Let's not get confused by facts

Ursala glacier, Argentina 1928 and 2004

[Click to enlarge]

"Yep. I bet ole Al Gore is feeling pretty stupid about right now."

That is just one example of the kinds of conversations that have been going on among "climate-change deniers" over this past winter, a season which saw record snowfall in some parts of the country, especially along the Eastern Seaboard.

It is an example of the kind of mentality that makes a habit of choosing intuitive, short-term "reality" over rational, objective scientific fact.

For the truth of the matter is that January 2010 was one of the warmest on record worldwide -- despite the pocket of cold and heavy snowfall in limited areas of the United States.

According to the World Meteorologist Organization, the decade of 2000-2009 was the hottest ever and 2009 ranked as the fifth warmest year on record. In fact, eight of the 10 warmest years on record occurred during the last decade.

But don't try to present those facts to observers who prefer to group any and all issues into neat little ideological battles. With them, there can be no climate-change worries because one of the leading spokesmen, Al Gore, is from the "liberal" camp. Why let facts get in the way of a good political battle?

Lest one think this type of reasoning is limited to nutcases and quacks, here is a comment during the recent Washington, D.C., snowstorm made by Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina:

"It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries 'uncle'."

Come to think of it, where nutcases are concerned, maybe DeMint....oh, never mind.

One of the themes of Al Gore over recent years actually has been directed at the problem under consideration -- the tendency of so many to substitute political ideology and "pack" mentality for serious and reasoned discussion. Of course, such a theme is ridiculed unmercifully by the far-right as they march in lockstep on virtually every issue.

In today's society, we all tend to want to view programs and read books and articles with which we agree -- it is one of the causes of our current inability to address common problems -- but there is no doubt Fox News-watchers are in a class all their own where conformity of thought is concerned. The "talking points" are so consistent as to be mind-numbing -- and "no global warming" is right at the top of the list.

Just getting on the internet and cursorily looking at a few photographs from among the hundreds shoots down the "deniers" theories. One such example is at the top of this editorial -- comparative photos of the Ursala glacier in Argentina in 1928 and 2004. It's actually pretty simple -- ice, no ice -- but it must be an optical illusion, since we know Al Gore is wrong.

Scientists say the receding glaciers result in flooding in the present and disappearing water supplies in the future for millions worldwide. But what do they know? They are just scientists and they probably don't get their facts in a "fair and balanced" manner.

--REK