Schroedinger's Global Warming Cat

In-The-Bag/Out-Of-The-Bag Doublethink

George Orwell described "Doublethink" as the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time and believe both of them. The world of real science finally seems to be waking up to such realities as CO₂ not playing a major role in warming, warming cycles preceding CO₂ releases and not vice versa, and climate change being a natural phenomenon that has been happening for thousands of years and will continue to do so--see, for example, here, here , here, and here. Nevertheless, political trumpeters and the media carry on harping the scare line and pushing ever-more-costly measures that, even if the allegations were real, are universally acknowledged as incapable of making any meaningful difference anyway. Like Erwin Schroedinger's dead -and-alive variety, the cat seems to be out of the bag and yet still in the bag at the same time. Why? Money. Surprised? In a nutshell, the eminences of ethics and intellect to whom people have entrusted the running of the world's democracies have demonstrated such financial incompetence and irresponsibility that they're desperate for income to plug the dyke until it becomes somebody else's problem. Which means raising taxes. And the world has been set up to believe that any sacrifice--read being taken to the cleaners--is worth it if it means saving the planet. Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, spells it out in All About Green at FrontPageMag.com.

Some Global Warming notes, while passing:

Scientists denounce sea-level fears: http://freedom.org/news/200709/25/morano.phtml Quote: "Rarely have I read such a collection of unsubstantiated and scare- mongering twaddle. Not only do real studies show no increase to rate of sea level change, the [AP] article gives reasons for concern that are nonsense."

Global Warming is making the Atlantic less salty: http://www.livescience.com/environment/050629_fresh_water.html

Global Warming is making the Atlantic more salty: http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12528&feedId=online-news_rss20

Black-throated and red-throated divers are recovering in numbers in Scotland thanks to some artificial floating rafts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6980 265.stm. However, this being a nature story there has to be a climate change angle. Sure enough, at the end we find fears that the numbers of red-throated divers might drop due to warming of the North Sea reducing stocks of the fish they feed on. On the other hand, the black-throated diver could also be at risk in the future, despite the recent increases, if climate change causes loch temperatures to rise, and the small fish that they feed on grow too large to eat.

One can only be grateful that in the last few million years climate hasn't varied by anything like the horrendous changes we're seeing today, which would have been beyond the ability of creatures like these, polar bears, and maybe even all life on the planet to survive.

British yachtsman who counted on global warming to cross Arctic trapped in ice.