem.  Global Warming!

News to fulfil a political agenda is not news, it’s propaganda.

The debate about Global Warming is fascinating in so many ways.

For the true believers it is frustrating because some people will not be convinced to accept the believers point of view.

For the skeptics it is frustrating because so many people are convinced to accept the believers point of view even while the evidence is so thin and the conclusions are so far fetched.

For the undecided it is frustrating because the politicians and other powerful people are using the issue for their own agendas.  Making it very hard to distinguish between the truth and the lies or errors.

I guess for me, a known skeptic in general, I am most amused by the green movement people who are trying to squelch debate by talking of consensus as  proof of their theories of Global Warming.  If there is proof, then they should definitely point to it.  To say, however, that the matter is beyond debate because so many have been convinced is a nonstarter.  It makes me wonder what they know.  Are they trying to stop debate out of fear that the data will reverse direction as it did in passed pursuits of great theories of the past.

This reminds me of a small lesson I learned  in 5th Grade.  All of the students sat in a circle facing inward.  The teacher asked a question that required us to express an opinion.  There were two choices.  The teacher whispered in the ear of one student who immediately voiced an opinion about which was the right answer.  Another student, who did not confer with the teacher, disagreed.  The class was then asked to chose which was right.  After a few minutes, the whole class supported the student who had conferred with the teacher.  The teacher then asked if the fact that everyone chose the “more knowledgeable student” made that the right answer.  Most said yes.  The teacher tried to convince the lone student that they were incorrect.  The student swayed a bit but stood her ground.  The teacher asked again, does the fact that everyone else agrees the other student is right, make him right.  Most said yes it did.  Then the teacher let us know we were all wrong and the lone student was correct.  Regardless of how many people come to a consensus, it does not prove that consensus is correct.

No matter how many people believe the Earth is flat, or that bumps on the skull can predict a persons personality (Phrenology), or that the “hole” in the ozone layer is getting worse each year and must be dealt with immediately or the Earth will be  :wink: irreparably harmed.  All of these theories were accepted and had something of a consensus about the respective theory.  They were widely accepted and taught.  To question or disbelieve made you a laughing stock.    These theories also have one other thing in common.  They were all disproved and discarded.  Consensus is not proof.  Anybody who tries to use that argument as a means to “win” the debate, has resorted to the tactics of the lazy or the unsubstantiated.

There is an arrogance that says, inside of the human mind, that we are better now than they were back then.  We know so much more now, so we can’t be fooled by the data or our own prejudices again.  I say however, that in the centuries to come there will be as many amusing abandoned theories for them to look back at in our time as there are in any other throughout history.  Humanity is very consistent in its errors and weaknesses.  That is a theory I would bank on.   

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Maybe you won’t be Thank God for Global Warming this holiday but I hope you are thankful for a few things.

First of all, life does not have to be perfect for us to be thankful. On an individual level we are normally pretty fortunate even in the hard times. I can point to all kinds of obstacles in my life right now for example (financial, career, personal) but on the upcoming holiday the purpose is to take stock. Look at all the good things in our lives and take a moment to be thankful for that. Those obstacles will still be there when we jump back into the daily grind.  The Thanksgiving for the Pilgrims was a time like this.  A celebration of good.  Hard-times still lay ahead for these people as they do for us and as they always will for people in the future.  I’m just thankful we have a time each year to pause and count up the good stuff and set the bad aside for a bit.

On a national or international level, the issues we are concerned about are still there.  Some people may not have this luxury.  There existence is too tenuous for reflection or celebration.  The concept may not exist in their culture.  It is a huge blessing to have the opportunity to celebrate a holiday like Thanksgiving. It is a huge blessing to take that opportunity and focus for a day or two on the good in our lives and maybe share some of this with the less fortunate around us.

Regardless of where you come down on issues like Global Warming, I hope we can agree on one thing. “Thank God for Thanksgiving.” “Thank God for The Blessings in our lives.”

Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday.

Brutus