In honor of Earth Day, I have decided to check in on what our Republican friends plan to do about global warming. After all, it is largely their constituents who are now suddenly faced with prolonged drought, as the warming of the atmosphere causes the jet stream (the boundary between cold and warm air) to shift northward, driving the winter storm track with it, so that from the rockies to the deep south, there is likely to be a drying trend across the sun belt (in fact, one which has already begun but will only continue and get worse). The recent wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma are only the most recent manifestation of this. And the highest water temperatures on record the past two years in the northern Gulf of Mexico are also likely to get worse, strengthening hurricanes as they head towards the Gulf Coast.
There is only so long that you can deny what is, and so they have to have a plan.
And, they do. They plan to change the weather.
No, that isn't a typo. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) proposes to invest Federal funds in weather modification.
And while it's still a bit of a long shot, Uncle Sam could be called in to sponsor research to find ways to blast dangerous storms out of the sky or put rain clouds over parched land.
Blow up hurricanes with big bombs. Move the clouds. It would take Republicans from Texas to come up with these sorts of ideas.
How about small measures, like increasing fuel standards on cars?
No, Republicans say that would be too costly and questionable.
Weather modifications, I guess besides talking to God they have an open communication with Mother Nature.
ReplyDeleteSure hope all is well on the homefront, Eli.
That's great... maybe I should request weather-changing powers to stay the idiots.
ReplyDeleteHappy Earth Day-
Lizzy:
ReplyDeleteThey are against spending a dime on public works, but then they are willing to invest tax money in risky schemes like this, the Iraq war and Social Security Privatization.
And yeah, my wife is slowly recovering but the operation took a lot out of her (in more ways than one).
Genderist:
Well, if that were your secret power, then it looks like the Government would be ready to give you a job.
Being one of George's secret X-Men just doesn't have a happy ring to it.
ReplyDeleteeli, If you are asking what the Republicans are going to do about global warming, then you are assuming that we have anything to with global warming. There is very little evidence to support this. Scientists are very divided on the issue. I don't think humans had anything to do with the warming of the planet after any of the three ice ages that are on record.
ReplyDelete"Uncle Sam could be called in to sponsor research to find ways to blast dangerous storms"...
ReplyDelete...they can't see the *forest for the trees*, they are the dangerous storms!
Eddie:
ReplyDeleteScientists are not so divided on this as you suppose.
Other than scientists whose funding has a tie to the petroleum industry, there are probably less than a dozen leading researchers out there who even question it anymore, while there are literally thousands who have reached the opposite conclusion.
Besides that, it was not so long ago when conservatives were saying that there was no global warming at all. With such observed phenomena as rising sea levels, higher ocean surface temperatures, the northward track of the jet stream and the melting of polar ice (all of which were predicted by global warming theorists years ago), the hypothesis of the global warming theorists has been shown to be accurate via direct observation, in accordance with the scientific method. Further, increased emissions of CO2 have been measured as an increase in atmospheric CO2. If global warming opponents (or now, should I say, global warming apologists) wish to claim that what is observed is due to some other cause, then the onus is on them to offer a hypothesis as to what it is, and some hard evidence of some other cause for this rather than the generic 'well, maybe there is something else we haven't thought of' out there. The whole 'natural occurence as the ice age ends' doesn't wash since such measurables as sea level (measured accurately since the 1300's, by Dutch engineers who had to calculate how much water pressure the dikes had to be able to withstand), world land temperatures (measured accurately globally since the mid nineteenth century) and ocean surface temperatures (measured accurately for over 100 years), after showing little change for decades or in the case of sea level for centuries, have suddenly begun changing. If it's not human caused, then what is it?
eli, Can anyone identify what caused the planet to cool and then warm during any of the several ice ages our planet has experienced?
ReplyDeleteI have read articles that say more global warming occurred between 1940 and 1970 than since 1970 which does not make sense if you are trying to blame it on greenhouse gasses. Here is one
http://weathereye.kgan.com/expert/warming/skeptic.html
Also, who can accurately say how many scientists are skeptical of the theory? http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008220