Global warming

There is terrible news for environmentalists today.

Global warming has apparently stopped.

The official temperature records stored at the University of East Anglia shows that the average global temperature has not increased in the past 8 years. Global warming stopped in 1998. From 1970 until 1998, the average global temperature increased by almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. However, in the past 8 years, the temperature has dropped a fraction of a degree.

The really horrible news for environmentalists is that in those same eight years, human production of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide was at its highest levels ever. Our factories, power plants, and SUVs continued to pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever before, and yet the "human caused" warming trend reversed.

Even before this latest example, there was plenty of evidence that there is no correlation between human activity and the temperature cycles of the earth. A previous warming cycle occurred from 1918 until 1940, well before the major increase of "greenhouse gas" emissions, and the following cooling cycle lasting from 1940 and 1965 coincided precisely with the period of greatest increase in emissions worldwide. Environmentalists love to make wild claims such as "This is the hottest year since 1500!" And what made 1500 so hot? Was it the Hummers and the coal-burning power plants? Was it caused by Republicans not signing on to the Kyoto Treaty? Perhaps Christopher Columbus was to blame, because we know that it is always a European American, and he is the closest thing there was to a European American at the time.

You would think that environmentalists would be overjoyed to discover that humans are not causing global warming, that the earth has natural temperature cycles, and that we are not on the brink of a worldwide cataclysm caused by American industry. But they are not. In fact, they are more hysterical than ever. They point to their computer models which say that by the year 2030 the global temperature will have increased by 6 degrees. Or 2 degrees. Or 1 degree. It depends which model you look at, how you set all of the very sensitive parameters, and who you ask. They won't tell you that in 1990 those same models were saying that by 2005 the global temperature would have climbed by three degrees. Nor will they tell you that in 1970 those same models said that by 1990 the global temperature would have dropped by six degrees, sending the earth into an ice age. That's right, thirty-five years ago the environmentalist panic was over global cooling caused by American industry. The only thing which has stayed the same is the identity of the villain.

So why are environmentalists so sad to hear that we are not all about to die as a result of global warming? It is because their power comes from the imminent threat of crisis. Looming disaster is their excuse to enact their real agenda, which is greater government control over industry. The environment is just an excuse to accomplish a liberal coup, seizing more power for the government and putting more of the economy under their control. If the earth is not about to be destroyed by evil corporations burning fossil fuels and building gas-guzzling SUVs, the impetus for more government regulation and greater socialization is gone. And worse yet, the opportunity to use fear mongering to increase their fundraising is dangerously threatened. If their global warming pseudo-science is debunked, how will they be able to write hysterical fund-raising letters convincing concerned people to send in $50 or face certain demise from melting polar caps?

The real crisis here has nothing to do with carbon dioxide, shrinking ozone layer, melting polar ice, or global warming. The crisis which has the left in a tizzy is the shrinking and melting away of their power and influence as people recognize them as the frauds they are.