An Inconvenient Truth?

 Sometime in1967 I was sitting in the audience as a student in our junior high school assembly outdoor amphitheater. We were listening to a couple of scientists explain to us that the world was facing the possibility of another Ice Age. Admittedly I barely knew what that meant, but they had pictures and graphs and predictions from other experts that backed up everything they were saying. I don't remember anyone being particularly alarmed about the prospect and why should we be? The truth was, and is, that there was nothing we could do about it but hope to survive it. When I got home I told my mom about it and she just chuckled and said everyone has something to say about something. Over the years I've seen just how right she was. My dad had a similar reaction; they had survived the Great Depression and a major world war. They weren't about to lose their minds over something that may or may not happen in a few hundred years no matter wha the damn predictions were, don't you have homework to do? 

About three years later we started hearing about the ecology of the earth and how important is was to throw our garbage into a garbage can instead of tossing it onto the ground. And we should stop polluting rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. People laugh at the Boy Scouts and make fun of them, but because of what I learned while a Boy Scout who attained the rank of Eagle Scout how important it was to keep our environment clean I was way ahead of the game. Kids at my high school actually made fun of me for picking up trash on the ground near the garbage can and putting it inside the garbage can. I was a real square, totally under the thumb of The Man; a near total embarrassment. Before finishing high school I had written a couple of essays and conducted a study about the earth's ecosystems. The same chowder heads that were making fun of me were also telling me how important it was to stop wasting earth's resources. In those days Earth Shoes were cool, Boy Scouts was not. It didn't matter to me because I had grown tired of seeing all the trash on campus. If all it took was for some hippie wanna be professor to make it cool that was fine with me. I don't know how much money he made selling shoes, but Earth shoes were expensive and quickly became a status symbol. 

Earth Day was born and it became cool to use the trash cans instead of throwing empty cans and paper bags on the ground, which had been the cool thing to do in high school to show how rebellious you could be. After all in high school the only way to demonstrate your individuality was to be like everyone else. Like all fads Earth Day began to lose its luster and slowly faded away. It's still on the calendar every year, but very few people even know what it means anymore, they're all too busy talking about that imaginary monster; man made global warming. Not to worry though because another multi millionaire with a cause was able to publish a book called Earth in the Balance! And this book spawned a movement that has lasted over thirty years. Pretty impressive. The author was Al Gore, son of a Senator from Tennessee, who had some charisma and later became a Senator himself. Gore teamed up with a group of scientists who were trying to prove the earth was not entering a new ice age, but heating up. Not only was it heating up it was heating up at a remarkable rate and we were in danger of, I don't know, something real bad happening and the United States of America was responsible for whatever hadn't happened yet, but could easily happen if certain models created by Ph.D candidates wishing to be given prestigious professorships, turned out to be accurate. 

Of course the models were based on very little actual evidence. There does appear to be a build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last 200 years which they've turned into an imminent threat. The level of increase in the rise of CO2 also appears to have leveled off considerably during the last twenty years. People are being blamed by scientists for the phenomena they used to call man made global warming but now call climate change (It still means the same thing; greedy Americans are killing the planet). Big Al has a lot of protectors who hate it when he is accused of being wrong about anything so they quickly add that Al Gore is not a scientist so many of the predictions credited to him are actually just him regurgitating what scientists are saying. If you watch his presentations and listen to his speeches it's easy to become confused about how he is getting his information. The fact is it looks like a lot of the information is coming directly from him, which it is. 

He may only be the spokesman for the global warming alarmists, but he has made himself the face of catastrophic global warming predictions. Anyone with any sense at all is able to take a more mature look at what is going on and conclude that many of the measurements being advertised and used as tools to create a panic are probably correct. The problem is with the wild predictions that are being projected as if they either have already happened, or are going to happen in the very near future; perhaps even during the lifetime of our great, great grandchildren and no matter how you look at it if we didn't spend catastrophic amounts of money regularly beginning at least ten years ago, then even if we start now it will be too late. Well we didn't spend ruinous amounts of money ten years ago so what's the fuss. Let's enjoy life and wait for the imminent conflagration scientists are promising may, might, could, happen as soon as two hundred years from now, but certainly not more that five hundred years from now. Do yourself a favor and let that sink in for a minute. Close your eyes and consider the fact that a nuclear war is a real threat, one that will probably happen with the next twenty years. When the smoke clears how many people will there be left? I don't know but certainly fewer than there are now. And the atmosphere is going to be a real mess. Why doesn't Mother Earth commission a peer reviewed study about the effects on the atmosphere after an all out nuclear exchange. Such a study could help us keep civilization alive long enough to possibly experience the chance that there might be a period of catastrophic global warming five centuries from now. 

I very clearly remember about twenty years ago hearing at least one expert predict that if we didn't act within the next ten years and begin to implement programs to stop man made global warming it would already be too late. And it may have been thirty years ago that prediction was made. Even if Al Gore isn't a scientist, he still considers himself an expert. You don't have to be a scientist to become an expert on a subject if the studies you are relying on are accurate, and alarmists are usually pretty clear about the fact that their research is always peer reviewed like that means their predictions are bullet proof. So we are in fact already doomed. I'm pretty sure I've heard and read several times that catastrophic global warming is a fact and the science is settled. I'm no scientist either so if that's the standard that has to be used in order to form an opinion then I just have to sit back and let the panel of dictators tell me what to do and how much I have to spend if I'm going to help them save all of humanity! The main problem I have is with the predictions both past and present. I just read a paper written by one of the many United Nations panels on climate change that claims there are billions of people right now that are being displaced do to problems created by human caused caused climate change (I guess they have to stop blaming the whole thing on Americans in order to avoid them losing interest). 

They didn't say where exactly these billions of people are located, or what problems they are facing specifically. The same report claims that if the earth warms up another 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit there may be severe consequences to billions of people all over the planet and we are already on track to reach that level by 2030. That gives us seven years to do something to save ourselves. The same report offers some relief after ten years of warming. If we spend enough money on the right technology that will suck carbon emissions out of the atmosphere then there could be a cooling period for about another ten years. If we can believe our own eyes, and I think we can, since most of the models are inaccurate and some are blatant lies. The truth is there is no evidence that there will ever be catastrophic global warming. The best evidence is in our own, untrained as they are, observations. I've lived on the west of California for well over sixty years and the ocean is still where it belongs. My house is getting older, but the ocean is still a couple of hundred yards away and the yachts are still tied up at the same docks as they were seventy years ago. No has had to rebuild them to adjust for rising sea levels. 

Another fact I cannot ignore is the lifestyles of people who are telling me I have to 'tighten my belt' if everyone is going to survive. People have practically given Gore god status and he was flying around in his comfortable, air conditioned jet at pretty high speed, enjoying the good life while telling me my Jeep was making life difficult for my neighbors, who also drive a mid sized SUV. Some of my neighbors drive Mercedes 550S's while others drive comfortable BMW sedans with twelve cylinder gas guzzling engines. And still others drive similar, albeit less expensive, American made cars. The house I live in is nice, but no mansion at 1800 square feet. Still I'm the problem and not the elites in Malibu and Santa Barbara who live in homes that are at least 15,000 square feet. Some of them drive Priuses and there is a growing number of Teslas showing up which is possibly a good thing. 

The point is that another potential tipping point has been suggested, but not made absolute, by 2030 we will have reached another critical point of no return, especially if we achieve an increase of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the industrial era. Apparently there is no creep in the increase in the damage we will experience, since there has been no discernible change over the last seventy years. If we reach the feared 2.7 degrees mark I guess finally we will see a near catastrophic change beginning December 31, 2029. According to the UN the catastrophe will take about ten years to fully materialize so on December 31, 2039 most of the inhabitants of the earth will be dead or something. I hope I'm here to see what suddenly rising seas look like as sea water suddenly gushes up twenty to thirty feet on New Year's Eve and inundates all of our coastal cities and towns. I guess I better plan now and purchase a cabin on Mount Baldy or somewhere in the high desert so I can watch my house flooded from a safe distance. I would imagine perhaps finding a way to raise the level of my lot, but then the people east of me would have to do the same and presumably that would have to continue until we raised the Sierra Nevada Mountain range by at least ten to twenty thousand feet higher than they are now. I don't think that is possible so on January 1st, 2029 I'll just put my house on the market, or more likely just keep living there enjoying the ocean view and grand sunsets. I can still keep the cabin in the woods for a winter getaway. 

I've got great neighbors so we'll just plan on turning the desert into an oasis. Or maybe we'll just wait until December 31, 2029 and sit watch the ocean suddenly flood us out of our homes and moor our yachts next to each other and enjoy another beautiful sunset. I can see how a person can become delusional and fall for a story like Al Gore is pushing onto everyone, but I am surprised at the number of supposedly intelligent adults that have not only fallen for this, but are willing to make huge sacrifices in their own lives to combat a natural occurring phenomenon. Even most scientists agree that the earth has gone through some dramatic climate change over the past thousands of years. It's always recovered, mankind, womankind, transgenderkind (supposedly) has always recovered along with it. 

And their prophet sits in one of his many mansions sipping his favorite twenty thousand dollar bottle of wine after returning from one of his propaganda tours on his private jet, and basking in the adoration of his many peasants. Apparently democrats have watered down our education system so much that people believe that Chicken Little is a true story and the  boy who boldly pointed  out that the Emperor was naked was just a lying little trouble maker. People are literally scared out of their minds by this, apparently completely unable to trust their own senses. 

Be brave! I've been watching and listening to this drivel for about forty years. I never believed it from the beginning and I still don't. Of course we need to keep our environment clean and make sure we are wise stewards of the earth's resources. What we don't need is to spread the disease of fear and apprehension and distrust and hate. If you can't afford an electric car that's ok and it shouldn't ever be anyone's job to intentionally raise the price of gasoline just to force people with less money that they have to ride a bus or a train. We are Americans and we have always looked for ways to make life better and that's what we need to keep doing. Remember the promise made almost 250 years ago that we have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness. Technology is improving all the time and soon we will all be using less and less fossil fuels. We need to take care of our environment in a responsible way; instead of always being in a panic we need to recognize our progress and continue our pursuit of excellence. Don Quixote tried to save the world from imaginary monsters, let's not become fools, but continue to build a great future.

Climate activists are doing everything they can to get the rest of us to ride head long into windmills on puny horses only to find out that there is no such thing as catastrophic global warming. There is probably no such thing as global warming at all. Fools create panic, intelligent study the problem and come up with a workable solution. Let's not be a nation of fools. They really were talking about another global ice age fifty years ago. Today all of those models are considered irrelevant. 

The real inconvenient truth is that some people today ignore the history of our planet and insist that although their models are consistently wrong, in a couple of hundred years our progenitors will pay a heavy price if we don't ruing our economy today. Immediately. I know Al Gore and his disciples don't want to even consider this, but what we need to do is continue to find effective ways to clean our environment. We don't need to force people to buy things according to a government imposed deadline. Things people cannot afford or need. We do need to conserve our resources, but we also have to consider how much there is left. Where is the earth headed? Will the earth ever run out of water and air? We can keep our environment clean and we have to. So far we can't even get people to use trash cans. At the beach where I live there is always trash on the ground twenty feet from half full trash cans. 

Inconvenient truths are what we are experiencing every day. As long as the Hollywood elites and others keep traveling the world in their private jets and two hundred plus foot luxury yachts, I'll continue to ignore their claims of catastrophic global warming and continue to do my part to keep our environment clean. There are lots of things we can do to keep water and air clean without killing the middle class, and creating a system of a wealthy ruling class and a poor working class. I doubt the American Spirit can be killed. At some point people are going to rebel against the new ruling class and restore America. You can bet that in America the Nouveau poor ain't gonna stay that way very long. The wealthy class that will be created would do well to to study more about the French Revolution, and the Tsar Nicolas II of Russia. 

Inconvenient truth. Gore has made himself both a martyr and a prophet of doom. He wants people to think he doesn't like presenting his message because people might not like it but he has to because it's his duty to save all of us from ourselves while he risks the wrath of all mankind and he's been way too effective, people all over the world are scared to death. It's all very carefully packaged garbage of course, what he's done is attempt to create a path for him to become a billionaire through carbon trading banks. Let's put Al Gore's desire to become a billionaire on a back burner while we solve real crises the very real threat of a nuclear war breaking out, or the Chi Coms deciding to make a move on their Asian neighbors. Or how about we find real solutions to real homelessness and mental illness. Catastrophic global warming in a couple hundred, perhaps five hundred years or more? Are you kidding me? How about we do something about real problems and put Al Gore's financial future somewhere in the five hundred years from now category. 

I think Mr. Gore will find that a very Inconvenient Truth.