Earth Day - Attacking global warming "theories"


Why global warming isn't science
Well, it's Earth Day again, and I am going to use that to kick off a new category here at Pagan•Vigil.

Nowadays it seems that you can't talk about the environmental movement without talking about global warming.

Global warming is an evangelical faith, a political movement, and a theory in that order. The one thing it isn't is science.

If I were to go to someone and ask for proof of global warming, they would offer me articles of faith. They would tell me that the carbon level in the atmosphere is rising (depends on how and when you measure it). They would tell me that the increasing (BUT NOT PROVEN) carbon is responsible for increasing temperatures all over the globe (depends on how and when you measure it). They would tell me that because of the carbon levels, they have proof (never produced) that human (and specifically advanced technology) is about to create a global catastrophe.

Before we start pouring over the numbers, let's back up a bit.

Are humans a cause of carbon on the planet? Yes.

Are humans the only source of carbon on the planet? No.

Volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and pretty much every organic reaction produces carbon.

Are humans a source of carbon in the atmosphere? Yes.

Are humans the majority source of carbon in the atmosphere? No.

Is human activity some sort of tipping point that puts the amount of carbon in the atmosphere into some sort of destructive cycle? Undetermined, but unlikely.

Does the carbon in the atmosphere increase the ambient temperature? Undetermined.

Are there other factors that may explain increasing temperatures independently of human activity? Yes, increased solar activity and the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid-19th Century to name just two.

Incidentally, the Little Ice Age helps show that there may be other factors that alter the weather in a short time, globally speaking. Measuring glacier retreat for the 20th and 21st centuries when glaciers expanded for most of the previous four centuries is fruitless. Exactly at what "point" are the glaciers supposed to be?

What that leaves us with is a lot of speculation, but very little science. And that is before anyone trots out the numbers.

All of this reduces to two questions.

Is global climate change bad?

How much does human activity change the climate?

These two questions are vitally important to the global warming question, they are the basis for the entire morality of global warming activism.

Without the assurance that GLOBAL WARMING IS TERRIBLE and that HUMANS ARE RESPONSIBLE, there is no moral component in the efforts to control global warming. It's only the assurance that gives global warming advocates their moral authority. Without it, they are just attacking property rights.

Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell that deep, dark secret.

But think about it. The only moral justifications that the global warming crowd has to interfere in other people's business is that GLOBAL WARMING IS TERRIBLE and that HUMANS ARE RESPONSIBLE. Without those two simple givens, it's nothing more than a raw power grab. Someone else wants to control your actions based on their beliefs.

How is that different from an Islamic fundamentalist insisting that everyone must bow to Mecca? Or from a Christian fundamentalist insisting that the U.S. Constitution be changed to give "God's Law" primacy over "Man's Law?"

I don't care what people believe. It's when they insist that their beliefs control my behavior that we have a problem.

But as bad as that is, there is worse. Some in the global warming movement don't believe that the Earth is warming, but they are perfectly willing to use the movement to achieve political gains. There is a lot of money at stake, funding to research global warming has skyrocketed. Almost every "plan" includes a huge regulatory burden on private property and industry. Global warming has become one of the last refuges of collectivists who don't particularly care about the "faith."

And that is why they depend on the illusion of morality to hide their actions and goals.

By the way, one of the major reasons why I don't like global warming advocates is because they have taken over the environmental movement. You can't talk about the environment without talking about global warming. There are a lot of GOOD things that came out of the environmental movement, but now everything has to get behind global warming. Fahh.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - April 22, 2006 at 05:03 AM  Tag


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