May 23^rd

So what’s the deal with global warming? There is hardly any doubt that the globe is warming but there have been variations in global temperature going back thousands of years. We know this from taking ice cores in Greenland. Recently a scientist has determined that the variation of temperatures observed this way shows that we are currently slightly less than one standard deviation above the mean temperature recorded over this period. Presumably we should take heart from these data and start firing up our coal furnaces.

The temperature of the earth is not as hot as it has ever been but it is much hotter than it has been recently and it is moving in the direction of getting still hotter. Let’s consider an analogy: There is a blood test for prostate cancer called the PSA test. If a man’s PSA is higher than four or five it considered a danger signal for prostate cancer.  This depends on the man’s age and other things. However, if this man’s PSA has been hovering at less than one and a year later is at three we have what’s called PSA velocity to consider. In short, the absolute level may be less important than the rate of change and that may also be the case with global warming. Our scientist does not discuss this. His opinions are recorded on a right wing site devoted to fostering a “What, me worry?” attitude about climate change.

Our recent Vice President Al Gore has produced a movie about climate change called, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and consequently Gore features prominently in all the global warming denier’s (GWD) comments. He has become the favorite target for all the right wing GWD folks. I would guess that Gore is not the least bothered by this. No one produces any evidence to refute Gore’s warnings; it is apparently enough that Gore produced the movie and that’s sufficient for the right wing to pile on.

There are major industries which would benefit if GWD were a hoax as Senator Inhofe claims. It was cold enough in Washington DC for Inhofe to step outside and bring a snowball into the Senate chamber proving for all time that global warming is a hoax. This might prove something quite different; that at 80 years old Inhofe’s continuation in the Senate is an embarrassment to his party. So who benefits from the GWD view of the world? Most all coal companies will benefit, oil companies will benefit, gas companies will benefit. If that pesky carbon tax could be scotched just think of the benefits to fossil fuel companies. No wonder they like to fund GWD research.  GWD folks maintain that government research contracts are the source of funds that keep this “hoax” in business. Nobody ever got rich on government financed research contracts particularly when the Koch Brothers and the fossil fuel companies are pouring  millions into funding the other side.