Extreme Weather Extremists

In some parts of the world it’s hotter than it’s ever been: see Australia.

In some parts of the world it’s colder than it’s ever been: see Siberia. See also, California.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to talk about global warming, so the media is now talking about extreme weather.

Apparently, everyone has forgotten that climate and weather are not the same thing.

One might say that extreme weather patterns demonstrate that human beings are destroying the climate. Then again, those who believe that the human lust for emitting carbon dioxide is destroying the climate do not really need evidence.

If you read their reports, everything that happens affirms their position.

I can’t recall where I read this, but a while back I read that variations in weather patterns were often caused by shifts in the tilt of the earth’s axis.

Might that not offer a cogent explanation for why some areas are suffering more extreme weather this year?

Anyway, we recently learned that the average temperature in the United States rose by one degree last year. We were told that this proved global warming, or, climate change.

Holman Jenkins puts the statistic in context in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 2012 was the hottest year on record in the "contiguous United States," trust the media to transcribe the statement accurately. A disaster for public understanding begins only when the media stop transcribing and start using their own brains.

Said the New York Times climate blog, in an assertion that was echoed throughout the media: "The temperature differences between years are usually measured in fractions of a degree, but 2012 blew away the previous record, set in 1998, by a full degree Fahrenheit."

Really? If that were true, then hair-on-fire news should have been the fact that 2012 was 2.13 degrees hotter than 2011. That's a far more dramatic change, and in a single year.

Nor was it mentioned that 2008, in the contiguous U.S., was two degrees cooler than 2006. Or that 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 were all cooler than 1998 by a larger margin than 2012 was hotter than 1998.

Jenkins speaks truth to power when he explains that the important point for advocates is “asserting their moral superiority:”

 But climate change and gun control have one thing in common. Their advocates are more interested in asserting their moral superiority and denouncing their "enemies" than in making progress, which explains why there has been no progress.

Speaking of moral superiority, the most morally superior advocate for the “settled science” of climate change—that would be the “crazed sex poodle” named Al Gore—just sold out to Al Jazeera.

Not only does Al Jazeera derive all of its income from burnt fossil fuels, but it has a long and distinguished record of supporting Islamic terrorism and slandering Israel.

Presumably, Al Gore sold out to Al Jazeera because it represented his values. He had refused to sell his network to Glenn Beck because Beck, a notable supporter of Israel, was completely beyond the ethical pale.

Regardless of the truth about climate change, that tells you all you need to know about Al Gore.