For a lot of people these days, the effective answer to the usually rhetorical question above appears to be, “No — I’d like it to be colder, thank you very much.”

This is a point the absurdity of which is very well illustrated in David Deming’s column from yesterday’s Washington Times, “Year of global cooling.”

Along with detailing examples of damaging and record-setting cold weather which has hit various places across the world during 2007, from South America to Korea, he writes the following about sunny Kaleefawnya and some other spots in the U.S.:

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina’s peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina’s apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver’s temperature records extend back to 1872.

Again: one and a half billion dollars worth of damage is done to crops in California by extreme cold, and meanwhile the governor of that state moves full steam ahead on measures which — if they were to achieve ultimate success — would encourage more such freezes. That is the reality, after all. If you want to fight temperature increases, then you by definition either want the average temperature to remain the same or to decrease. As much as man-made global warming skeptics and deniers (like yours-truly) think that the idea of being able to cool the planet through carbon taxes and such is vain, reckless and ridiculous, that is its goal, i.e., to prevent the climate from getting any warmer, and presumably to actually cool it from where it is now, in order to counteract the already-awful effects on polar bears and the like that we are constantly being bombarded with in the media.

It is a bizarre state of affairs when political leaders are basing policies that will affect millions not on the evidence that is in front of their eyes but on unproven scientific theories instead.

Pursuant to that, you also might want to browse this U.S. Senate report (from the minority side, of-course) which details over 400 scientists who have raised questions to one degree or another about the supposedly indisputable prevailing wisdom of man-made global warming.

Meanwhile, it will soon be time to start hoarding incandescent light bulbs, and/or planning on how to deal with the hazardous waste that compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) generate in your house when you accidentally break them. The passage of the new energy conservation bill reminds me on a certain level of the “immigration reform” episode earlier this year. Congress, and the President, thought they could just come to an agreement on immigration and seal it all up before the unwashed masses got to chime in, and they very nearly succeeded. In this case, they did succeed. Did anyone ask you or me if we want to switch over the lighting in our residences to all fluorescent bulbs, all the time? What do you think the average Joe would say to that? I mean, there are reasons we’re not doing it already, reasons that have to do with our preferences. I’ve tried CFLs, and haven’t liked them enough to switch over. Well, forget about what I like, obviously. Thou shalt use fluorescent light, saith the government, and that is that. Just wait until — God forbid — we have an administration in Washington that is truly gung-ho on this climate change malarkey. Just considering the possibilities ought to be truly disturbing.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Getting warmer
• Now He’s Really Lost It
• Getting Warmer