If one were a flea, and one’s entire life was spent nestled among the black hairs on a zebra’s back, one might tend to conclude that zebras are black. Until one met a flea from a neighboring white region of the same zebra’s back. Then an argument might ensue between the two camps over which one was right. Time would pass, and after the fleas established a space program and launched their first surveillance satellite (held aloft on the back of a dragonfly), one might expect the issue to be settled once and for all. But the highly-anticipated, and “conclusive,” data would still be subject to interpretation. That is, some would believe that zebras are white with black stripes, and others would believe that zebras are black with white stripes.
The point is data are rarely conclusive. And even when they are, the personal agendas and biases of those who own or collect the data, might sometimes prevent the truth from being known. So it is with the current debate surrounding what was once called “global warming” and is now called “climate change” — just the surreptitious change of moniker is enough to bring motives into question. Couple this with the recent revelations of emails between scientists in the field that have given the appearance of impropriety, the failure to reach consensus at the recent Copenhagen summit, and the whole environmental movement seems to be losing momentum.
I hesitate to say that the movement is receiving its just desserts. I am sympathetic to the goals of the movement, I’m just not a fan of their tactics in most cases. I also struggle with the way the message has been communicated over my lifetiime. I was two years old when the first Earth Day was held, and the histrionics first began about how we were killing our planet, and that if we didn’t address the crisis, we would all be dead by the end of the century. Well, for those of you keeping score at home, the crisis continues unabated now forty years hence, and we’re all still here. But no one within the movement shows any sign of backing away from the hyperbole — they just keep moving the goal line out, a generation at a time.
So as we enter the fortieth year of this movement, where are we really? Is the planet in better or worse shape? Are zebras black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? The answer that seems most reasonable to me, and the one that is most striking, is that no one really knows. Not yet. For each objective data point on one side of the debate, its equal appears on the other side. Forty years on, and we have a stalemate, the rhetoric on both sides having become trite. The problems appear objectively real, but the proposed solutions do not.
I would encourage the movement’s crusaders to take advantage of this respite, dress your wounds, and regain your bearings. But most of all, refine your message, banish the traitors among you who have brought harm to the movement, and come back when you’ve figured out the color of the zebra. Until then, frankly, I’m tired of hearing from you.
The only global warming that our species needs to be concerned about, know, and study is contained in an old book at several specific data addresses:1) 1 Thes 4:14-182) 2 Thes 2:7-8and several other passages…on His 2nd Coming at the end of time. Get ready, scoffers, time is short.
Here’s the light on the spiritual derelicts worldwide that have tried to convince all of us to believe the lie aka global warming:Thursday, 04 Feb 2010 10:12 PMArticle Font SizeWASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., called on Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to resign after revelations of ongoing scientific fraud under Dr. Pachauri’s watch. Senator Barrasso delivered the following statement on the Senate Floor:“Every day, new scandals emerge about the so called ‘facts’ in the UN reports. The integrity of the data and the integrity of the science have been compromised. No kidding?“Concrete action by world leaders is needed. Government delegations of the UN’s general assembly and UN Secretary Moon must pressure Dr. Rajendra Pachauri to step down as head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. No, they need to be hung at a public square in Washington, along with a few thousand more.“It is time to conduct an independent investigation into the conduct of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientific data behind these policies must be independently verified. Why? Man CANNOT FIX IT?“Administration policies relating to climate change will cost millions of Americans their jobs. We need to get this right. To continue to rely on these corrupted U.N. Reports is an endorsement of fraudulent behavior. It is a signal to the American people that ideology is more important than their jobs.”ISN’T IT?Background:Recent news reports have highlighted Dr. Rajendra Pachauri’s and the United Nation’s involvement in covering up flawed science:February 2, 2010, Investor’s Business Daily article, Walter Russell Read, Project Director for Religion and Foreign Policy at the Pew Forum, said “After years in which global warming activists had lectured everyone about the overwhelming nature of the scientific evidence, it turned out that the most prestigious agencies in the global warming movement were breaking laws, hiding data and making inflated, bogus claims resting on, in some cases, no scientific basis at all.”On January 30, 2010, the Times of London reported, “Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it.”On January 24, 2010, the Times of London reported the UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters. Reporter Jonathan Leake wrote, “The United Nations climate panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods,” and the report “had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny.”Senator Barrasso, a member of both the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee, has continued to call on the international community and the Obama Administration to ensure that our energy policy is based on sound scientific data.Recently, Barrasso sent letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to express his concerns regarding a report concluding the organizations eliminated two-thirds of their temperature monitoring stations around the globe in places that are colder, rural or at higher altitudes beginning in 1990 in order to drive up temperature trend averages.
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