Tuesday, March 20, 2007

More global warming common sense

This devastating column by Thomas Sowell is a must read if you have fallen for the radical environmentalist/far left campus elitists' propaganda on global warming.

Folks, these people have an agenda and aren't going to let the facts get in the way of their thesis.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Skip, I swear I’m not some crazy environmentalist nut at a left-leaning campus out to get you about your views on Global Warming. I just don’t like the articles you cite as proof for your views. I just do a little bit of background research on them and I start to laugh. I can’t help it. I find so many holes and flaws in what you claim as proof within an hour that the giggles just start. Let’s take a look:

First, the video Sowell quotes was aired by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. I checked out Channel 4’s website for the video. I even clicked a link to an article that the website produced for a little background information on Global Warming. In the video, which I found on YouTube, right at 50 seconds (not even a full minute into the video), the guy says the ice core record shows that the high level of CO2 does not correspond to high temperatures. But then, the article Channel 4 gave (about the history of Global Warming) goes and says, and I quote, “From analyzing the gas bubbles trapped in Greenland ice, it's apparent that the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been intimately linked to climate change for at least 500,000 years. Changing levels of carbon dioxide and methane and changing temperatures follow the same patterns of oscillation or swing. Higher levels of greenhouse gases are present at higher temperatures.” Ouch, that seems a tad-bit contradictory.

And then, the website that Sowell’s article was found in is published by townhall.com. This website was once owned by Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative public policy research institute. Its stated mission is to “formulate and promote conservative public policies.” In May 2006, Salem Communications purchased the website from Heritage. Salem is the third largest radio network in the nation and on its own website it states that it is “focused on Christian and family-themed content and conservative values.” Now how can you criticize left-leaning campuses when your own sources are so blatantly to the right? Who has the agenda now?

Indeed, the Earth’s climate is always changing. However, humans have started to alter the natural process that the planet undergoes. We are causing more and more greenhouse gases to be pumped into the atmosphere, and even if this doesn’t cause the Earth’s temperature to rise (but I’m pretty sure it does), it is still pollution. Whether you’re right- or left-leaning, that is cause for alarm.

Finally, here’s the goof that gave me the biggest laugh: Sowell argues that many top-tier professors are totally against the theory of Global Warming. But even then, Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the MIT, is claiming that he was “completely misrepresented” on the program. Don’t believe me? Here’s the article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2347526.ece

I mean, when Sowell only names one university and that professor claims he was duped into what he said, that kind of hurts the backbone of your argument.

Skip, these people do have an agenda: The Truth. And the facts don’t get in the way. They support their thesis. Do some research before you publish something.

Anonymous said...

Oh please! Until someone figures out how to put thermostat on the sun, we will have climate change. What arrogance. Man is not the cause of climate change, nor can he at this point control it.

Anonymous said...

Global Warming scare tactics are the newest attack on liberty by socialist.

Unknown said...

To the Second Anon post: I agree that climate change will always happen. Science has proven this. However, human activity has caused this natural phenomenon to vary from its course in a potentially dangerous manner. I’ll even give you the point that we might not be the cause of climate change, but I know that we influence it. And right now, we are influencing it in a negative way. I’d rather attempt to shift things for the better than sit back and do nothing.

To the Third Anon post: Please learn to use correct grammar. Please learn to do some research. Please learn to cite your sources. After you’ve done that, then you are allowed to talk. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Please, Skip!

Cut the Joe McCarthy act. Not everyone with whom you disagree is a far-left radical.

The most radical people I've seen lately are columnists Sowell and Walter Williams--on the right. Don't you have any centrist columnists you can use for some degree of balance?

Skip Foster said...

Walter William and Sowell right wingers?

Is it their support of decriminalizing drugs and prostitution or their support of separation of church and state that defines them as such?

What's McCarthiestic is drumming up fears with wild talk of "sea levels rising 3 feet in 100 years" without true scientific basis.

Skip Foster said...

Incredibly, none other than William Buckley reveals that the real McCarthyism in this global warming "debate" comes from those who demand reverential genuflection at their view that it is evil greedy Big Oil-types who are responsible for whatever bad is allegedly happening.

Here is the link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/business_of_global_warming_fee.html

Anonymous said...

I agree that those advocating the concept of "global warming" deserve critical questioning. The last thing we need to do is to rush pell-mell to embrace a concept that turns out to be a hoax or a folly.

Your manner of questioning the concept, however, indicates a certitude that is characteristic of those with whom you disagree. There are a lot of good centrist people out here who think there may be some validity to the global warming concept.

Responsible points of view on both sides of the subject are essential so that policymakers can make the best decision on dealing with it--or not dealing at all, if that's appropriate. Name-calling and labeling, whether by you and your supporters or your opponents, really turns off most of us.