Ben’s AGWM Article

(Blake’s note: This is my brother’s article and words and I agree completely with it and them.)

So I thought it would be fun (fun being my word for frustrating, headache inducing, teeth grinding hours of work – which is why I always say sex is so much fun, as is being a NY Giants fan) to try and tackle the Anthropogenic Global Warming Movement (AGWM) and its messiah Al Gore or as South Park so wisely named it Man Bear Pig:

Now before you call me a “denier” or “sexist capitalistic republican tree murdering polar bear strangling monster” I would like to point out in my defense I am what I call a humanist environmentalist – (and I actually voted for Gore in 2000 – oy vey – more on that another time).  I believe in protecting the environment for the purpose of leaving us a world in which man has the freedom to achieve his fullest potential.  That means do not poison the water with chemicals (no one needs another Cleveland), national parks are a great thing; perhaps instead of chopping down old growth forests use tree farms, dirty air is foulness (live in LA like I do and you know what a problem that is), evolution has created a nature that requires balance hence protecting species to maintain diversity is a good thing – basically try our best to live in some sort of harmony with the environment that we evolved in.  BUT – I am a humanist first.  I put the life of a single person above all else.  Its easy to tell someone that their means of transportation; acquiring food and energy consumption are not mother earth safe when your primary goal each day is not worrying about where your next meal comes from.  I wish the same passion I see people put into AGWM would go towards helping alleviate global poverty and the all the horrors that extend from it – and such as ethnic cleansing and death from diseases that have been wiped out in the developed world for around fifty years.

Remember as you read this and the vitriol fills you and the desire to flame us grows:

Consensus is not scientific fact: Or to quote Tommy Lee Jones (Harvard classmate of Al Gore) from the historical documentary Men In Black : A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.

In the spirit of the holidays, I want to arm you all against those who mock you for not towing the party line.  So we begin with what everyone tells us is the only environmental choice for future cars – the hybrid/plug in vehicle.

Once again we visit the genius of Trey Parker and Matt Stone for a little inspiration:

Let me just say it now: Hybrids or any car using a nickel or lithium ion battery are not good for the environment.  The problem here is people generally do not usually deep dive into the details of how things come to be, they say  “my hybrid gets 50mpg so its clearly better for environment then that stinky Hummer!” (no, Hummers just suck for being ugly giant penis extenders – another conversation) well folks your Napoleonic complex suffering neighbor’s Hummer is just as “clean” as your Prius (Be warned Science Content Ahead).

But, what of the plug-in electric car?  I mean how could Who Killed The Electric Car be wrong?  Documentaries are always truthful… right? Sure you might not spew gas fumes (which are pretty clean of pollutants these days) but where does that power from our grid come?  Rainbows and bunny farts?  Nope, good ole dirty cheap coal:

So what should you drive if you really care about the environment and not appearing to care about the environment? A three-cylinder, 49-horsepower 1994 Geo Metro XFi:

Wired explains why a little more

But you say, “I love Joe Biden and want to be one of his patriots so I need to pay taxes on new purchases not cheap old stuff.” What is the best choice in a new car though?  Clean Diesel.  Look even media environmentalists agree.

Or you can be super special and drive the Ed Begley Jr. car.

“You know who cared about Global Warming?  Al Gore and the bong water brigade – that’s who!” – Wendell Stamps Frisky Dingo Season 2.

For a great satire on the politics of Global Warming and politics at large I highly recommend immediate viewing of Frisky Dingo Season 2.   (This came out before the last election)

AGWM members, like all rational people, engaged in debate will scream out and drown any counter argument by claiming they have science on their side.  “SCIENCE,” they say, just like Christians Jews and Muslims love to yell how GOD is on their side.   Unquestionable faith is a most dangerous thing.  I agree that we definitely have not been the best stewards of the planet at times, but as I think we all have learned from this recession and listening to the supposed economic “experts” you should always be wary of a man bearing models.  The old saying garbage in, garbage out is quite pertinent – especially when one understands how the “facts” that the world is heating are not necessarily based on direct observable evidence but observations put through a constantly changing model.

This is the model used by the IPCC (take your time, like all government studies the writers were paid by the word).

So Carbon Dioxide is the enemy.  Or is it?  MIT would like to point out that we have barely scratched the surface of understanding how CO2 effects cloud physics – it probably actually has a higher cooling factor then warming factor (Warning Science Content).

This comes out of Richard Lindzen’s MIT Professor on Meteorology work.  Here in his most recent essay he puts AGW claims of CO2 as causing a green house effect in the same hall of fame that houses Bernard Madoff , Teapot Dome, and Dutch Tulip investments.

In what can only be described as the greatest mismatch since Muhammaed Ali fought a box of abandoned kittens, Larry King had Bill Nye – The Science Guy debate Richard Lindzen on global warming.

Also MIT sponsored a very balanced debate on what we should learn from the “Climategate” email scandal.  As it was a balanced debate you can see it was quite well attended, apparently no credit for attendance was being awarded.  Richard Lindzen kicks ass again (I’m falling in love…I can’t help it, his calm voice soothingly dismantling the AGW movement with the precision of Zorro).

“But,” you say, “the ice caps are melting, mount Kilimanjaro doesn’t have a frosty top, hurricane Katrina! Hurricane Katrina!”

But remember high school science class? And that thing called the scientific method?

Be careful of step 2: Affirming the consequent.  Especially if step 2 is being pitched by underpants gnomes.

Skepticism and always questioning is the key point here.  Remember it’s a question of Anthropogenic Warming (not that the earth is not warming, but that its caused by man and therefore we need exceptional government regulation to control) that we are discussing, the world itself naturally goes through heating and cooling phases.  You know Ice Ages.  Here are your last 400,000 years courtesy of some ice cores:

Funny that looks similar to this:

Back to AGWM here are some counterviews to how step 2 is not caused by Man Bear Pig.

Oh we just came out of an ice age, and you wondered why you can’t skate the Thames anymore.

Well just because the observed evidence doesn’t fit the hypothesis doesn’t mean we can’t make it still serve our purposes.

Damn nature and all her complexity.

Finally we come to the messiah of the AGWM movement, resident amateur scientist Al Gore – who has a degree in government (bachelors of arts no less) but lucky for us all he took a course in college for that allusive sophomore science credit back in 1968.

Of course while preaching about how we all have to be super serious environmentalists he maintained a huge mansion that consumed 20x the standard power consumption of the avg. American.

Look I could go on and on about this schmuck – and …I will.

Al pretends to be a scientist, but more like a religious nut he refuses to debate, Apparently he does not have time for the scientific method.

Bjorn Lomborg is another one of the rational thinkers out there who drives AGWM peeps nuts, because he wants us to focus instead on things we know we can fix like poverty, hunger and disease.

Here he calmly debates Paul Krugman – an Al Gore nobel prize winning buddy but at least willing to step in the ring – who is part of the asshole factor in politics, those are members of far left and far right who rely on insults and childish behavior when debating someone of an opposing view.  Like a NY Giants fan debating a Dallas Cowboys fan on whose team is better, facts are rarely mentioned.  Krugman quickly insults Lomborg’s integrity, but Bjorn thankfully doesn’t bite.

I guess by Gore logic, AGW is even less open to debate than Newton’s Laws of Gravity and Neil Bohrs and Richard Feinstein were bad scientists, and Einstein should have stayed a patent clerk.

Some other guys who were pretty damn sure their critics had no leg to stand on.

Also Al Gore and his wife Tipper are also violators of to me the most sacred of sacred truths in my atheistic humanist religion – Censorship in any form is the most evil of evils.  Only fascists who wish to control how you think believe in such things and don’t you pretend that liberals can’t be fascists just like their right wing nut job brothers.  (This is part of my political spectrum is a circle not a line – another time)

For those of you who weren’t around in the 80s a little reminder, The Tipper Sticker:

Censorship of any type disgusts me. And it disgusted our founding fathers hence the reason that the 1^st amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is about free speech.

So what is the AGWA/Al Gore movement really about?  I think Charles Krauthammer gets it right, to a point.  (I will write on the genius of Charles Krauthammer someday soon – and on the evils of Paul Krugman)

Finally as it is the holiday season (and I wrote this on Christmas Eve/Day) – and because you got through this all I have to give you respect.  Enjoy what was voted in 2004 as the greatest Xmas song by a UK band – the amazing Irish Folk/Punk band the Pogues (If you don’t know them you need too, and if you don’t listen to classic English Punk you need too now!):

In the spirit of the holidays remember to give thanks for all you have and help those who give more then they’ve received: USA Cares.