The Polar Vortex And Other Environmental Stupidity

The latest climate change hysteria is all about the "polar vortex" and how humanity is destroying the planet and thus ruining the polar vortex which is what is bringing us all these horribly cold temperatures, snows, and ice storms.  This is the perfect moment to illustrate yet again how blaming climate change on humanity is not at all a real problem but rather a manufactured non-crisis designed to push an agenda.  Case in point:

Forty years later we have a literal full circle, even down to the same terminology being used by the same liberal "news" organization!  It is also interesting to note that the remedies for global cooling are almost identical to the remedies for global warming.  Bigger government, more regulations, penalties for particular "violations," more intrusion into the private lives of citizens, and so on.  It's another call for bloated government at its finest.  Hmmm...

While we're talking about polar ice in 2014, we shouldn't forget this Al gore gem from 2008, who quoted a big name climatologist that there was a 75% chance that all of the polar ice caps would by gone within five years (we'll pause for a moment to let the liberals carry the one before moving on).  Gore modified the speech in 2009 to either 5-7 years (i.e. 2014-2016)...or 2030.  Um, okay, that's some interesting math.  Regardless, if the track record is anything to go by, he'll be proven wrong again.  The real question is: why does anyone bother to listen to this guy anymore?

Sadly, they do.  In fact, there's been round after round of polar ice panic, and the latest one happened just recently.  The only problem is that the polar ice caps aren't cooperating with the panic:

Data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season.

This is close to 50% more than in the corresponding period in 2012.

This means there is not only more surface area of ice this year, but also more volume of ice altogether (which is a distinction that climate change alarmists love to talk about).  They're shocked, naturally.  Good climate change alarmists will still assert that even this amount of ice is far less than most of the previous 30 years.  That's true.  That sort of up/down thing tends to happen at regular intervals in a natural cycle.  You know, like this one:

Okay, enough mocking demonstration of absurdity.  What's the point of this post?  It is this: humanity is not causing climate change.  It's called seasons.  It's called cycles.  It's called nature.  There is absolutely no reason to panic about this, and there is absolutely no reason to implement economically devastating reforms that will ruin the lives of millions of real people in the name of a non-existent non-crisis.  And yet, that is precisely what climate change alarmists are declaring needs to be done if we are to save the planet.

Want an easy example?  Did you realize that incandescent light bulbs are now illegal to produce, and therefore will be disappearing from store shelves in the next few months?  Say goodbye to light bulbs that cost less than a buck, provide clean natural light, and are easily disposable.  Thanks to our betters in Washington, we are now stuck with crappy, sickly light from bulbs containing hazardous materials like mercury (that literally require a hazmat crew to clean up if they break) and cost several dollars per bulb.  This isn't an Obama thing - this all began in 2007 under George W. Bush, and with lots of help from plenty of Republicans.  The bottom line here is that this is an example of big government intruding into the lives of citizens, and it's all based on the myth of man-made climate change.  Sure, light bulbs aren't that expensive, and won't devastate anyone (except maybe the thousands of people who used to work in light bulb factories).  But it's a very attainable example that illustrates the larger point about how rampantly out of control the lust for power and control is in our government.  Light bulbs don't cost much, but what about every kilowatt of electricity you use in your entire house in a year?  What if prices "skyrocket" as Barack Obama promised would be the result of his environmental policies back in 2008?  America gets roughly 50% of its electricity from coal, and the EPA has been busy hammering the entire industry with costly regulations and harsh penalties for "excessive" pollution ever since.  The same policies are also being applied to other energy industries.  If you think that doesn't affect you, you must not be paying your own bills.  Energy prices have already gone up, but if Obama's energy policies -- driven largely by climate change alarmism -- continue it will get much, much worse.  There's a reason Europe pays $11 for a gallon of gas, and it's because they've bought the climate change freak-out hook, line, and sinker.  Obama is trying to push America in the same direction.  Even this is just one more example of the bigger problem.  The principle applies across the board, but nowhere is it easier to blow gigantic holes through the argument than in the area of climate change, where "experts" would have you believe that global warming is responsible for cold temperatures and ice storms, and where predictions of destruction and devastation from things like numerous monster hurricanes are constantly being utterly obliterated by nature itself.  If there wasn't so much at stake, it would be hilarious to watch the self-parody.

It should be noted that liberals have been vacillating between imminent planetary destruction by heat and imminent planetary destruction by cold for well over 100 years!  The only thing they're absolutely certain of is that humanity is the cause of it.  No doubt about that whatsoever, evidence be damned.

I will gladly claim the label of denier.  Denier of hysteria, denier of the absence of logic, denier of willful obliviousness, and denier of the obvious agenda-driven myth of man-made climate change (either hot or cold).  Sign me up.