What happened to global warming?

A few years ago I was among very few (liberal) columnists who dared to question the orthodoxy of global warming – as the related commentaries linked to below and regular readers of this weblog will attest.

In fact nothing has distinguished the hate mail I’ve received in response to commentaries I’ve written quite like those I received (from fellow liberals) when I ridiculed Al Gore being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a phantom fight against global warming.

But let me hasten to clarify, for the record, that I have never doubted the sincerity with which Gore and his disciples preach their gospel about climate change and the cataclysmic perils it portends. It’s just that it was clear to me from the outset that they were on a mission to proselytize an environmental agenda that had little to do with science (or the lessons of history).

Here’s just a sampling of what caused me to be branded a global-warming heretic:

I am convinced that all of the preaching about global warming is just hot air. Of course the planet is getting warmer (even if only by a sweltering 1°F (.17°C) every 100 years … ouch!). Moreover, I have no doubt that humans (especially Americans) are marginally to blame.

But I also have no doubt that this warming is due far more to natural climate variations (i.e., a cyclical phenomenon) than to man-made CO2 emissions.

[My final word on global warming, TIJ, August 8, 2006]

I was a bona-fide environmentalist when Gore was still the proud heir to a sprawling tobacco farm. But my environmentalism was inspired by the common-sense understanding that we cannot continue dumping non-biodegradable crap on our planet, where landfills are replacing arable land at an alarming rate.

I’m so indignant at global-warming disciples because of the way they ape fundamentalist preachers (who incite fears about burning in hell to get people to believe in God) by inciting fears about melting snow caps and glaciers flooding the planet to get people to respect the environment.

[An inconvenient truth about the warmest year…, TIJ, August 15, 2007]

But my how things have changed….

And there’s no more seminal indication of this than the BBC publishing an article on Friday under the headline, What happened to global warming.

The article highlighted the unassailable fact that:

For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

The BBC is arguably the most authoritative international news organization to buy into the global-warming “hoax” hook, line and sinker.  Therefore, it is tantamount to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus for it to now be reporting findings which make Gore and the scientists who gave credence to his prophecies seem like a false prophet and quacks, respectively.

In ruling on whether Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, could be shown in schools, a British judge declared that it was riddled with such egregious errors that it was unfit to show – unless accompanied by neon warnings about its inaccuracies.

[An Emmy, an Oscar and a Nobel…, TIJ, October 13, 2007]

Imagine that: teaching Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as a scientific fact about global warming would  be akin to teaching Creationism (featuring Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) as a scientific fact about the origin of man.

But there’s also the coincidental spectacle that occurred on Friday when Gore appeared at a conference in Wisconsin (which, ironically, just happened to be blanketed with early-autumn snow) to deliver his now-patented sermon on global warming.

Specifically, when Gore condescended to invite a few questions from the congregation, a daring reporter asked him to address the nine factual errors in An Inconvenient Truth, which has become the de facto bible of the global-warming crusade.  But when the reporter pointed out that Gore did not address these inconvenient errors in his reply, the organizers of this charade cut off his microphone….

At any rate, given reports today, which make it seem phenomenal that snow is replacing autumn rain and forcing the postponement of baseball games, I shall end with this bit of I told you so:

Nothing exposes the utter fatuousness of global-warming prophecies quite like the sight of snow blanketing spring flowers in such perennially warm places as Georgia and Texas – as was the case on Friday.

I suspect that the hundreds of thousands who made the pilgrimage to Washington, DC last weekend for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival – only to be greeted by trees sprouting icicles – may now give global-warming preachers a chilly reception. But this might seem devotional compared to the reception they’re likely to get from the multitudes who flocked to see the rites of spring played out on Baseball fields all over America – only to be greeted by fields sprouting snowflakes.

[Mother Nature makes…global warming seem like a flaming hoax, TIJ, April 12, 2007]

Related commentaries:
An Emmy, an Oscar and now a Nobel for Al Gore…
Global cooling? Yes!
Global warming or just hot air
My final word on global warming
Inconvenient truth about warmest year…
Mother Nature makes global warming seem like a flaming hoax