You can tell it’s a slow week at the ski areas, because I received more emails responding about my comments in yesterday’s stories alluding to the record warm temperatures back in the 30s than I did about any other subject. I commit to you that I do not PURPOSELY attempt to jerk anyone’s chain about "Global Warming" but I just can’t help hear the chants of " baaaa, baaaa" everytime I get an email venting to me about how wrong I am. (baaa, baaa, by the way is the sound a sheep makes!)
The obligatory response that I tend to get flooded with are people who want to berate me personally for my "not wanting to keep our Earth clean" or "not wanting to CLEAN UP the Earth". Maybe I have not made myself as clear as I should have in the past, although I think that I am reasonably talented at being able to convey a point. However, in case I have not previously been clear enough, let me state:
I think that it a GOOD idea to do what you can to keep our planet clean, etc. On that I agree 100% with every Global Warming enthusiast. On that point, by crakky (using one of the late Steve Irwin of the Croc Hunter’s terms), I AM A TREE HUGGER MYSELF.
Another thing that I want to clear up that seems to come up regularly from those that email-berate me is that I am no Rush Limbaugh. I have no dillusions of such, nor would I care to be. I am simply a very small fish in a very small "spoon" of water. If there are those of you who read this stuff that want to give me enough credit to read this column daily…or if there are those that want to give me enough credit to berate my opinions, then good for you…and good for me too. But Rush Limbaugh I am not. I don’t listen to the show (although I used to years ago) because I tire easily of the same rhetoric day in and day out…no matter which side of the legislative isle it comes from. I happen to be an American first and a Republican second and while I don’t agree with everything that republicans say, I have philosophical reasons why I could never vote for a democrat. Hopefully I can quell the Rush Limbaugh comments.
Now that I have vented on this very slow Thursday…I want to comment on the emails I received today, berating me for my stance on Global Warming.
THE EARTH IS NOW COOLING! REALLY IT IS!
It’s funny, to my knowledge I have never written anything about Global Warming enthusiasts and went into a name-calling tirade, blasting all believers in that theory as liars, slanderers, fools, idiots or anything else. Yet I am (and I quote):
an idiot
creep
moron
stupid
uneducated
robot
mindless robot
right-winged
Bible toting
wannabe writer
blind follower
southerner (not sure if this one’s supposed to be a put down)
So I wonder if those peaceful, gentle, warm, tree hugging, Global Warming enthusiast are not a bit hypocrital.
Regardless, after I filtered out all of the garbage within the emails that I received, there WAS some good content that I would like to rebutt. Also, congrats to the young man named "Jeremiah" who found that he was able convey HIS thoughts without the need to call me anything more than a "naysayer". Way to go Jeremiah!
Here’s my rebuttal…and comment.
Several wrote that I should SHOW PROOF of "my side" to the argument. I respond: In much the same way that you posed the "show me proof" comment… I can tell you that NOBODY has shown actual proof that the earth is IN FACT warming. I know you will argue that they have, but they have not. There ARE certainly some scientists who ARE CLAIMING evidence to that effect, and there are people like you who are jumping on that bandwagon. What MANY know but seem willing to ignore is that MANY of the same scientist who are TODAY showing "proof" of the earth’s warming…were IN FACT showing "proof" that the earth was cooling just 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, many people realize but also seem to ignore that many (if not all) of these scientists are on grant money and without preaching these "gospels" that they themselves privately question…they would be without income. THERE IS evidence of this fact.
You and others can claim that eight of the hottest winters ever have been in the last ten years, etc, etc…but I can tell you that there are MANY scientists who would tell you otherwise. Weather "history" does not go back more than a century so for all of the supposed data that provides "evidence", too often that is based on data that is only a decade or two old.
Regardless of who is right or wrong I agree that the world could do with a lot less manmade heat blasting into the atmosphere…so let’s advocate that they do something that could REALLY help — like grounding all airplanes, jets, airliners and the Shuttle missions. ONE Boeing Jet blasts out more of a "carbon footprint" in ONE flight than all of the automobiles and trucks in Greenville, SC in the same day. Ground them all except emergency, life saving missions and we’d not have to worry about hundreds of thousands of cities EVERY DAY. Yea!!!!
Wait, that would not be convenient would it. But if we REALLY want to save the world, let’s make it happen.
"The other side" makes suggestions that are JUST that silly. Open your mind and see that emissions of coal burning during the 1890s into 1900 created FAR worse of a carbon footprint than we do today (of course outside if the airline industry). You know, come to think of it – THEY ARE the culprit. Let’s lobby that we shut down the airline industry and space shuttle missions and see how fast the politicians start going to the other side and saying that the current batch of scientists are wrong. Coincidentally, a group of scientists will then start showing up claiming that we’re in a turn…and that it appears the earth is showing signs of cooling again.
Come to think of it, my grandmother (God Rest Her Soul) used to to tell me every time she heard that one of the NASA missions took off that they were the cause for all of the bad weather that would happen shortly after. Maybe grandma should have received a grant.
The bottom line is people…I believe in doing our part to help make for a better planet…but for all of those who want to stay on the Global Warming train I have two words for you — GRANT MONEY!
Some of you 20 and 30-somethings will be around in a few years. Remember to get up with me when you find out that those of us who are not passengers on your particular train were right.
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