Back to Basics

It is snowing heavily in New Jersey where I live. I keep wondering how long it will take some Warmist to announce that it is due to “global warming.” This is a measure of how stupid they think we are. For the record, the Earth has been in a cooling cycle since 1998.

If the meteorologists are correct, this snow storm may set a few new records, not the least of which is its early arrival.

I cheated death last Saturday. I went outside to work in the yard. No doubt, in light of the last week’s crippling heat wave smothering the East Coast, you think my decision foolhardy.

Here we had Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Incompetano hovering over the DC area in her helicopter — Grope One — burning up the bullhorn batteries as she ordered people to have their ID ready and move into nearby shade.

There was the heart–rending video of the long lines of women and children waiting patiently to be admitted into the cool, subterranean interior of Greenbrier, VA’s Cold War–era Congressional missile shelter after it was opened to the public.

And who could forget coverage of PEPCO executives furtively stopping at 7/11 to hire a coyote to smuggle them across the Mexican border — one step ahead of an enraged customer base that was not only without power and air–conditioning, but also left without shade after roving bands of PEPCO’s pruning trucks had scalped their trees.

For a while I was so caught up in the fear of the sun god’s wrath that when I spotted a foursome on the golf course it was all I could do to not to slam on the brakes and burst out of the car shouting, “Save yourselves!”

So of course I fully expected to be vaporized like a mosquito in a Bug Zapper the minute I set foot out the door. But instead of becoming a particulate cloud that contributes to “Global Warming!” I found myself hot, sweaty and alive just like I’ve been in every other summer during my lifetime.

Government officials and TV hairdos like to portray heat hysteria warnings as a public service to keep people “safe.” But it’s actually just another step down the road to the complete infantilization of America by a self–appointed group of we–know –best busybodies who don’t think the average American has enough sense to come in out of the sun.

There was less concern shown over the fate of the intrepid Fukushima nuclear plant workers exposed to potentially lethal doses of radiation than there was over Yankees wandering out into the sunshine.

Athletes sometimes enter a hyperbaric chamber that creates a pressurized environment that exposes them to increased concentrations of oxygen. The theory is more oxygen promotes healing and recovery.

We are forced to live in a hyperbolic chamber exposed to exaggerated high–pressure warnings, alarms and rules for living. The theory being more exposure to hysteria promotes a citizenry that no longer relies on its own wits and instead is afraid to make a move without consulting some government “expert” for guidance.

As a result the Manassas Battlefield Park canceled all outdoor activities during one afternoon of the 150th anniversary celebration, because the summer became hot. When the real hazard for tourists was sprains and broken bones from stumbling over drifts of bottled water cluttering the landscape after we were carpet–bombed by Air H2O.

My son’s undefeated Rugby team missed three games when opponents canceled after deciding they would rather be safe than sweaty. [I suppose this means the sport’s supporters are going to have to order longer bumper stickers since the game’s motto has evidently changed from “Give Blood. Play Rugby.” to “Give Blood. Play Rugby.

A warming planet continues to cause snowstorms, and as of now, only Florida is being spared the wrath:

You might recall that last February, we posted about the news that there was at least a trace of snow on the ground in all 50 states. Well, according to the National Weather Service, the only state that this morning didn’t have at least a bit of snow on the ground was Florida.

Yes, according to the Weather Service: “This includes Hawaii where about seven inches of snow is atop Mauna Kea.”

Snow is currently on the ground in 69.4 percent of the lower 48 — it would be on 70.2 percent of the ground but Al Gore covered a field of Tennessee Irises with one of his sport jackets so they wouldn’t frost while he was wintering in his new California mansion.

On the topic of climate change, since a heated debate is now raging over “violent political rhetoric” and metaphors, remember this explosive video about what the future might hold for global warming deniers? Of course you don’t, because the left doesn’t participate in such ugliness.

**Today’s Global Warming Update was brought to you by Hotfingers Gloves. When global warming is turning your fingers blue, reach for Hotfingers — made with Gore-Tex®.

From the UK:

BRITAIN’S winter is the coldest since 1683 and close to being the chilliest in nearly 1,000 years.

Latest figures reveal that the average temperature since December 1 has been a perishing -1C.

That makes it the second coldest since records began in 1659.

The chilliest on record was 1683/84, when the average was -1.17C and the River Thames froze over for two months.

But with January and February to come, experts believe we could suffer the most freezing cold winter in the last 1,000 years.

The Met Office’s Charlie Powell said: “It’s rare to have cold this prolonged, with temperatures falling incredibly low.

“Temperatures will be down again by Sunday, with nights below freezing and daytimes below average at 3C to 5C. Our outlook forecast to January 26 shows temperatures 2C or 3C below average, frost and ice likely and the highest chance of snow or sleet over the northern half of the UK.” . . .

The NY Times recently had an opinion piece blasting those who question global warming as basically idiots. Here is a letter to the editor that I sent in. Of course, the NY Times didn’t publish it. This is short to meet the 150 word limit for letters.

Dear Letters Editor:

In the face the coldest December in Britain and other countries since records began, Roger Cohen attacks those criticizing Global Warming as making exaggerated claims (“Snow! Hit the Panic Button,” 12/23). Cohen’s claims: “global warming, which some people, including Matthews, apparently took to mean the end of European winters, and you end up with the current farce.” But he should look at the predictions made by manmade Global Warming advocates. On March 20, 2000, The Independent newspaper in the UK quotes Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, asserting that within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event. Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” Unfortunately, many other manmade Global Warming researchers made this hysterical claim. This month a UK Daily Mail headline reports: “Coldest December since records began.”

Sincerely,

Who among us can remember back, oh so long ago, when Hurricane Earl was a Category 4, just one degree shy of the Katrina’s astonishing destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast States of Mississippi and Alabama?

Those of us on the East Coast were assured that Earl would smash into North Carolina’s the barrier islands, dash up toward Newark, New Jersey, and then onward to Nantucket and pretty much anywhere else Earl wanted to go. The predictions were ominous.

I live in New Jersey and it is late afternoon on Friday as this is being written. Not a drop of rain in sight. No doubt some will arrive later tonight, but Earl has veered out into the Atlantic and is just barely holding on to a Category 1 status.

How many hours did Fox News, the Weather Channel, and all the others devote to sensational satellite pictures of the Mighty Earl until, over the hours, it became apparent that those intrepid reporters waiting for it to come ashore were reduced to interviewing disgruntled surfers unhappy that they could not commit suicide in Earl’s surging waves?

This is what I keep telling people over and over again. The weather is the perfect definition of chaos. It will do what it wants to do and not what the geniuses sweating over “computer models” say it will do.

We humans in our suburbs and great cities are like tiny insects in its path. People that keep telling you that humans are altering the climate are lying to you.

That’s why we have to ask ourselves, if the meteorologists cannot predict what a Category 4 hurricane will do with more than a wisp of certainty, why should anyone listen to those charlatans who insist they know what the weather will be in five, ten, twenty or fifty years?

I’m not talking about legitimate climatologists who study trends over centuries, but the one’s that insist on transforming the economy and society out of their conceit that they know that “global warming” is coming and it’s going to be bad.

It’s not coming; the Earth has been cooling for the past decade. It is a perfectly natural and well-known cycle. It could stick around a few years. Or it could mutate into the next Ice Age.

Today my local daily newspaper had an editorial about global warming and why the skeptics are wrong. That is a level of denial and flat-out ignorance that defies reality.

The reality is that the most sophisticated weather forecasting computer models, along with weather satellites, did not know with any certainty what Hurricane Earl was going to do or go. It largely spared the East Coast and piddled off into the Atlantic. News at eleven.

I am glad the radio and television meteorologists tried to warn us and I am glad that the hurricane turned out to be far less destructive than anticipated, but I know they had no more idea than I what would occur.

© Alan Caruba, 2010