Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe. What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week.
I have been complaining for years that I didn't understand why today's climate must be defended to the hilt no matter what the price. How is it that we just happen to live in the ideal climate? And if that coincidence isn't true, what is the ideal climate? Shouldn't we really be debating how to reach that optimum? And if you don't know what the ideal climate is, why are you bothering me with your insistence that I use a different light bulb?
What is it with the Goreans that they have embraced our current climate as the only climate that we can thrive in? Why do they think we must move heaven and earth to maintain our current climate? Why, for such a supposedly secular group of people do they ignore our ability to adapt and evolve to changing climate--as we have throughout our planet's history? I mean, we have plants, animals, and humans, so clearly we've adapted to climates that in the past were both warmer and colder than today's.
It is increasingly apparent that global warming is increasingly an ersatz religion for many of the post-Christians. Complete with claims that this is a moral question and not a scientific and policy question; that global warming deniers will pay for our failure to profess our unquestioning faith in their pseudo gospel; that the end is nigh; that there can be not the slightest heresy lest ye be cast out of the Gorean church; that our original sin was taking that bite out of the apple of carbon energy forms (oil and coal); and that you can buy indulgences to cancel out your sins (or rather, carbon offsets to cancel your energy use).
Given how much time the leaders of this religion spend flying around the world, it won't be long before the once familiar sight of people in flowing robes beckon us in airports with the question of can we spare a moment of our time. I really hope this new crop shaves their heads, too.
And now we can add that the global warmer priest caste is a bunch of creationists who don't believe we can evolve to a changing climate. They might want to take that little fish with legs off of their car.
Jerks.
