Global Ideologing

Re Op-Ed Columnist: It's Too Late for Later by Thomas L. Friedman in today's NY Times:

Once again, Tom strikes out. Tom was a big advocate of invading Iraq. Tom is a big advocate of globalization. Tom's new big issue is "global warming". Why quotes? Because Tom uses newspeak instead of saying "global warming created by mankind". That, after all, is what the "global warming" cultists mean when they speak of "global warming".

Remember: no one even knows if we are in a warming phase, since geological time is so long compared to the duration of fads, or the lives of humans. And, if the earth is in a warming phase, we do not know why.

One of the ironies in Tom's stupid column is that Tom is now blaming globalization for global warming. Tom has no shame! "Indeed, today’s global economy has become like a monster truck with the gas pedal stuck, and we’ve lost the key — so no one can stop it from wiping out more and more of the natural world, no matter what the global plan."

Now, if Tom really cares about preserving forests and biodiversity (forget about his blather about global warming), then he should advocate a new world policeman (not the U.S., thank you) to give Jakarta an ultimatum: stop deforestation, or we (the World Police) will bomb you.

Global Warming in Greenland

Re Warming Revives Flora and Fauna in Greenland by Sarah Lyall in today's NY Times:

Quote from article:

Greenland, a self-governing province of Denmark, was settled by the pugilistic Viking Erik the Red in the 10th century, after his murderous ways got him ejected from Iceland. Legend has it that he called it Greenland as a way to entice others to join him, and, in fact, it was.

It was relatively green then, with forests and fertile soil, and the Vikings grew crops and raised sheep for hundreds of years. But temperatures dropped precipitously in the so-called Little Ice Age, which began in the 16th century, the Norse settlers died out and agriculture was no longer possible.

End quote.

So, the earth has cooled a lot since the 16th century. Amazing! Also, the article points out many benefits of the current warming trend.

Wars, Global Warming, and Tom Friedman

Re Op-Ed Columnist: Did We Do That? by Thomas L. Friedman in today's NY Times:

There he goes again, trying to hype a problem that he may be more responsible for than the average American.

Let me stipulate (just for the sake of argument) that there is a global warming phenomenon, that it is bad, and that it is caused mainly by human behavior. That is really what Tom's column is about.

Well, I wish someone could tell us what percent of human-produced greenhouse gases, notably CO2, are produced by wars, and then break that down to show the contribution of our War on Iraq. After all, militaries burn a lot of fossil fuels during wartime, besides the gases released during explosions.

What does this have to do with Friedman? Well, he was an early and ardent advocate for invading Iraq. As his colleague Maureen Dowd would say, Q.E.D.

Global Warming

Few items are more hyped by politicians and the news media than so-called global warming.

I doubt if most of the "hypers" know even the scientific basics about climate change.

I laugh when I see tables and charts purporting to show average temperatures over millions of years. While it is within the scope of modern science to estimate average temperatures going back that far, I question the precision of the temperatures in those data bases (unless the cavemen had very accurate thermometers around the world, and recorded those temperatures).

I am in favor of cleaning up the environment. I also favor switching from fossil fuels to nuclear power.

I just wish "global warming" was not hyped as a crisis, since our scientific understanding of climate is in its infancy. Scientists should not put forward as science ideas which are mainly political.