Editorial: Global Warming & Fate’s Fickle Finger

For all practical purposes, it would seem that one global-warming editorial would be sufficient, but the fickle finger of fate has mandated another. Last week we discussed data smog in the environmental arena, and now we find that we were (even at the moment of writing) lost in the fog—that is to say that there is so much science and pseudoscience out there that we missed a crucial report. It will drive former vice president and environmental guru Al Gore nuts.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to Internet publishings, reports that “almost all of the allegedly ‘lost ice’ has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels, which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.”

According to a February 18 report in the London Daily Express, “there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.”

A Newsmax report on the Net tells how The Express “recalled a photograph of polar bears clinging to a melting iceberg which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former Vice President Gore during his Inconvenient Truth lectures about mankind’s alleged impact on the global climate.” The Express says that Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in August when melting is normal. He also fails to mention that the polar bear population has soared in recent years.

This example of contradictory information plays directly to the issue of whether or not mankind should stand on its collective head, dance to the tune played by the Gore pipers, and modify our lifestyle radically when the style they would have us live by may play no role whatsoever in global climate change.

According to Newsmax, “As winter roars across the Northern Hemisphere, Mother Nature seems to have joined the ranks of the skeptics.” The Express notes, “…scientists are saying the Northern Hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades, adding that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966.” Reports from across the globe contradict the global warming message of the Chicken Littles in the environmental society. Newsmax reports, “Even Baghdad had a snowstorm, the first in the memory of most residents…In Afghanistan, snow and freezing weather killed 120 people.”

When we mentioned David Shenk’s book Data Smog (1997) the purpose was to point out that there is so much information (good and bad) available these days that one hardly knows where to turn. Shenk found out years ago that equipment he had installed in his office to keep him up to date on news was importing far more information than he had a yen to process. He had it removed. This same “overloading” phenomenon takes place in the homes of nearly all computer owners who search the Internet.

This phenomenon is because, as recent political news reveals, blogs show up everywhere and there is little control over them, leastwise monitoring mechanisms that would help readers and viewers determine their accuracy. Some time back we reported having entered certain key words while searching on Google for specific information. The results indicated well over a million entries on the designated subject were floating around out there on the Net. One can find an unending supply of articles supporting all sides of an argument.

The global warming question is crucial. If one follows environmental proposals that are folly, it is possible to erode what we may think is our preferred quality of life. For example, right now the entire country has been plagued with the mandated installation of toilets and other forms of plumbing (faucets, etc.) that reduce water flow to conserve water. When one desires to fill a gallon pail with water, it takes longer to do so. It saves no water. The use of environmentally friendly lawnmowers has brought us mowers with higher horsepower but less actual mowing power. False starts, when involving solutions to environmental ills, have a monumental impact on the economy and our lifestyle; so care must be exercised to be correct in our choices.

As we suggested last week, there are plenty of environmental “knowns” that direct us to common sense solutions to clean up our air and water.

The global warming “wars” will continue, but aren’t we well advised to take some of what we read with a grain of salt?

By the way, just so we don’t get to smug over the reports of colder climes, it has now been reported that satellite images of the Antarctic revealed that a chunk of ice seven times larger than Manhattan has suddenly collapsed. At the edge of Wilkins ice ledge, it has been there, (scientists estimate) as long as 1,500 years. They’re not worried about rising sea level, but they believe it is a sign of worsening global warming.

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