On Global Warming Hysteria

First of all, check out this screenshot I took to the right. Be sure to open it in a new window so you can read the relevant text. The irony, of course, is that this is a CNN article about the worst blizzard in China and they have a banner ad for their "oh no Greenland is melting" article.

More and more people are accepting Global Warming as a reality and, more importantly, as a GLOBAL CRISIS OF EPIC PROPORTIONS! While it is unfortunate that anyone who questions the mainstream theory on global warming is labelled an "ignorant conservative," I must state my current opinion on the issue. I have not yet been convinced that Global Warming is a threat at all, let alone a CRISIS warranting Government intervention, and here's why:

The MOST imporant element of this issue is that there are actually several different questions that must be addressed. One can find evidence to support both sides of any of these three questions (though that doesn't mean the evidence is always evenly balanced).

Question A) Is the Earth getting warmer?

Question B) Is MAN the primary cause of the increasing temperature?

Question C) Is a warming Earth a bad thing?

The problem with the global warming "debate" is that people don't discuss one of these issues at a time, but rather mash them all up together and spew out whatever statistics sound scary. For example, Pundit A will have evidence showing that the Earth is indeed getting warmer (Question A) and yet Pundit B will respond with evidence showing that Man has little to do with warming (Question B). What needs to happen is for there to be a debate about Question A and ONLY Question A. Once that is resolved, we as a society can move on to Question B, and then Question C only when Question B is resolved. I do NOT want to see another Newsweek cover about the global warming CRISIS until there is first a cover dedicated solely to Question A.

I used to believe that Question A had, in fact, been answered. The scientific consensus seemed to be that the Earth was indeed warming. I had already moved on to Question B, regarding Man's role. However, NOW it seems that there is evidence showing that the Earth has been COOLING since 1998 or so!!! While Al Gore uses statistics showing that the average temperature has increased since 1900, within those same statistics the average temperature is DECREASING since 1998 (though Gore fails to mention this discrepancy). So now I'm back at Question A and will continue to listen to both sides of the argument.

My thesis, if I have one here, is that the world is NOWHERE NEAR ready to be making Governmental policy decisions about global warming. For the Government to take tax money and regulate the world for the sake of "global warming" it must first show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that all three Questions are answered with a "yes." Until then... I don't want to hear any more B.S. about the U.S. not signing the Kyoto Protocol or about fuel standards. The fact that public figures, pundits, and politicians do not discern these very separate questions is why I despise the global warming issue. Only after all three Questions can be answered in the affirmative should we discuss what to do about the "problem," if there even is one.

By the way, to throw in some meaningless anecdotes, Dubai has been quite cold and China is of course having it's worst snow storm in memory. There seems to be plenty of cold in the world... but I'm sure once the snow starts melting in China the Al Gore's of the world will be quick to point out that GLOBAL WARMING must be melting the snow!!!

Global COOLING?!?! AHHHH!!! - http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=287279412587175

-Erik