Monday, May 08, 2006

The Four Whoresmen of Global Warming


A long time ago, in a land far far away – it was called California, and the time was the 1950’s BGW (Before Global Warming) -- we had weather. It’s hard to believe after all you read now, but weather wasn’t invented when Global Warming was discovered. Even when I was a young boy, almost 60 years ago, I remember people talking about the weather. And about how nobody was doing anything about it. Then they’d laugh.

Today weather is not a laughing matter, and everyone is supposed to be doing something about it. Who is supposed to do what, and where and when to do it, are constantly discussed. Since the “why” is already answered -- If we don’t do something about Global Warming, mankind is doomed – “why” isn’t discussed. “When” really isn’t discussed either: “We have to do something about Global Warming now, because if we wait, it’ll be too late.” Actually, if the Global Warming crowd is right, it is already too late. Fortunately, they’re wrong.

What proof have I that weather existed before the discovery of Global Warming (BGW for the rest of this post)? Drought on the southern plains caused the Dust Bowl, which lasted about ten years, right up until I was born in 1942. How do I know about it? John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. The drought of 1934 was the worst in U. S. history. How could they have allowed that BGW?

The only Category 5 hurricanes to hit the United States occurred in 1935 and 1969. The 1935 hurricane hit the Florida Keys, and was the strongest ever recorded. How could that happen 70 years BGW? And although many hurricanes have hit New England, the 1938 one was the strongest. Maybe if we had named them they would get more respect.

For sheer devastation in many forms worldwide – hurricanes, droughts, freezing cold, unrelenting rain and floods, the Eighties can’t be beat. Considering only hurricanes, the period 1941 to 1950 produced the most major hurricanes to hit the United States.
In terms of deadly hurricanes, the worst hit Galveston in 1900, killing over 8,000 people, and two hurricanes in 1893 killed about 4,000 in Louisiana and Georgia/South Carolina combined. Hurricane activity occurs on a thirty-year cycle, and seems worse now only because of the lull preceding it, and the huge number of people and structures that invaded the hurricane threat area during the period of low activity. All of this BGW.

What about Katrina, you may ask? When it hit New Orleans, it was just a piddling Category 3, and only became the worst disaster to hit a major US city because some levees had been poorly constructed almost half a century ago (Democrats in charge back then, naturally). The current leaders of Louisiana and New Orleans continued traditional Democratic ineptness by messing up disaster preparedness planning and their “first responder” duties.

The Four Whoresmen of Global Warming, Al “Chicken Little” Gore, John “Screw the First Amendment” McCain, Harry “True Believer” Reid, and Barbara “Average Temperature is Higher than my IQ” Boxer, would like us to do what no rational American would do, flush our lifestyle and turn back the clock on progress, while requiring no such sacrifices on the part of China and other developing countries. It’s not enough that we wait for other countries to catch up. We have to make ourselves as miserable as they are now – less heating, less air conditioning, less travel, less prosperity – the United States too can be a Socialist Heaven!

Why should we? What will Global Warming do? When will it all happen? And where will it end? The answer to all these questions can be summed up simply. The world is going to be warmer by 1.25 degrees Fahrenheit in 2050. No Big Deal.

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