The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Rather Than Later
“Hall of Fame to Salute Gil Sooner”–headline, Journal Express (Knoxville, Iowa), March 31
At Least the Maker Wasn’t Charged for False Advertising
“Toxic Waste Brand Candy Again Cited for Actually Being Toxic”–headline, Star-Telegram website (Fort Worth, Texas), March 29
It’s a Dangerous Job
“Grads Get Shot at Being Nurse Assistants”–headline, TribLocal.com (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), April 1
Weather Isn’t Climate, Except When Global Warmists Say It Is
Our lead item yesterday prompted this email from reader Jackson Williams:
It’s beyond tiresome to read, in 2011, that global warming must surely be bogus since, after all, “baby, it’s cold outside.” Even a most cursory perusal of the relevant scientific literature belies such crackpot causality.
There’s not a farmer alive who hasn’t suffered through a late spring snow or an early fall sleet. Not back in 1873, and not recently, either. Tethering such meteorological conditions–i.e., the current weather–to one’s disbelief in long-term climate change is nonsensical in our day, and not a terribly sophisticated use of humor.
It’s beneath you, James, or so I’d thought.
We just love it when global warmists piously lecture us on the difference between weather and climate when in fact we are mocking global warmists for the fallacy of failing to make precisely that distinction. Since the dawn of global warmism, believers have pointed to transient weather conditions as “evidence” of their hypothesis. Here is a story from the New York Times, June 24, 1988, titled “Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate”:
The earth has been warmer in the first five months of this year than in any comparable period since measurements began 130 years ago, and the higher temperatures can now be attributed to a long-expected global warming trend linked to pollution, a space agency scientist reported today.
Until now, scientists have been cautious about attributing rising global temperatures of recent years to the predicted global warming caused by pollutants in the atmosphere, known as the ”greenhouse effect.” But today Dr. James E. Hansen of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration told a Congressional committee that it was 99 percent certain that the warming trend was not a natural variation but was caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide and other artificial gases in the atmosphere.
Dr. Hansen, a leading expert on climate change, said in an interview that there was no ”magic number” that showed when the greenhouse effect was actually starting to cause changes in climate and weather. But he added, ”It is time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here.”
Of course when the weather turned out not to follow the global warmists’ predictions, “global warming” turned into “climate change.” That way any unpleasant weather fit the story. Trouble is, when the weather is unseasonably warm and pleasant, you hear people say things like, “If this is global warming, I’m all for it.”
“People simply don’t believe the story anymore because the story was exaggerated,” observes physicist Richard Muller of the University of California, Berkeley, quoted in the Los Angeles Times. Muller says nonetheless that “global warming is a serious problem,” and he is working on a study re-evaluating temperature data to find out how serious the exaggeration it has been.
But the Times reports that “leading climate scientists” oppose the effort because they “worry” that it “will add to public confusion on a topic that is as politically polarized as it is scientifically complex.” They are the ones who are to blame for the problem. They have abandoned the scientific method and are instead acting as political activists and propagandists.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for thef “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
