Shivering in Fear of Global Warming

I am sitting here in my humble cottage deciding if we want to sit here shivering in the cold all day or turn the heat up so that I get a humongous bill at the end of the month. Perhaps this is effecting my ability to write objectively on the topic of global warming. Recent events in the blogosphere of the state (Ark Times, Arkansas Project etc) have compelled me to throw in my eighty billion dollars worth (I value my own opinion, but I will concede that this is not YET the market rate).

Meanwhile, the state of the nation is precarious at best. With all of the real troubles we are facing, it seems that our friends on the left want to get all riled up against a phantom menace. Columnist David Sanders published a column which decried attempts to enact an agenda to prevent global warming in Arkansas. The Arktimes has a source that claims Sanders just sent out what someone handed him. But of course the agenda of the "Arkansas" group to prevent global warming sounds like the agenda of groups from other states too- both sides are getting talking points from central sources.

I want you to know that I am writing this one myself, and I think the important thing here is not whether X got their ideas from Y, but rather are those ideas correct? I believe that there are legitimate environmental issues that we need to band together to work on- especially protecting our water supplies. The thing is, global warming is not one of them. It is instead ruining the credibility of the environmental movement as a whole. If I were conspiratorial I would say that big polluters were funding these people, because it misdirects the energy of the environmental movement away from the real villains and sends it on a wild goose chase. Then, once it becomes even clearer that man-made global warming is no threat the credibility of the environmental movement is destroyed. Industry will have an even freer hand to cost-shift by dumping their pollutants and letting the rest of us deal with it.

You are being used, my leftist friends. The earth's average temperatures have not increased since 1998! Space probes sent to Mars and a moon of Saturn respectively reported temperature increases at the same time Earth had its warming spell- indicating we humans are not doing much of the "damage". That's even if it is "damage". Earth has been warmer in the past than it is now, and life not only survived, but thrived. A small increase in temperatures may help extend growing seasons and reduce the amount of energy we consume to stay warm.

The Earth has also been cooler in the past. Scientists tell us that there was once a mile-thick ice sheet all the way down to Chicago (long before there was a Chicago of course). Sure some glaciers are retreating, the trend is that they have been retreating for the last 11,000 years! Now we learn that the sun is about to enter a quiet phase called the Maunder minimum. You can expect average temperatures to drop for several decades, just as they increased for a few decades when the sun was more active.

Global warming will happen someday, as the sun ages it will increase energy output until it swells into a red giant and burns the earth to a cinder. That day is far off and there is nothing we can do about it now and it won't be a result of our actions anyway. It will jut be a non-eternal universe doing what it does. What is eternal are the souls of your neighbors who are temporarily here with you in this temporary universe. Focus on stopping local polluters from trashing your neighbor's environment. Quit being a tool for the bad guys with this misdirection and at the same time expand your coalition. Hey, even a conservative doesn't like some company throwing tons of chicken droppings in his water table.

That's my opinion and advice on the matter. That and 80 billion dollars can buy you an insider taxpayer-subsidized executive bailout.