This is an insult to our intelligence. We all know that before the curse of humanity – and especially prior to industrialization – the Earth was a pacific place, where birds sang and fish swam and there was love and liberty, serenity and solidarity, and the lion lay down with the lamb.
Continuing with this weather cycle con, we’re also told that between 1550 and 1920 there was a “Little Ice Age,” a time that saw increased glaciation in the Alps. We can easily put the lie to this, however, for during part of this period CO2 levels were rising, yet, we are to believe that temperatures were dropping?
Conversely, it’s also said that there were times when CO2 levels dropped but temperature increased. It is to laugh.
Even the government is in on this charade. We know that anthropogenic glacial melt-off will cause rising sea levels that will inundate Florida and other low-lying regions, such as the Netherlands (don’t you realize our inaction could result in the destruction of the prostitution and drug capital of the world?). So, right on cue, the National Park Service claims that during glacial periods Florida’s sea level was as much as three-hundred feet lower than today, and during the peak of interglacial ones it was one-hundred feet higher. This, all without man’s influence? Poppycock! I bet these are probably the same people who tell us 98 percent of Renaissance painters were white males and that the US wasn’t founded by anti-Christian, ACLU lawyers.
Then, I found pro-plant propaganda being disgorged by the odious Center for Global Food Issues. These miscreants actually sing the praises of higher CO2 levels and say:
. . . a warmer planet has beneficial effects on food production. It results in longer growing seasons—more sunshine and rainfall—while summertime high temperatures change little. And a warmer planet means milder winters and fewer crop-killing frosts. . . . Infrared satellite readings show that the Earth has been getting greener since 1982, thanks apparently to increased rainfall and CO2. Worldwide, vegetative activity generally increased by 6.17 percent between 1982 and 1999—despite extended cloudiness due to the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and other well-publicized environmental stresses. . . . When dinosaurs walked the earth (about 70 to 130 million years ago), there was from five to ten times more CO2 in the atmosphere than today. The resulting abundant plant life allowed the huge creatures to thrive. . . . Based on nearly 800 scientific observations around the world, a doubling of CO2 from present levels would improve plant productivity on average by 32 percent across species.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Maurice
Let the plants scream as they die.
2 - Clavos
Famed climatologist Dr. Chick N. Little, known to be the primary author of the IPCC summary and AlGore's mentor, has her own theory about our warming atmosphere...
3 - JustOneMan
Can someone explain to me....,
Al Gore has been proven to be a pretty dim witted "fat" rich boy who never had an original idea in his head...zero credibility...why is he even being taken seriously...hes a fuckin moron!
JOM
4 - Dave Nalle
This is one of the first truly funny satire pieces I've seen in a while. Great job.
And JoM. Al Gore isn't stupid. Most of the people who believe strongly in human agency in Global Warming aren't stupid either. One of the great mysteries of human nature is that people who are otherwise relatively intelligent can believe the stupidest things in the world when self-interest deludes them or when they believe that they won't be perceived as intelligent or part of the right group if they don't play along.
Dave
5 - moonraven
Good piece!
Is it possible that the main reason that the Bush Gang has denied climate change is because THEY want to be the ones in control of the FEAR FACTOR?
Look how they can dehumanize folks when their minion, Tony Blair, trots out those 22 Pakistanis on his payroll and claims they were going to blow planes to kingdom come with waterbombs. Millions of folks waited in lines at the airports, missed their flights, lost their luggage, cried when their duty free items were tossed in the garbage by overstuffed security stiffs.
They don't want to see that kind of control slip through their fingers.
And why not give the go-ahead to those BIG OIL folks that offered all the scientists in the panel on climate change 10 grand to sell out? Cheap at 10 times the price.
6 - Baronius
Heh. Triffids.
7 - Dave Nalle
How did I know that Moonraven would be the first person to not get the satire of this piece...
Dave
8 - SHARK
Duke: "There's actually a civilization of greedy little green industrialists on the red planet, who drive SUVs, heat their saucers with mahogany and teak, smoke fine cigars and are mean to children and old people."
"Satire" for morons.
====
Vox on Nalle: "Of the characters in The Magnificent Seven, the picture unquestionably looks most like the Robert Vaughn character."
Nalle on Vox: "I've seen figures similar to the ones Vox quotes."
Vox on links HE provided (as Nalle): "The claim that this article is 'GOP spin' is an interesting one, since it seems to be based on reports direct from Iraqis inside Iraq if you follow the links."
"Liars -- when they speak the truth -- are not believed." -- Aristotle
9 - Lumpy
Damned funny. I was impressed by how long and on how many points you could keep the mockery going.
The unconscious self-parody of some of the commentors was almost as sweet.
10 - moonraven
People have the right to respond to a satirical piece any way they damn feel like.
At least this poster is not doing so on her employer's time....
11 - Clavos
Obviously moonraven didn't read the author's bio...
12 - JustOneMan
Good point Nailee....Gore is still an asshole
JOM
13 - moonraven
Yes, I read the author's bio.
Unlike you, I am not a knee-jerk bigot. I actually read what folks write and make up my mind about the content.
14 - moonraven
Gore was at least an ELECTED "asshole".
15 - Clavos
Not in Florida he wasn't, even after several non-partisan recounts.
16 - Bliffle
The human animal can only have developed, whether through Gods Plan or Darwinian Evolution, on a planet favored by the right mix of environmental materials and long term environmental stability to sustain incubation. Accompanied, of course, by various modest short term instabilities to encourage variation.
So here we humans are. Though we are relatively primitive yet (despite our constant attempts to grab all the glory for our own species and declare ourselves to have Dominion Over All The Earth and All Gods Creatures) our intelligence has run amuck and allowed us to create destructive capabilities well beyond our ability to constrain our own appetites.
Left to our own devices we would surely destroy every living thing on this little green planet, possibly with HBombs, possibly with some dreadful germ or fungus (whose name we may not even know today but is being developed in our laboratories) or some other criminal genocide.
And surely we are incapable of constraining our own appetites to avert a disaster with our own feeble morals and weak wills. Of course many 'prophets' and 'seers' and 'messiahs', etc., come forward with this same warning, but soon they announce that THEY themselves have the answer, and it starts with eliminating all opposition, especially the heretics who would oppose them. If some character comes forward with a plan which employs peacefulness and no retribution we quickly pronounce him An Enemy Of the State and assassinate him.
Whether one believes in evolution or ID it is clear that humans are an aberrant creature whose menace outweighs it's usefulness, and therefore will be extinguished in due time, perhaps through a catyclism, perhaps a Silent Killer.
So it's heartening to think mankind will be either destroyed or reduced to a very low state, too low to commit more major crimes, by the simple process of global warming (or even global freezing) which will destroy the menace of humans while leaving enough flora and fauna to keep the ecosphere vital and ready for a future, more deserving, form of brainy life.
17 - Baronius
"it is clear that humans are an aberrant creature whose menace outweighs it's usefulness"
Huh? How is that clear? What menace? what use? Back to George Carlin's old routine, maybe the Earthmother decided that she needed styrofoam, and that's why we're here.
18 - moonraven
As my alter-ego, Sun Raven, says:
Your species has consistently mistaken being at the top of the food chain for being superior.
19 - JustOneMan
Hey moonraven how can you still be counting chads and dimples while the seas are rising...shouldnt you be building an ark or something?
JOM
20 - moonraven
I have made it very clear that I am buying up all the (soon to be) beachfront property in Nebraska.
21 - JR
Vox on Nalle: "Of the characters in The Magnificent Seven, the picture unquestionably looks most like the Robert Vaughn character."
Nalle on Vox: "I've seen figures similar to the ones Vox quotes."
Nalle on Duke: "This is one of the first truly funny satire pieces I've seen in a while. Great job.
Hmmm...
22 - Baronius
Clavos, that was pretty quick. I usually like to rain on the Gore 2000 parade, but you got there in 2 minutes. Sweet.
23 - Matthew T. Sussman
Old 'n busted: Intelligent design
New hotness: Global warming
24 - Arch Conservative
"Gore was at least an ELECTED "asshole"."
No, he wasn't.
25 - alessandro nicolo
Funny piece. Acid Rain was the big thing in my day. I remember we had to write papers about how we were all going to lose our hair and that Reagan was at the root of it. Then I grew up.