Hey, kids, M. McGregor's back! And he's crankier than usual! Is that even possible?
Warning: If you want to go on living your life believing that A) anthropogenic global warming is a hoax and B) that M. McGregor might have a shred of respect for you, then you might want to just skip past this entry right now and save us both the heartache.
I'm poking my head up out of my winter hibernation of pain and misery to say this:
If any one of you out there at any point in the last week said of the recent major snowstorm to blow through most of the eastern United States, "Huh! So much for global warming!" then you make truly sad.
I'm not making a joke here. It seriously saddens me. It makes my stomach hurt and it makes me feel a true kind of physical depression. I have seen this not only presented as a valid argument against global warming, but I have seen droves of people slapping each other on the back and guffawing at how stupid "liberals" (because apparently only liberals believe in science) are to believe in global warming. "After all, it's snowing outside, so how warm could it be? Bwa ha ha! Come, let us build a series of smokestacks in the form of a giant middle finger, then pump out carbon emissions from those smokestacks as a giant 'fuck you' to science, reason, and rationality."
PS: If you get the urge to start saying things like "CRU e-mails!" and "climategate", then I am first going to suggest you at least do the very easiest thing there is to do when researching anything and read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy . Then I am going to point out to you that not only did three independent investigations find the CRU had not done anything scientifically untoward, but you yourself can also read the e-mails and use just a tiny bit of what is sometimes called "rational judgment" to come to the same very obvious conclusion.
If you continue to sputter "b-b-but, hockey stick graph!" then I am going to ask that you instead just say "Hey, agree to disagree" so that I won't have to lose any and all respect I might otherwise have for you. I don't want our friendship to be tarnished because I'm sick and cranky and incapable of dealing with unabashed idiocy right now.
PPS: Yeah, I'm not dead. I just look like it sometimes.
I'm poking my head up out of my winter hibernation of pain and misery to say this:
If any one of you out there at any point in the last week said of the recent major snowstorm to blow through most of the eastern United States, "Huh! So much for global warming!" then you make truly sad.
I'm not making a joke here. It seriously saddens me. It makes my stomach hurt and it makes me feel a true kind of physical depression. I have seen this not only presented as a valid argument against global warming, but I have seen droves of people slapping each other on the back and guffawing at how stupid "liberals" (because apparently only liberals believe in science) are to believe in global warming. "After all, it's snowing outside, so how warm could it be? Bwa ha ha! Come, let us build a series of smokestacks in the form of a giant middle finger, then pump out carbon emissions from those smokestacks as a giant 'fuck you' to science, reason, and rationality."
PS: If you get the urge to start saying things like "CRU e-mails!" and "climategate", then I am first going to suggest you at least do the very easiest thing there is to do when researching anything and read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy . Then I am going to point out to you that not only did three independent investigations find the CRU had not done anything scientifically untoward, but you yourself can also read the e-mails and use just a tiny bit of what is sometimes called "rational judgment" to come to the same very obvious conclusion.
If you continue to sputter "b-b-but, hockey stick graph!" then I am going to ask that you instead just say "Hey, agree to disagree" so that I won't have to lose any and all respect I might otherwise have for you. I don't want our friendship to be tarnished because I'm sick and cranky and incapable of dealing with unabashed idiocy right now.
PPS: Yeah, I'm not dead. I just look like it sometimes.