Global warming is bunk, real cold outside here.....

[The Straight Story]

Which is what I have seen repukes writing (I was going to say I saw them 'saying' but I don't see speech of course, but in the future with the net 'saying' and 'writing' will come to mean the same thing as you see what they are saying to each other...).

Which I feel goes to the core of their issues - they only see directly what is in their line of sight (like gas shortages and control, they saw that and decided Iraq was a noble cause).

You could have 300 sweltering days and then some cool and a few seriously cold ones, and they would take what little they could and use it to back their beliefs.

It might be hot as hell in Alaska, the north pole could be melting, but they ain't there so it ain't real.

The same goes with their foreign policy - things only happen for real if they are on the news, otherwise everything is A OK.

[Kerrytravelers]

1. They seem to think that Global Warming means "local weather."

The whole global part really throws 'em!

[bluerum]

2. Well damn! It is cold here too - we even had snow last night. But this

winter has been extremely warm, and the rainfall for three years running has been above average. Enough rain to cause flooding in some areas.

Denial is an amazing thing. It is one thing to decide not to believe thousands of scientists and climate study data. It is something else entirely to dis-believe your own personal experience.

In either case, I tend to be wary of anyone who engages in either behavior.

[The Straight Story]

3. Indeed to that!

and a good post, thanks.

[smoogatz]

5. Hey--who you gonna believe?

A bunch of government scientists making $60k a year, or Exxon-Mobil and Sean Hannity?

[smoogatz]

4. Cold here, too--ten below zero at the moment.

But it has still, on average, been one of the warmest winters on record for west-central Wisconsin. The problem with wingnuts is that they don't understand fancy, brainiac terminology like "average" and "on record." That's why they're wingnuts.

[The Straight Story]

6. I am starting to understand that term more each day

They all have their heads in the sand and are talking to each other "You see that?" "Nope" "Well then it ain't really an issue is it?" "Nope" "You see god today?" "Uhhh. well yeah, in the flowers and such..."

[smoogatz]

10. Right-wing anti-intellectualism has been with us a long time.

It's one of the hallmarks of fascism. Intellectuals are dangerous to fascist or neo-fascist demagogues, because they're capable of articulating/critiquing the falsehoods on which fascism is based. Therefore intellectuals (and learning, and science, and thinking) must be ridiculed, attacked and "discredited." If you haven't seen "An Inconvenient Truth" yet, there's an amazing little film clip of George Bush Sr. talking about how Al Gore is "crazy" because he's an environmentalist. But the great thing about the movie is its clear and simple explanation of the mechanics of global warming--and its use of very simple graphs to compare CO2 in the atmosphere and global temperatures, going back something like 650,000 years. It's very stark and very revealing.

[Subdivisions]

7. We have actually had MORE winter precipitation here in

North Texas compared to previous winters.

Does that mean that I don't believe in "Global" Warming? No.

In fact, as I've indicated in another http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x117082">thread just a few moments ago, I am right now re-watching An Inconvenient Truth and, from (President) Gore's presentation, it is clear to see that the issue is clearly not a local one.

It's GLOBAL!

Which means that GLOBAL patterns will be affected. Which means that here in N. Texas, we get an above normal amount of winter precip and it means that, perhaps, it rains more in Arizona. Or, Alaska's permafrost begins to melt. Or, Florida gets more intense thunderstorms that spawn killer tonadoes.

People better start waking the fuck up.

[Deja Q]

14. Climate shifting...

Last year the cold days were all in January and we had snow on time. This year everything seems a month off...

I'm partly skeptical, especially when big politicians who used to say "nay" now say "aye" because the same politicians do nothing but make people afraid. But I think there is some reality in the concept...

[Pathwalker]

8. Thank you! This is what I've been saying forever!

An idiot doesn't understand the difference between weather and climate, or realize that their tiny little area isn't the whole damn planet. I've seen letters to editors from various places in America where some idiot will say that since it's cold/hot/nice where they are is proof that global warming doesn't exist. I suspect this is a right-wing plan to9 deny the obvious.

[Warpy]

That's because the damned fools think it just means

warmer weather and a longer growing season.

I'm afraid you can't do much with idiots except to make your own carbon footprint as small as possible. Nobody's going to confer a halo on you for it and idiots will think you're nuts for inconveniencing yourself, but you'll be in a position to teach after a few years when a few things get legislated, like smaller cars with stricter mileage standards, fluorescent lights, timed and insulated water heaters, and so on.

Remember, the one thing a conservative in any party finds most painful is CHANGE. That's why they're fighting so hard against it.

Gore is getting through to some of the less rock headed, though.

[sweetheart]

9. you're not near the storage heaters

If i understand al gore's film correctly, it would follow that 'hotter' weather would
store its heat in the seas and oceans, which would evaporate their waters to cool the superheated land-mass
air as it blows off to sea. So then the seas would be generally hotter and keep coastal climates wetter
and warmer as the air first leaves the sea for winter dry land (cooler) where it drops even more moisture
by its being hotter.

This weather station is at 58.5 degrees latitude on the north of scotland: (balmy warm for february)
(in north america at this lattitude is the north hudson bay, sea ice and polar bears)
http://www.tugmistress.co.uk/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8

Note how the mean temperature anomaly for last month is in the direction of the prevailing
wind off the north atlantic... the storage heater effect.

[kestrel91316]

11. There's no excess of CO2 in the atmosphere. I have a tank of pure O2

in my clinic to prove it.

There's no global warming. My uninsulated office at home gets cold in the winter.

There's no gas shortage. I have a full tank.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. Tell your friends that it was 52 in Anchorage yesterday

a record. Global warming is real.

[xchrom]

13. i guess the earth is flat in that case.

[Red Zelda]

15. PLEASE...

Know the difference between WEATHER and CLIMATE.

[fidgeting wildly]

16. Wish I had a link...

Someone posted a LTE from Kansas here a week or two ago. The guy had written in response to anti-science deniers and said, "It's called global warming, not Kansas warming." I thought that was as good a response as I'd seen anywhere.

As for me, I'm trying to make a point to talk about "climate change" instead of "global warming." The term climate change seems to have a better impact on people who might otherwise doubt it.

[Retired AF Dem]

17. With the ice age scare of the 60's and 70's

and the global warming scare of present day, just maybe everything will even out.

[Strelnikov_]

18. I am happy to see the -0 highs and -15 lows forecast for the next 72 hours

It will bring the march of the invasive species to a halt for the next few years.

Bundle up, dig in, and wait for it to warm in a few days. A small price to pay for a Malaria, Dengue fever and Armadillo free future.