So how do you explain Yosemite?

In the year and a half that I have been writing this blog, I don't think I have ever done a post on global warming. I have sometimes asked myself why, and when it comes down to it, I think it because frankly, I find the whole thing to be rather tedious. I have come across some of the members of the Church of Global Warming in my masters degree classes that I recently finished, and there was no discussing it with them - their minds were made up. To them, I am a global warming "denier" who, according to Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, is right up there with Holocaust deniers. I think what mystifies me is why the believers of global warming are so hell-bent on believing it so much. Many of my questions were answered after I read Michael Crichton's new techno-thriller called State of Fear. The book's story is a work of fiction, but in a unique twist, the scientific and technical dialogue of the characters is heavily footnoted, and statistical charts and graphs pepper the novel's 500+ pages. State of Fear is an answer to the hysteria about global warming, and is quite an action-packed thrill ride at the same time.

Now first, let me clarify something. According to many measurements, the earth's atmosphere has been heating up. I have no problem conceding that point if that is what the data show. My disagreement with the true believers involves the cause of this heating of the earth's atmosphere. If there is any human contribution at all, it is a negligible one. I believe that the real reason people like Al Gore ("the Goracle") so adhere to the belief that we humans are causing global warming is so that people like the Goracle can use the belief as an excuse to control the benighted masses. It comes down to the old leftist canard of "We know what is best for you." Author Mark Steyn calls these people "ecochondriacs", and I think they are full of a lot of hot air.

Here are just a small few of my random observations about the contradictions and fallacies of the Church of Global Warming:

1. In reference to this post's title, one of the things that gets an ecochondriac's hands wringing is the melting of glaciers in some parts of the world. Question - how does one explain Yosemite Valley? How do you think that valley was formed in the first place? A glacier cut it. So where's the glacier?! I don't think people were producing very much carbon when the glacier that formed Yosemite Valley, disappeared from Yosemite Valley. The same question applies to any other valley out there that was obviously cut by a glacier, yet there is currently no glacier in it.
   
2. Did you know that the 1930s were hotter than this current decade? How is that possible if they didn't have near the industry that we have now?
3. Did you know that the 1930s and 1940s saw a lot more destructive hurricanes than this current decade?
4. After the horrible 2005 hurricane season, which included Katrina, ecochondriacs were hyperventilating about the hurricane seasons to come. Yet, the 2006 season saw not one hurricane hit the United States mainland.
5. World-wide temperatures dropped from the 1950s to about 1980, even though carbon emissions were going up, up, up the entire time. If increasing carbon emissions cause global warming, then how did the temperatures go down?
6. Speaking of those dropping temperatures that started in the 1950s, by the 1970s, many of the same chicken littles who today, are panicking about global warming, were the same chicken littles who were warning us about the inevitable ice age that was bearing down upon us.
7. The other day in Washington D.C., a conference on global warming had to be cancelled due to an ice storm.
8. The term "global warming" kind of melts away - so to speak - during the winter months. Global warming doesn't really sell when people are freezing their knickers off in 10 feet of snow in upstate New York. No during the cold season, "global warming" gives way to "climate change". Once the heat waves of summer kick in, so does the term "global warming".
   
9. I have always wondered why ecochondriacs scoff at research that questions the validity of the global warming theory, saying that the study is "tainted" by funding from industry, yet they think that studies funded by the environmental movement that "prove" global warming is horrible and man-made are considered to be objective and as pure as the new-fallen snow.
10. Why was a gross polluter like China exempted from the Kyoto Treaty, yet the U.S. was not? Is China's pollution cleaner than ours? Does only American and western pollution cause global warming?
    
11. If Al Gore and other ecochondriac celebrities see no problem with driving around in a Prius even while flying in a private jet that puts more carbon in the air from one flight than 100 Priuses could expel in a year, then is there really much to worry about?
12. Al Gore justifies his use of flying in a private jet by claiming that he buys "Carbon Offsets" to neutralize his "Carbon Footprint". Gee, that sounds suspiciously like a pre-Lutherian Catholic buying an indulgence to cancel out his sins.
    

All people have religion of some sort; even people who claim they aren't religious. What often happens is that a non-religious person simply adopts a belief in something else that approximates religion. Communism and Environmentalism are two prime examples. They both require faith in the unknowable, strict adherence to practices, excommunication, and patron saints *cough* Al Gore *cough*. I have yet to read Ann Coulter's book Godless: The Church of Liberalism, but I have already observed much of what I am sure she said in the book.

I realize that I am but a humble, ignorant, middle school history teacher with no background in environmental science, climatology, or meteorology. The Church of Global Warming loves to point out the lack of credentials, Ph.D.s, and seals of approval that some global warming critics have. Even when they do have a Ph.D., then the critic doesn't have the "right" kind of Ph.D. You can't win with these people. However, I did a quick search and found an article written by a professor from leftist Canada who thinks the idea of man-made global warming is a bunch of hokum. Here is the link, enjoy!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm freezing; I'm going to get in my nice warm bed.

Good Day to You, Sir