Global Warming

Global warming has become a bit of a joke around here lately. Here in the desert we have experienced snow where snow never falls. We had the coldest temperatures since 1990 (I mean, who ever heard of 18°F in Phoenix?) and the coldest consecutive days since 1978. I'm afraid that if this global warming keeps up much longer we're likely to freeze to death.

But global warming is no joke. Them's fightin' words to some. Do not impugn the eminent scientist, Dr. Al Gore or his fine piece of science, An Inconvenient Truth. Look ... it got two Oscar nominations. How much more proof do you need? Do not question the facts of global warming. Do not question the science of global warming. There is no question to be had. The uncontested scientific opinion on the subject is that the temperature increase over the last 50 years is directly due to human activity. If you question this, you are a closed-minded, head-in-the-sand, equivalent of the Flat Earth Society. You probably still think that the Moon landings were done on a Hollywood sound stage. Only an idiot would question any of the facts.

So when science disagrees, it is stupid, willfully ignorant, politically motivated, or simply not worth considering. When Chris De Freitas, Associate Professor at the University of Aukland, says that the satellite data denies that there has been any significant warming of the surface in the last 20 years, he's a buffoon. When a group of scientists say that the temperature of the Earth may be rising, but suggest that the cause is not known, they're disengenuous. When a large number of scientists agree that the Earth is getting warmer, but link it to natural causes, they're liars. There is even one, Sherwood Idso, President Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, formerly a research physicist at the USDA Water Conservation Laboratory and adjunct professor Arizona State University, who has suggested "[W]arming has been shown to positively impact human health, while atmospheric CO₂ enrichment has been shown to enhance the health-promoting properties of the food we eat, as well as stimulate the production of more of it. ... [W]e have nothing to fear from increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO₂ and global warming." Liars, buffoons, idiots, perhaps even criminals, every one.

Me? I'm not opposed to the science of global warming. I'm not a scientist and wouldn't stake a claim on the topic. But when one group decides that the best response to the argument is derision, insults, wild accusations, and attempts to silence the discussion, it makes me leery. When Man decides that Man has the capacity to alter Nature to the extent that the loudest voices are suggesting, it makes me leery. And when Christians begin to tout this as a matter of spiritual necessity, it makes me very leery. Perhaps we can take the rhetoric down a peg.