Inaction Saves Glacier

In yet another astounding way, inaction seems to have yet again helped the climate.

Doing absolutely nothing has now saved the Himalayan glaciers from extinction!:

The UN’s top climate change body has issued an unprecedented apology over its flawed prediction that Himalayan glaciers were likely to disappear by 2035.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said yesterday that the prediction in its landmark 2007 report was “poorly substantiated” and resulted from a lapse in standards.

The IPCC assured this is an isolated incident of inaction having such a remarkable affect on climate. However, it could not rule out future inactions having further positive affects on the climate as well. With this announcement, inaction is now credited with a far greater affect on future climate than all to-date action combined.

Global Yawn

In the latest Pew poll, global warming ranks dead last among people's priorities for 2009. Not only does that mean my prediction for 2008 was even more successful than even I dared imagine, it also means global warming is as dead as a doornail, despite the left's scare mongering over the last eight years.

Also, despite assurances from the left that the terrorism "scare" was made up neo-con nonsense, it remains a top five concern, along with the economy, jobs, education, and Social Security.

It's always heart-warming to learn the people aren't as stupid as the left gives them credit for.

Everybody Some People Love Polar Bears

Big news on the polar bear front. Via Riehl World View, remember that incredibly vivid image of starving polar bears stranded on the iceberg with nothing to eat and nowhere to go?

Amanda Byrd, an Australian graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), says she took the picture around three years ago - in the summer. The photograph was not ‘taken by environmentalists’ but as part of a field trip with the university.

Makes you wonder how many other "undeniable images of global warming" are nothing more than pictures taken in the spring and summer of the year, doesn't it?

In other polar bear news, never mind that polar bears are "endangered," they would be better off dead than raised by humans.

Says Dan Riehl: I don't think I've ever seen anything else that makes it so clear, the animal rights crowd doesn't love animals nearly as much as it hates humans - and almost by definition, themselves.

How Do You Like Your Bear?

Daniel Clark notices that global warming theory always seems to attack primarily "guy" endeavors; steaks, lawn mowers, charcoal grills, etc:

...the global warming movement seeks to repress guyhood in order to perpetuate itself. If a guy is shown a picture of a sad-looking polar bear adrift on an ice floe, his first thought will be something like, "I've heard that bear steaks are tough, but maybe if you marinated them in beer, they'd turn out all right." At that point, the alarmists' emotional ploy is foiled. In a world without guy stuff, however, his vacant mind may be invaded by irrationalities like, "Who will take care of the polar bears' children?"

Bear marinated in beer. Mmmm.

Science Irrelevant

Once again, polar bear denialism rears its ugly head:

A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.

So what, says denialist Andrew Derocher of the WCU:

"To say that bear populations are growing in one area now is irrelevant."

Interesting. When polar bear populations are shown to be shrinking in "one area" it is so relevant that the entire species needs to be placed on the endangered list. Of course, if populations are proven to be growing, the only thing endangered would be Derocher's new-found "credibility" on the subject.

Public Indoctrination

At right is what is passing for global warming education in sixth grade. Just skip right past any discussion of science and head right for the propoganda. The tiny caption reads:

A polar bear tries to hold its ground on the melting sea ice in Svalbard, Norway.

Call me crazy, it looks like a healthy polar bear just standing around. If it's holding its ground, it doesn't appear to be having to try very hard.

Here's a link to the cover story, "Feeling the Heat - Polar bears are suffering in a warmer world." There is no mention of any conflicting science based on a much larger study group.

Completely without shame, the cover also features "U.S. - A wicked snowstorm" in the upper right corner.

In a classic public education response to the fear-mongering of Times For Kids, GD3 has to write an essay on what she would do to help stop global warming. When I got home she was quite excited about it and asked for my help. Naturally I was more than happy to oblige and provided her with a bunch of information, helped her understand it, and assisted in putting it all together. When we were finished she said, "Hey Dad, do you want to put this on your blog?"

My, what a great idea:

By: Grave Disappointment 3
2/28/07

Global Warming is Natural

In my opinion, there is nothing you can do to prevent global warming. Global warming, or whatever you want to call it is a natural cycle, we have no effect/power over it. For example, a long time ago, there was something called the Medieval Warm Period. It was much warmer than it is today and it couldn't possibly have been caused by humans. Back then, we weren't driving SUV's or gas guzzlers like that. There was also no electricity to cause it.

There is also little or no proof to prove that global warming is now any different from Medieval times. Scientists have also been wrong before, when they predicted in the 70's that humans were causing a new ice age, or when they said the earth was flat in ancient times.*

Many climate experts are now questioning the science of man made global warming. One expert, Dr. Richard Lindzen of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has called it the greatest scientific hoax ever. Another climatologist and professor, Timothy Ball, wrote, “We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification.”

As human beings, we should stop believing we have power over nature. The more we try to change it, the more possible it is that we'll cause more damage than good.

Because the earth warms and cools on its own, causing ice ages and warm periods, there is no way we can prevent global warming.

Rest assured the essay's grade will be passed on to you as soon as I learn it.

UPDATE: *As per Alan's point, GD3 has edited her assignment to read "ancient times" instead of "1600s." That change has been made here as well.

UPDATE: See grade update here.

When a Picture Says Nothing At All

In most cases a picture says a thousand words. In others, they say absolutely nothing whatsoever:

They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming.

Captured on film by Canadian environmentalists, the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken ice.

When you dry your eyes, realize that they aren't stranded. In fact, polar bears, a semi-aquatic marine mammal, are excellent swimmers. But somehow that fact doesn't play into the Daily Mail's headline, "Global warming sees polar bears stranded on melting ice."

Call it creative license, justified when polar bears could be extinct at any moment:

Studies of polar bears have revealed that not only have their numbers declined – by nearly one quarter in just 20 years to around 25,000 – but so has their physique.

Well, one study found that anyway. Other, much more complete, studies have shown that there are actually more bears than 40 years ago:

A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain concluded that the ice bear populations "may now be near historic highs." One of the leading experts on the polar bear, Mitchell Taylor, the manager of wildlife resources for the Nunavut territory in Canada, has found that the Canadian polar bear population has actually increased by 25% -- to 15,000 from 12,000 over the past decade.

Then again, it could be that very prosperity causing global warming.

In other warming news: The French waste no time laying claim to American prosperity. As we shall see, the international answer to global warming will be to impose taxes on the U.S. American greenbacks, apparently, make an excellent warmening insulator.

In other, other warming news: The Gore Effect is doubled when Will Steger comes to town.