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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 12:05 pm
Dennis Prager asks:
Observers of contemporary society will surely have noted that a liberal is far more likely to fear global warming than a conservative. Why is this?
Because liberals are stupid. Well, that’s only one theory.
UPDATE. Jonathan David Morris has advice for warming-frightened Al Gore:
I think An Inconvenient Truth is a convenient starting point for changing hearts and minds on the global warming issue. But in order to truly make a difference, I believe it needs some sort of marketing tie-in. People need to know this problem hits close to home. And they need to know it transcends mere politics. They need a reason to cross partisan boundaries—a reason to unite on the steps of Capitol Hill and hold hands and sing the Pledge of Allegiance and/or We Shall Overcome.
Only one thing can compel people to act this way. And that one thing is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby, Shiloh.
In order to stop global warming, Al Gore has to threaten to kill that baby.
Hmm. Maybe a little extreme. Gore could possibly achieve some advances merely by threatening to injure the Pitt/Jolie infant. Also too extreme is Jim Hansen in the New York Review of Books:
How much will sea level rise with five degrees of global warming? Here too, our best information comes from the Earth’s history. The last time that the Earth was five degrees warmer was three million years ago, when sea level was about eighty feet higher.
Eighty feet! In that case, the United States would lose most East Coast cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Miami; indeed, practically the entire state of Florida would be under water. Fifty million people in the US live below that sea level. Other places would fare worse. China would have 250 million displaced persons. Bangladesh would produce 120 million refugees, practically the entire nation. India would lose the land of 150 million people.
Shiloh will surely be drowned!
- Because it’s a tenet of the Liberal Faith that the world is going to Hell in a bucket and it’s all the fault of non-liberals? So this is just one more example?Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 06 22 at 11:57 AM • permalink
- Because liberals want everything to be PERFECT right NOW. Any hint of imperfection is cause for wailing, gnashing of teeth, grotesque exaggeration of the alleged problem and fear of imminent catastrophe.
War with Afghanistan? Brutal Afghan winter! Graveyard of empire!
War with Iraq? Tens of thousands of our troops killed! Millions of Iraqi refugees!
Nuclear power? Meltdown! China Syndrome!
Climate variability? Drowning polar bears! Inundated coastlines! Greenhouse effect! Ice Age!
A fretful suburban housewife looks like Winston Churchill compared to your average bedwetting liberal.
- It’s Lex Luthor again, I’m telling you people.Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 06 22 at 12:27 PM • permalink
- That’s your solution to everything, stats, living under the sea. Well its not going to happen.
(with apologies to the writers of the Simpsons)
Posted by Dean McAskil on 2006 06 22 at 12:33 PM • permalink
- Sooo, the fact that my house would only be 2 blocks from the beach is supposed to make me sad? And the entire far left of Seattle will all have to grow gills, or, worse, move to the suburbs. We don’t want their stinking kind out here! I think I will go start up my bike and let it idle for a couple of hours, if that will get the temperature above 70 today, I will be all for it.
- Time was that whackjob false prophetry such as this was the exclusive preserve of Ralph Nader. In his head Al Gore is probably still counting Nader-for-President votes from 2000 to get himself to sleep at night, (in much the way that mark from monroe counts ice sheep, perhaps) thinking that it was these people he should have listened too, rather than the – ahem – rather more numerous people who voted for whatshisname.
But it gets even more mainstream than Al Gore: I was recently at a Queen’s Birthday Party at a UK diplomatic mission in Asia, in which the Head of Mission’s speech spoke earnestly of the challenges climate change gives governments, but completely in earnest, as if debate on the subject was closed for good. Now I can’t claim the superior scientific insight on the issue that Britain’s Man in Wherever professed, and I had taken a good deal of whisky by the time we’d got onto Armageddon Now, but surely the finest brains of HM Diplomatic Service can look at the following with a critical eye:
The last time that the Earth was five degrees warmer was three million years ago, when sea level was about eighty feet higher.
Those Cenozoic-era thermometers and plumb lines sure were ahead of their time – as was the foresight of Ug the Geologist, painstakingly writing down for posterity the temperatures in pre-lapsarian Southern Florida 300,000BC, and sea-bed depths off Miami Beach, for the enlightened sophisticates of the far future.
We salute you, Ug, first posthumous Nobel laureate.
Posted by Hector Cross on 2006 06 22 at 12:58 PM • permalink
- Eighty feet!
Cool…I live a few miles inland and, oh, 150 or so feet above sea level. The value of my property is going way up!
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 06 22 at 01:17 PM • permalink
- Oh, and by the way, the monsoon’s started here. Almost exactly a year to the day that last year’s monsoon started. BUT NOT EXACTLY… coincidence? I don’t think so. Climate change EVERYWHERE.Posted by Hector Cross on 2006 06 22 at 01:20 PM • permalink
- 80 feet! My goodness, that’s a lot of water frozen up there in Greenland.Posted by daddy dave on 2006 06 22 at 01:28 PM • permalink
- People who don’t confront the greatest evils will confront far lesser ones. One of the most perceptive lines in a piece full of interesting insights. “Ye blind guides that strain out the gnat and swallow the camel”, is one way of putting it.
Say, I posted my bio, and then found out that some of the genuine stars in Tim’s Comment Academy are closed books. Wronwright, for cryin’ out loud! “Information is not available”. Richard McEnroe. “Information is not available”. Huck “sdrawkcab rosseforp” Foley. Information is not available. T’ain’t right.
- Hmmmm.
Frankly I think liberals have been casting about for something to gnash their teeth about ever since people were so unkind as to not descent into a Malthusian cannibalistic Hell in 1973.
Though if you consider the stylistic impasse that bellbottoms and platform shoes offer, an argument could be made that we indeed did suffer that Malthusian cannibalistic Hell and just didn’t notice it.
Perhaps it was during an episode of All in the Family?
Posted by memomachine on 2006 06 22 at 01:31 PM • permalink
- 80 feet – no wonder the dinosaurs were so tall.Posted by perfectsense on 2006 06 22 at 01:34 PM • permalink
It’s Lex Luthor again, I’m telling you people.
Well, Jim, until Shiloh grows some hair, he’s going to look like Lex.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 22 at 01:51 PM • permalink
- You mean we
couldwill end up with the fabled lost city of Atlanta? Didn’t they build the pyramids?
(With apoligies to Futurama.)Posted by andycanuck on 2006 06 22 at 01:53 PM • permalink
- Lose New York City & Boston????
What’s the down side?
Posted by swassociates on 2006 06 22 at 03:39 PM • permalink
- Hansen also states:
“In the Earth’s history, during periods when average global temperatures increased by as much as ten degrees Fahrenheit, there have been several “mass extinctions,” when between 50 and 90 percent of the species on Earth disappeared forever. In each case, life survived and new species developed over hundreds of thousands of years. The most recent of these mass extinctions defines the boundary, 55 million years ago, between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs. The evolutionary turmoil associated with that climate change gave rise to a host of modern mammals, from rodents to primates, which appear in fossil records for the first time in the early Eocene.”
So, what was it we were doing 55 million years ago that caused the earth to warm?
I don’t get it. This whole earth warming thing has happened before. But now it’s mankind’s fault?
Looks natural to me.
- Completely O/T, but you can sort the memberlist in several ways. Here are the top 10 posters on Tim’s blog:
richard mcenroe: 4577
The_Real_JeffS: 2925
RebeccaH: 2471
PW: 2428
Dave S.: 2366
crash: 2239
paco: 2203
blogstrop: 1963
Andrea Harris, Administrator: 1669
wronwright: 1428Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 22 at 04:59 PM • permalink
- Well, Jim, until Shiloh grows some hair, he’s going to look like Lex.
Jeff….Shiloh is a girl.
Prepare to be sent to re-education camp!
Posted by Quentin George on 2006 06 22 at 05:02 PM • permalink
- OK, OK, so I don’t follow the effing gossip sheets, Quentin! My bad.
Besides, who cares? Shiloh could still grow up to look like Lex Luthor. Or haven’t you seen those pictures of Nancy Pelosi and Helen Thomas? Shave their skulls and viola! Someone scrabbling for a hunk of kryptonite.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 22 at 05:13 PM • permalink
# 28 you can sort the memberlist in several ways. Here are the top 10 posters on Tim’s blog:
That’s misleading TRJS. That shows only the raw number of posts. It doesn’t list the value or import of those comments. I mean, come on. paco? I would give each of his comments 1 point. PW? He’s a German, so maybe a point. Andrea? Hmmmph. All threats against the innocent and sincere. And besides, she spanked me once and stole my Norman shield and Zulu spear. Just one point for her.
Of course, there are others listed above whose comments are so insightful and witty that 5, perhaps 10 points should be assigned. Humility prevents me from saying more.
Hopefully at the end of a fiscal year, we can turn in our points for a toaster or microwave. Or like the Brady kids, pool them together for a
televisionfishing boat.Posted by wronwright on 2006 06 22 at 06:47 PM • permalink
- wronwright, quality versus quantity is a battle I will leave to someone else…..since I am way above you. That would be a conflict of interest on my part, eh?Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 22 at 06:58 PM • permalink
- Man, my family always gets screwed by water.
80 years ago they put in a dam which put the family farm 30’ underwater. Gramps had to take the money they gave him and open a flour mill (which made about 10 times the money the farm did…with a 10th of the work).
Now I live 4’ feet above sea level…I’ll be 76 feet under water. Somebody better be givin’ me enough cash to by a flour mill or buggy whip company (which according to the moonbats are going to be a big part of our future).
I wonder if the Moonbats notice that they are being taken less and less seriously the more strident they get.
- Now Disney has pulled out of Happy Meals here and here there is a real opportunity for Gore to start brainwashing children.
Happy meals should come with a pair of gumboots to help with rising sea levels or desk fan to deal with the heat or a free spade to bury all those millions of species which are going to become extinct.
Posted by The (WHMECDM) President on 2006 06 22 at 08:11 PM • permalink
- Disclosure – my kids have seven of the eight cars characters from the Cars movie which they have accumulated over the past month. Saves me buying them real toys when they get just as much enjoyment from the Happy Meal ones.Posted by The (WHMECDM) President on 2006 06 22 at 08:15 PM • permalink
- The RealJeffS—That’s officially scary. I doubt I’ll stop, but it’s scary.Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 22 at 08:19 PM • permalink
- Re #2 : “The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle” [in Nature].
A sudden lateral movement of 7m to 10m would be among the largest ever recorded.
How long before earthquake fears will be integrated with GlobalWarming Doom scenarios?
Maybe warmer water weighs more on the Earth’s Crust? .. maybe it dissolves it? .. or.. or..
- Paco—Keep an eye on the TARDIS, pool boy, or he’s liable to go back, post a few more and move up…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 22 at 08:50 PM • permalink
- Now now, everybody relax. We’ll get civilization through this Global Warming thing once we have the firm hand of socialism on the tiller!Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 06 22 at 09:05 PM • permalink
- From the story linked in #35:
McDonald’s fare will continue to be a staple in Disney’s theme parks. Disney also is leaving open the possibility of McDonald’s promotions geared towards adults.
AFAICR, there’s ONE stand in each park at Disney World that serves McDonald’s fries. Considering even the smallest of the parks there has 16 places to get food (Animal Kingdom—2 full-service restaurants, 14 counter-service), I’d hardly call Mickey D’s a “staple” at the parks. Maybe Disneyland is more dependent on them; I doubt it.
Of course, the reporter isn’t so much reporting as laying groundwork for the food-Nazis’ lawsuits later, so I guess it makes sense.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 06 22 at 09:13 PM • permalink
- Eighty feet?
So Waterworld was obviously a documentary? I should have known, it sucked way too much to be an action blockbuster.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 06 22 at 10:36 PM • permalink
- As I understand it, people are evil. Global warming will kill people. Lots of people. Therefore, global warming is good?
Sweet delicious irony. Global warming will destroy Florida. Florida elected Gaia rapist George W Bush. Hell hath no fury like an Earth Mother scorned.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 06 22 at 10:38 PM • permalink
The RealJeffS—That’s officially scary. I doubt I’ll stop, but it’s scary.
Ditto, richard. On all points.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 22 at 10:40 PM • permalink
- #45
I think Kevin Costner set back the credibility of global warming 50 years with that movie.
On a more positive note, a semi-clad Jeanne Tripplehorn gave a few teenagers at the time a … well … you know her last name.
Posted by The (WHMECDM) President on 2006 06 22 at 10:59 PM • permalink
- Fifty million people in the US live below that sea level
May be true, let’s say I take your word for it. Does not equate to 50 million people being displaced. For instance, if all of the world’s surface area (being simplistic) at 1’ above sea level = 1 square mile, then .000019 cu miles of water would fill that area. If that area was 200,000 sq miles, it would take 7.6 MM cu miles of water to fill it. So – it all depends on how much populated land is at each foot of rise. That is if any of this poofery is real. I started to try to read the actual study that this is based on – mind you they are saying that there is “evidence” that the temp has raised 1 frigging degree in 400 years. First, they are using crap like tree ring data (which, if you read the study says is not a very reliable science) which is where I fell asleep the first time, to say that it actually is 1 whole degree warmer and other such methodoly to show that it has not been warmer than that in the last 400 years. Although I believe NAS is supposed to be non-partisan, the conclusions reached with the portions I read so far are pretty weak.
- Happy Meals save lives:
http://tinyurl.com/e9tl8Posted by andycanuck on 2006 06 22 at 11:17 PM • permalink
- Four hundred years takes us back to the Little Ice Age. I would damn well hope it was warmer today than it was then.
Some of the numbers show that it is warmer today than it was during the Medieval Warm Period (which preceeded the LIA), but for some reason, few are queueing up to re-colonise Greenland.
- They named their kid Shiloh?!. That’s a Civil War battlefield, right?. Paco, Your bio is quite dull, not at all what I expected. Sex it up a little please. Dave S has the right idea, lol.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 23 at 01:07 AM • permalink
- Jeff….Shiloh is a girl.
Indeed. Named for a forgettable Neil Diamond pop song of the 1970s. Except a rash of Shilohs to be born in the next year in Melton, Narre Warren South, Hoppers Crossing and…(insert bogan suburb here).
Many will be daughters of all the Kylies, now reaching their 30s and starting a family.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 06 23 at 01:13 AM • permalink
The last time that the Earth was five degrees warmer was three million years ago, when sea level was about eighty feet higher.
Of course, the obvious implication that’s always missed by the doom-mongers is that it seems to have taken millions of years to build up the corresponding masses of ice afterwards. And it’s gonna take just a couple hundred years to melt it all again? Uh, no sale.
Anyway, a quick seat of the pants calculation about the amount of ice we’re talking about…we can ignore the Arctic ice (it already floats in/on the oceans) and glaciers (no matter how much in love the enviro-nuts are with glaciers, they’re pretty insignificant overall). So we’re left with the Antarctic continent, which is about 12 million km² in size. The oceans are about 350 million km², so let’s say 30 times as big. In other words, every km² of Antarctic ice of height X will be enough to cover one km² of ocean with height X/30 of water (more or less…I’ll ignore the minimal differences in density). For 80 feet of rise in sea level, that gives us 2400 feet of ice, or nearly half a mile (around 730 m) – across the entire Antarctic continent. So that’s what, 8 meters of ice melting off every year between now and 2100 in order to fulfill the prophecy of doom?
Incidentally, that alarmist Jim Hansen piece almost touches on this point, but the combination of utter innumeracy and the usual journalist’s inability to grasp all the facts gives us:
A rise in sea level, necessarily, begins slowly. Massive ice sheets must be softened and weakened before rapid disintegration and melting occurs and the sea level rises. It may require as much as a few centuries to produce most of the long-term response. But the inertia of ice sheets is not our ally against the effects of global warming. The Earth’s history reveals cases in which sea level, once ice sheets began to collapse, rose one meter (1.1 yards) every twenty years for centuries.
Umm, Jim, that’s still 450 years for a rise of 80 feet, plus those “few centuries” to get things rolling. And it ignores that those extreme prior cases almost surely happened when ice sheets were covering land area down to Central European latitudes, so there was a heck of a lot more ice to begin with.
- Oh, and as bill w at #50 points out, in addition to the ice that’s going to make the sea level rise, you need more ice to account for the water that’s going to spill over onto the land areas. I have no idea how to do a good approximation of that, but it’s probably substantial, given that the ratio between land and ocean surface is about 3:7…so then we’re probably looking at 10+ meters of ice sheet melting off every year if we want to make the 2100 target for utter annihilation.
- Good math, PW. You as well, bill w (I should have said so earlier!).
The doom mongers really have no clue as to what they speak about, do they? Some simple, back-of-the-envelope calculations readily shoots holes in their claims.
But don’t expect Gorezilla to change his tune…..methinks he has too much of an ego to admit error.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 23 at 10:46 AM • permalink
- Rebecca, you and I have a long ways to go to beat richard. I’m not sure I’m up to that without resorting to violence.
But, hey, second place is possible…..
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 23 at 01:32 PM • permalink
- #67 Yojimbo,
Thanks, it makes more sense now, though it’s still a crap name for a kiddie. If I should ever become a celebrity I will name my spawn Pretentious Unpronounceable III.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 06 23 at 11:09 PM • permalink
- Oh, all right you sissies, (Paco!) I updated my profile…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 24 at 12:27 AM • permalink
- 15 Paco Plaintivio
Say, I posted my bio, and then found out that
wait? what? posted where?
Way things are going wright now, ahmina have spent 130 years IN the 14th century, trying to overthrow the Wronwrignian Papal Dynasty of Earth XXIVX, and then be all of one week older on returning to my own era, whatever it turns out to be! So some of the questions including that one kind of have flown right past me. What did I miss this time? And this shit IS going onto my time card, right?Posted by Huck Foley on 2006 06 24 at 04:37 AM • permalink
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