Every once in awhile when I’m feeling a little too relaxed for comfort and need to raise my blood pressure quickly, I’ll flip over to the AM radio and listen to the leader of the Protestant jihad, Rush Limbaugh. More amazing than the fact that this guy is a celebrity is the fact that he’s so popular. And that he is, with 20 MILLION listeners tuning into his show every day and an eight-year, 400 MILLION dollar radio contract. Well, there’ve been a couple of studies that have found a slight cooling trend during the early part of the century. Here’s a sample of what Rush had to say in response:
“The Earth has not been warming since 1998, and this year…is colder than the previous year. It's cooling. This is not anecdotal. It's scientific, temperature research surveys. We are actually cooling -- and, of course, every day we have the drive-by media, newspapers, magazines, the first thing you hear when you turn on the news: "It got worse today. The news today was even worse than experts expected." Whatever it is, the crisis is ongoing.We are cooling! We're having record cold temperatures in over two-thirds of the country and throughout Northern Hemisphere this winter!
We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected...'" Well, now, what should the story, then, be? If between 2000 and 2007 greenhouse gases increased far more than expected and the temperature is going down, what should we conclude? That greenhouse gases lead to cooling! There's no truth to anything that's being said about all this… It's a disaster, and it's all designed to get you to agree to pay higher taxes down the road. It's all about surrendering freedom and advanced lifestyles, because those are the things said to be responsible for the destruction of the Earth via the warming climate. “ (February 16, 2009 radio show.)
5 minutes of this and I’m so steamed I could kick a puppy. What’s worse, my inner skeptic has to agree with a vague offshoot of this thinking. I mean, aren’t the folks who predict global warming the same folks who predicted a 60% chance of showers last week when I got that sunburn? Meteorologists as a profession give astrologers a pretty good reputation, and I think a climatologist is just a weatherman with a Ph.D. You’ve got to admit, it’s something to consider. So I figure, let's dig a little deeper to see what conspiracies we may find! Check this out, from those whacko left-wing socialists over at the Environmental Protection Agency:
What's Known
Scientists know with virtual certainty that:
- Human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times are well-documented and understood.
- The atmospheric buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
- An “unequivocal” warming trend of about 1.0 to 1.7°F occurred from 1906-2005. Warming occurred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and over the oceans (IPCC, 2007).
- The major greenhouse gases emitted by human activities remain in the atmosphere for periods ranging from decades to centuries. It is therefore virtually certain that atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will continue to rise over the next few decades.
- Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations tend to warm the planet.
What's Very Likely?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" (IPPC, 2007). In short, a growing number of SCIENTIFIC ANALYSES INDICATE, BUT CANNOT PROVE (my caps - CM), that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are contributing to climate change (as theory predicts). In the coming decades, scientists anticipate that as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise, average global temperatures and sea levels will continue to rise as a result and precipitation patterns will change.
What's Not Certain?
Important scientific questions remain about how much warming will occur, how fast it will occur, and how the warming will affect the rest of the climate system including precipitation patterns and storms. Answering these questions will require advances in scientific knowledge in a number of areas:
- Improving understanding of natural climatic variations, changes in the sun's energy, land-use changes, the warming or cooling effects of pollutant aerosols, and the impacts of changing humidity and cloud cover.
- Determining the relative contribution to climate change of human activities and natural causes.
- Projecting future greenhouse emissions and how the climate system will respond within a narrow range.
- Improving understanding of the potential for rapid or abrupt climate change.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/index.html#cite1
SO THERE IT IS!!! RUSH IS RIGHT!!! "SCIENCE ANALYSES INDICATE, BUT CANNOT PROVE!!!" No matter, I figure that given the stakes, I’m giving 
that rascally Al Gore the benefit of the doubt. Look at it this way - if we could project ourselves 50 years into the future, which side of the debate would you rather have to admit that, “Dang, I guess maybe I was wrong!!”
Ironically, scientists have recently found that Rush Limbaugh is one of todays largest producers of greenhouse gas.
