Monday, January 14, 2008

Planet in Peril and Other Science Fiction

Planet in Peril and Other Science Fiction

According to all the major media, the Earth is soon going to be un-inhabitable. Well maybe “soon” is an exaggeration. Nevertheless, our home planet is slowly going climate critical. Or so the talking heads and journalists claim. As evidence they point to an alleged consensus within the scientific community. We also have Al Gore and several guilt ridden, eco-sensitive, “progressive”, multi-millionaire, jet set Hollywood celebrities contributing their collective concerns for the blue planet. Apparently, inventing the internet or being successful in the entertainment industry confers upon one the credentials of climate guru.
The new party line is that human activity is causing the rapid accumulation of record levels of carbon dioxide (a “green house” gas) in the atmosphere, which in turn is causing the trapping of excessive heat leading to a rise in temperatures, the result of which will be the end of all life as we know it. Sounds pretty grim!
However, the problem that we face as a society is not global warming, but alarmism based on assumptions about which there IS no SCIENTIFIC consensus. The fact that the mass media, who sensationalized everything from the Michael Jackson trial to Senator Craig’s bathroom eccentricities to the dangers of MRSA bacteria to Avian Flu (remember that one?), are convinced that we are spiraling toward species suicide, does not mean it is true.
Look at the facts.
The primary “green house” gases that are responsible for maintaining temperatures we can all live in, and with, are water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide (CO2). Concentrations of water vapor in the atmosphere are over 25 times that of CO2, but water vapor is still considered only a trace gas. Most water vapor comes from evaporation. A quick check of the internet will reveal that climate specialists regard water vapor as the primary cause of the atmospheric greenhouse effect. Methane is a byproduct of petroleum production, but it is also naturally occurring as the result of the decay of organic material. It is released in flatulence, dung decomposition, termite activity, rain forests, and when ever soil is disturbed. The only substantial human contribution to greenhouse gases is in the creation and release of CO2. But what the historical data reveals is that warming PRECEDED higher levels of CO2, so higher CO2 concentrations may be more a result of a warming climate, rather than its cause.
In the global warming club, we have friends. Warmth on our planet comes from the sun. Man doesn’t heat up the air, radiant energy from the sun does. Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, Neptune’s moon Triton and the “former planet” Pluto are all experiencing a warming trend. Since none of these celestial bodies are inhabited by SUV driving, corporate capitalists bent on planetary destruction, what might possibly be the cause? Could it be the SUN? Is it not possible that a whole list of coincidences have harmonized with a more active solar cycle to throw more heat our way?
Think about it for a few minutes. Weather changes, often unpredictably. It is dynamic. Predicting the exact atmospheric conditions at a given place is extremely difficult beyond a week. It is a daunting task because there are just too many variables. After the active and destructive 2005 hurricane season, warming alarmists predicted without any qualification that global warming would create more frequent and violent hurricanes from now on until we all go back to riding bicycles and putting windmills in our back yards. So how are the alarmists doing in the prediction game? 2006 and 2007 hurricane seasons were noteworthy for their calmness. In fact, all of the forecasts from all the experts, be they alarmist or not, were far off the mark. That is because weather is too complex to know anything with certainty.
The other issue is the alleged scientific consensus supporting the global warming scare. Over 500 climatologists, astrophysicists and other related scientific professionals have written peer review documents published in journals, such as “Nature”, “Science” and “Geophysical Review”, that question and refute various alarmist assertions. Recently John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel, wrote the following regarding man induced global warming,

“It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create in [sic] allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the "research" to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.”

Why are so many trying to sell the notion of a link to human activity and an alleged harming of the atmosphere? The motive appears to be the establishment of a socialist economy controlled by envirnmentally conscious elitists and other liberal fellow travelers. And they have assembled a group of scientists who, like a bunch of whores, are willing to twist scientific facts to garner generous research grants, and the praise of other “morally superior” concerned politicians, journalists and movie stars. They are a bunch of pretentious, self important twits who love the lime light and praise of their arrogant peers.
Still, there actually is an element of humor in all of this. It is called a carbon credit. It’s kind of like a polution indulgence. You are permitted to vent carbon dioxide so long as you pay to have someone else plant some trees to off-set what you belch into the atmosphere. Now if that does not seem weird to you, might I interest you in a bridge located in Brooklyn?
Frankly, the whole green movement is a sort of trendy cult. It’s a Jim Jones following with solar cells. Hollywood celebrities are jumpng on this as if it were a Scientology convention. Eventually, some things are going to happen. The forcasts will start to not jive with reality. Then the major media will go to some other alleged calamity and “global warming “ will end up in the history books under the heading “Great Hoaxes.”

In the 1930’s, a buff, golden haired Buster Crab portrayed Flash Gordon, , an earthling who fought the universal evil of Ming the Merciless. In one of those series, the earth’s atmosphere was being slowly siphoned off by a Nitron Cannon situated on Mars. Of course Flash is successful in foiling Ming’s plans, and the earth’s atmosphere is returned to its early industrial haze. For me as an eight year old boy, it was great science fiction. I knew at the time that no one lived on Mars and that there was no such thing as a Nitron Cannon. Still, it was entertaining and reaffirmed the triumph of Earth over all enemies. Good wins over evil. Now I am 61, but I still find Flash Gordon preferable to the fiction coming from Mr Gore and his allies.

1 comment:

Rachael said...

I enjoy being educated, but I'm also interested in your movie reviews.