Dash of Pepper

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Global warming - the new religion
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
I love the eternal circus that surrounds the issue of global warming. For those on the Left, this has become a religion and the zealots around Al Gore are out in force with movies and concerts and all the touchy-feely things the Lefties do when promoting their pet issues.
I'm not against some common sense steps with regard to the environment. If you can afford a hybrid car, more power to you. Recycling is fine with me. But it seems the height of hubris for human beings to think they can control the unimaginable powers of the universe. Pride cometh before a fall and God must be amused at our foolhardiness.
The latest twist in the whole GW debate is a doozy.
It seems that NASA has a web site which posts "U.S. surface air temperature" ranking for the lower 48 states. It's being reported by those who follow this site, that something has been altered - quietly altered.
The "hottest year on record" is no longer 1998, but 1934. Among the other hot years, 2001 has dropped out of the Top Ten completely. The rest of the 21sr century (2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004) has plummeted even lower down the Hot 100.
According to my favorite pundit, Mark Steyn, "every supposedly hot year from the Nineties and this decade has had its temperature rating reduced."
He also notes that four of America's Top Ten hottest years turn out to be from the 1930s, before the advent of big SUVs, jet planes and nation-wide air-conditioning.
It was reported last weekend that the reason 1998 is no longer a record-breaker is because of a very alert Canadian, Steve McIntyre of Toronto, who worked hard to prove there was a major flaw in the way NASA handled the raw data. Without fanfare, NASA corrected the data without the hoopla that surrounded the hottest-year-on-record hysteria of almost a decade ago.
It also turns out that a person much involved in the dissemination of this information was a Democrat operative. It also turns out that the 1998 (erroneous) data was going to be critical in the publicity for yet another global warming scare film.
It was also being reported, albeit on the internet, that the official temperature sites around the country needed a second look. It was discovered that at least one site, and perhaps more, had the official thermometer right beside an air-conditioning compressor and the numbers were obviously skewed!
Why am I relating all this?
Just to remind you a) you can't believe everything you read, and, b) if the issue really interests you, do your own research and compare respectable scientific opinion. To this I would add, watch out for hidden agendas.
One thing you can be fairly sure of - the next time someone starts yelling the sky is falling, put it on the back burner, roll that shiny SUV out of the driveway, turn on the AC and go for a spin in the warm, but green, East Texas countryside.
Copyright©2007SheilahPepper
Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2009 15:48