SocraticGadfly: 4/16/06 - 4/23/06

April 22, 2006

Jonah Goldberg -- more dishonesty about global warming

I guess Jonah figures that on the pages of National Review or the cyberpages of The Corner, he's dones enough lying on behalf of BushCo and the War in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich, etc.

Because he's now, in his latest syndicated column, switched his smoke and mirrors to global warning. Specifically, he's calling Al Gore a "scaremonger" for his new movie, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Jonah does admit global warming is happening. But, he downplays its severity through several tactics. One is through trying to play the old "balance" game by trotting out global warming-skeptic climatologists. That's when he talks about 60 climatologists writing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Another, an oldie but a goodie, is talking about the temperature change of 1-2 degrees with the insinuation that's degrees Fahrenheit instead of degrees Celsuis, twice as much. So, here's what I e-mailed the schmuck:
First, Harper is the leader of Canada's Conservatives. By inserting strongly right-wing conservative evangelicals into positions in Ottawa where their anti-scientific "faith-based" stances have oversight over Canadian science policy, he's already shown his true colors. He doesn't need to learn much from Shruub.

And BFD about the 60 climatologists anyway, Jonah. I suppose Bjorn Lonmborg has 59 climatologist friends he was able to round up to pretend that global warming is no big deal.

And, in case you missed it, the case for global warming is actually worse — WORSE — than we once thought, as we now know smog particulates have partially offset warming in the past 50 years. But, cleaner fuels, factories and power plants are removing more particulates and reducing that offset.

As for the change, even MORE CONSERVATIVE climatologists say 1-2 degrees CELSIUS change over the current century.

Way to NOT TRANSLATE THAT into 2-4 degrees Fahrenheit. Example No. 972 of your intellectual dishonesty on this issue.

Update, April 26:
As evidence of the Bushism of Harper’s Conservative government, I now present the proof-bearing pudding. The Conservatives want to join BushCo’s “Kyoto-lite” climate group.
Canada's new Conservative government, which is openly skeptical about the Kyoto climate change protocol, said on Tuesday it backs a breakaway group of six nations that favor a voluntary approach to cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.

Environmentalists said the comments about the partnership — which is being heavily promoted by Washington — show the Canadian government is not serious about tackling climate change.

April 19, 2006

Iranian oil blustering is getting downright Orwelian

I couldn’t but laugh when I read that George Orwel (sic) admitted that Iran has us, and the Strait of Hormuz to boot, perhaps, by the oily short hairs if President Shrub keeps his twitchy finger near the hair trigger of an attack on the Islamic Republic. (How’s that for a boatload of clichés, to boot?)
While discounting (Iranian President) Ahmadinejad’s seriousness in his Wednesday comments about the value of oil, Orwel conceded the oil industry could not do without the 2.5 million barrels that Iran exports daily.

“Ahmadinejad is trying to show his muscle so that the Bush administration can realize the consequences on the oil market of further confrontation with Iran,” Orwel said, adding that he fully expected Iran to threaten to cut off oil if the confrontation with the West continued.

While Ahmadinejad did not say he would use oil as a weapon in his dispute with the West, Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said last month the oil card was in play.

"If (they) politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," he said, referring to the Straits of Hormuz.

What next? Some Aldus Huxley to warn about Venezuela?