I recently joined another blogging team at The Coalition for a Republican Free America. Of course I am continuing to maintain Deep Thought as well as continuing to be part of the team at Night Bird's Fountain. Now I had planned to simply put up a post about it, but a Republican poster there really gave me a much better topic to post on. I had put up a post on global warming, and in the discussions, it had come up that I had mentioned that sea levels are rising and will continue to rise by anywhere from 1-4 feet in the next century. So, the commentor wrote
you have no facts to back you up just emotional, irrational fears of "seas rising 4 feet" that you regurgitate from greenpeace or wherever you get that crap.
Now, as anyone who has read this blog is aware, I don't make claims like this without being able to back them up (and if I make a mistake I will so acknowledge, as here and here). So, I linked to a couple of government sites (one from NASA and one from EPA) that would constitute evidence (although there are literally hundreds of scientifically supported sites that I could have gone to-- and no, I'm not counting Greenpeace.) But it was very revealing as to what people on the right are thinking and their mindset. They have been brainwashed to the extent that they simply deny even what is reported in virtually every scientific and even government sites on the topic (and when NASA under the Bush administration acknowledges that sea levels are rising at a pace that can be considered rapid in geological terms, that should pretty much end the debate right there). In other words, instead of even bothering with real information anymore, they parrot what they have been told by Rush, Faux News, etc. and others who have an agenda which includes omitting anything that would contradict their ideology (and in fact, on this point in particular, to admit that there was a serious problem, it would be the mother of all flip flops).
Further, since they have not been told the truth about this, they instead follow the strategy of attacking the messenger anytime someone says anything to that effect (probably because they have seen Hannity do it).
Well... at least I know not to invest in any beachfront property, especially in low lying, flat areas.
7 comments:
The invisible hand that guides the market will knows what's best for all of us, Eli.
Loved your blog - would like to link it from my own blog w/your permission. Think about it and let me know.
eaprez:
Sure. I'll post yours too.
Dorsano:
Speaking of the market, I read a very interesting article not too long ago about corporations upgrading rail lines to and from, and port facilities in Churchill, Manitoba, a small town on Hudson Bay. The reason they are doing this is that they believe that as the Arctic ocean ice cover melts, it will open up the fabled 'Northwest passage' for at least part of the year, allowing shipping by a much more direct route between Asia and eastern North America.
Of course, conservatives would claim they are wasting their money.
It would also cut shipping times between northwestern North America (Alberta, Sasketchewan, and the Plains and Rocky Mountain states) and Europe if Hudson Bay were available year-round. Those benefits could be realized more quickly than the ones from opening up the NW passage to the Pacific.
eli, where are the links to your global warming sea level info? i don't see any here, or on the other blog.
I posted it over there, and obviously you found it, since you subsequently replied.
Post a Comment