Global Warming, Body Paint and Bicycles

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Editorials | Opinions | January 2007

Global Warming, Body Paint and Bicycles

Alan Burkhart - PVNN

Here we go again. Yet another study on Global Warming, this one conducted by 600 scientists, is due to be released in early February. The new study will supposedly constitute a "smoking gun" in terms of the evidence of Man's role in the changing climate. The anti-capitalist Left is in all likelihood panting in anticipation.

From an AP article at CNN.com: "The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Why is it that Global Warming alarmists are nearly always referred to as a "top U.S. climate scientist" or an "expert on climate change" while those whose research has led to different (but politically inconvenient) conclusions are ridiculed and marginalized? Last time I checked, it was still a good idea to have a free and open discussion on matters as important as the global climate.

Regarding the soon-to-be-released report, a twelve-page summary is being created for use by policy makers. That summary will be released to the public on February second. As to the report's credibility, the following quote from the same AP article says all any thinking individual needs to know:

"They said that the 12-page summary for policy makers will be edited in secret word-by-word by governments officials for several days next week and released to the public on February 2."

In other words, the various leftist elements in governments around the world (including our own) will make certain you only see what they want you to see. Politics as usual.

That our climate is changing, there can be no doubt. That is, after all what a climate does. The jet stream, ocean currents, and solar activity all play a role in climate change. That isn't the issue. What's at issue is the level of influence human activity holds in the greater scheme of all things climatological.

Every few months a new report is released that purports to be the final word on global climate change. Mankind, say the reports, is destroying the environment and it’s only a matter of time before we have a natural disaster of Biblical proportion.

And every time this happens credible, non-political scientists debunk it to the very last tidbit of junk science. I don't doubt that this newest report will be similarly debunked once agenda-free experts have the opportunity to look it over. The real question is: Will the Leftists listen to those who offer contrary evidence?

Probably not. They rarely do.

The extreme Left both in the US and abroad is driven solely by its own agenda. The truth, when it contradicts the Left’s agenda, is considered an obstacle to be overcome. The lengths to which leftists will go to push their version of the facts upon the general populace are astounding.

Let’s look first at some of the Global Warming myths presented as fact by the Left, then take a look at some of the more absurd actions they’ve taken in recent years to attract attention.

Myth #1 - The Greenland Ice Sheet
For a number of years Global Warming alarmists have been screaming that Greenland’s Ice Sheet is melting. The flood of fresh water into the ocean will of course flood many low-lying land masses and cause irreparable harm.

Fact: While coastal areas of Greenland have indeed experienced melting in recent years, there has been an overall gain in the total ice during the 11-year period studied (1992-2003.) Greenland has more, not less ice.

Myth #2 - Slowing Atlantic Meridional Circulation (a.k.a. "thermohaline circulation")
This pertains to Northern Atlantic Ocean currents that carry warm water northward and bring cooler water to areas farther south. Harry Bryden (UK National Oceanography Centre) concluded that greenhouse gasses were slowing the circulation, and that Europe would be hit with all manner of weather-related disasters. The currents had, said Bryden, weakened by thirty percent. The media pounced on Bryden’s findings, broadcasting them far and wide as though they were the last word on global warming.

Fact: Further research by World Climate Report and German scientist Friedrich Schott proved conclusively that there has been a strengthening, not a weakening, of the meridional circulation. Expected temperature changes in Europe brought on by a weakening current never happened, thus providing the final nail in the coffin for Bryden’s fright-mongering.

Myth #3 - The Earth is nearing its warmest average temperature in one million years
This nonsense was being pushed by NASA’s alarmist extraordinaire James Hansen. His "global temperature" findings were nearly all based on readings taken from one small area in the Equatorial Pacific. I’m no expert, but I’d think that to create accurate global predictions one would need global data.

Fact: Similar testing done in other regions yielded vastly different results, quickly refuting Hansen’s bogus research.

Myth # 4 - Mt Kilimanjaro’s snow pack is melting due to greenhouse gasses
For several years, alarmists have claimed that Kilimanjaro’s retreating snow pack is being affected by the desertification in East Africa which is of course the result of human-caused global warming.

Fact: "The gradual retreat of the snows of Kilimanjaro is often imputed to local phenomena, the main one of these being desertification in East Africa. In a recent issue of Science magazine, French researchers have shown that this desertification was in a large measure due to tectonic activities responsible for the gradual uplift of the African continent, thereby inducing a reorganization of atmospheric circulation. Greenhouse effect plays no significant role in these processes."

The above information is a quote from "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Claude Allegre. Allegre is a former alarmist who, through proper research and unbiased viewing of the facts, came to realize manmade global warming is a farce.

Myth #5 - The Antarctic Ice is melting
We’ve all heard this one. The world will be flooded by rising seawater because the use of (gasp!) fossil fuels is pumping all those greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Fact: The Antarctic is actually colder now than seventy years ago, and its ice and snow cover has increased, rather than decreased. Consider this tidbit from World Climate Report: A recent study, no shocker to real climatologists (but perhaps to climate doom sayers,) demonstrates this simple physics. It appears in the latest SciencExpress, and it shows that the vast majority of the Antarctic landmass is rapidly gaining ice and snow cover. Obviously this moisture comes from the sea. And, being deposited in solid form on the land-way-down-under, this lowers the earth’s sea level.

Myth #6 - The Global Warming Phenomenon is due to human activity
This one of course provides the basis for all the above. Human use of fossil fuels is creating a "greenhouse effect" in the atmosphere, causing a steady rise in global average temperatures.

Fact: The Earth has been significantly hotter than it is now, and this has occurred numerous times throughout history. Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Post article on the subject:

The carbon and nitrogen content of ancient rocks retrieved from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 1,000 miles east of Japan indicate that ocean surface temperatures fluctuated by as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit during the Cretaceous period 120 million years ago.

Scientists from Indiana University at Bloomington and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research detailed their findings in this month's issue of Geology.

Previous research had found evidence of a changeable climate in the Atlantic Ocean around the same period, but not much was known about what was going on in the Pacific, said Indiana geologist Simon Brassell, who led the new study.

You read it right. One hundred twenty million years ago. Do you suppose that the dinosaurs were running around in pollution-belching SUV’s and diesel trucks? That’s the only possible answer, since man did not exist at that time.

As is typical of the Left, when science fails to support their agenda they will resort to some truly bizarre tactics to sway public opinion. It is unfortunate that so many media outlets and left-leaning politicians share these backwards views. If the Left had its way, we’d all be riding bicycles or roller skates and our table napkins would be made of recycled toilet paper.

One of the craziest tactics used by left wing extremists is the nude protest. All over the world, left-wingers get together and lose their clothes in the name of peace, the environment, energy independence, so on and so forth. Large and well-financed organizations have surfaced over the years and with the help of the Internet and a complicit media, the "get naked for Earth" movement has swelled to alarming proportions.

Would you care to see a gang of naked people, often body-painted like savages, on bicycles pedaling through your neighborhood? I’m all for free speech and free expression, but this is beyond any reasonable expectation of freedom. If you walk down the street naked, but alone, it’s a good bet you’ll be arrested in short order. And you’d deserve it.

So how is it okay for a large group of people to parade through town in the nude?

It isn’t okay, and authorities who tolerate it should be driven from their jobs and replaced by people who have some sense of decency. Do we wish for our young children to be exposed to such filth? I have images on my blog from a nude bicycle event in which children are present. Most of the sites that post my work don’t post images, and I certainly wouldn’t expect them to post these. You can check out the images (slightly censored so blogger.com doesn’t yank my account) by visiting this link: http://alanburkhart.blogspot.com

The adults who participated in this disgusting display should be arrested, tried, convicted and registered as sex offenders. Exposing one’s self to a child is a criminal offense, and these freaks should not be allowed such a flagrant violation of both the law and human decency.

And let’s not forget the Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.) This is an eco-terrorist group that has caused over $200 million in damages in the US alone. Their stated goal is to use "economic sabotage and guerrilla warfare to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment." They are regarded by the FBI as a very serious threat to life and liberty in the US, and rightfully so.

Greenpeace is a non-violent organization, but they’ve managed to cost logging companies untold millions of dollars worldwide by disrupting operations. It’s worth noting that most forests are replanted once they’ve been harvested, and the new and often healthier forests provide a habitat for several generations of wildlife before they’re harvested again. Greenpeace seems to have missed this fact.

In conclusion, I can only say that there is absolutely no credible evidence of significant human influence where global warming is concerned. The planet heats and cools cyclically, and nothing Man does, short of a nuclear holocaust, can change it.

Those on the left who attempt to inflict their views upon us are perfectly willing to use whatever tactics are necessary to achieve their goals of worldwide communism and primitive living. The bogus Kyoto Accord is a perfect example of the junk science and harmful regulations being pushed by leftists in every walk of life - from grass roots organizations to the anti-American United Nations.

Our best weapon against this craziness is to stay informed. One should automatically question any new information regarding climate change if it comes from a liberal source - the alphabet networks, CNN, liberal rags like the New York Times, etc. Below you’ll find links to reliable, agenda-free sources of information on climate change. Please do take advantage of them.