The Conservative Edge

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you folks who regularly view this blog site. There have been some great comments left in response to certain topics. I recommend that you read one particular comment by Dave, in response to my post “A Letter to Kathleen Parker.”

I have written previously about my skepticism concerning the whole global warming theory (just look in the December archives link). Notice that I didn’t say “climate change theory.” What’s the difference? Well, our climate may indeed be changing, and may be part of a natural cycle. I’m sure that geologists can find historical evidence of repeated changes in the Earth’s climate. The History Channel recently revealed that some 5,000 years ago, there was melting of the polar ice, due to some climatic change.

But the global warming theory suggests that mankind is responsible for the current change(s) in climate. That is a much different view, and goes beyond any statistical processes used to track environmental patterns. Global warming proponents are using their theory to bring about social and economic changes. America will unfairly be held responsible for causing global warming, and to also reverse the effects. How many billions of dollars will it take to “undo” the damage? What will we have to give up in order to satisfy the alarmists? There is nothing wrong with eliminating sources of pollution, but it seems presumptuous to blame the average American, and American industry, for dumping CO2 in the air and creating a worldwide greenhouse.

Columnist George Will, who also questions the global warming theory, remembers the opinion held in the 1970s that we were headed for a new ice age. He reveals that The New York Times reported on May 21, 1975, that “a major cooling of the climate” was “widely considered inevitable” because it was certain that the Northern Hemisphere’s climate “has been getting cooler since about 1950.” Indeed, I remember seeing reruns of the show “In Search Of” hosted by Leonard Nimoy in the late 70s. One episode showed scientists examining ice core samples for proof that we were headed for a great global cooling. The harsh winters in states like New York and Ohio in 1977 and 1978 seemed to support that idea. But the fears of a new Ice Age were unfounded, and the global cooling never materialized.

George Will shares an interesting fact in his column. On February 18, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that from early January until the middle of February, there were operational problems with the satellites that measure sea ice. These problems caused an underestimation of the extent of Arctic sea ice by 193,000 square miles. That’s an area roughly equivalent to the size of California. In other words, we didn’t lose as much sea ice as the alarmists might want us to believe.

Funny how a little thing like a satellite malfunction can blow a big hole in the global warming theory.

I thought I would add some data to go with the arguments I made in my previous post concerning the global warming theory. I personally feel that America will be held economically and socially responsible for cleaning up the environment, even while India, China, and other countries are still considered “developing nations”. Americans are upset at the prospect of bailing out banks and automakers, but we will be liable for trillions of dollars going towards environmental cleanup and “going green”, if Al Gore and others have their way.

Consider this: the Las Vegas Valley had over 11 inches of snowfall this past week. It added up to the most snow recorded for the area in December since they began keeping records 70 years ago! Even Malibu, California experienced some snowfall as well.

David Deming, a geology professor at the University of Oklahoma recently stated, “The mean global temperature, at least measured by satellite, is the same as it was in the year 1980. In the last couple of years, sea level has stopped rising, hurricane and cyclone activity in the Northern Hemisphere is at a 24-year low, and sea ice globally is also the same as it was in 1980.”

According to the IBD, global temperatures stopped rising after 1998, and have dropped in the past two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the 2007-2008 temperature drop was NOT predicted by global climate models. The drop was, however, predictable by a decline in sunspot activity since the year 2000 and by a cyclical ocean-current phenomenon known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. That is just too logical—when the sun gets hotter, the earth heats up; when solar activity decreases, the earth cools off. Most Americans can comprehend that, but it seems Al Gore hasn’t gotten the message yet.

Also, we need to remember that James Hansen, Al Gore’s main scientific “advisor”, had been doctoring some of NASA’s data that was used to identify the warmest years on record. In fact, the 10 warmest years have NOT all been since 1996. The corrected numbers from NASA show the 10 warmest years as follows: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, and 1939.

Finally, consider a point made by Jay Lehr, a science director at the Heartland Institute. He stated that, “If we go back in really recorded human history, in the 13th century, we were probably seven degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are right now.” He added, “If we go back to the Revolutionary War, it was very, very cold. We’ve been warming out of that cold spell from the Revolutionary War period. And now we’re back into a cooling cycle.”

I’m all for keeping pollution low, and the environment clean. I’m also glad to see figures that show Americans decreasing their demand for gasoline, even as oil prices continue to fall. It means that we’re understanding the need to adjust our lifestyles to become more energy-efficient. What we don’t need is a dictatorial government, influenced by a would-be messiah, making us shell out trillions of dollars to preprare for a crisis based on a flawed theory. We did it once for the Y2K fiasco—we shouldn’t make the same mistake twice.