You may have thought this post was going to be about the rapidly spreading religion of Islam, but it is not.
This fastest growing religion I am referring to is the religion of Global Warming, and its most recent, prominent convert is the President of the United States.
I call Global Warming a religion, and rightly so, because in its present form, it is not science.
Religious beliefs require faith: faith in something not seen or provable.
Science is defined by Encarta as: "the system of advancing knowledge by formulating a question, collecting data about it through observation and experiment, and testing a hypothetical answer." "Science, limits itself to what can be observed, measured and verified." Scientists use the Scientific Method to "explain the events of nature in a reproducible way." In other words, you test the theory and if it is repeatable, then the theory moves ahead to be considered true science.
Over 19,000 American scientists have signed a petition rejecting the idea that man made greenhouse gases cause Global Warming, but we don't hear much about that! The website ICECAP does an excellent job of presenting a different view of Global Warming.
At best, when scientists first observed a warming trend, Global Warming could have been called a theory. But in recent years, people have bypassed the theory adjective and jumped toward embracing Global Warming as an undebatable fact. This transition from theory to fact was done without any scientific proof. Those who promote Global Warming no longer even refer to it as a theory.
As more and more data is collected, most of the Global Warming alarmist predictions are not proving to point to the doom and gloom that the planet is warming. In fact, temperatures this past year point to something else: a cooling of the planet.
It seems however, that no matter how much counter Global Warming evidence is presented, the faithful and most politicians are still blindly chanting the mantra that the planet is doomed to heat up unless we do something to control CO2 emissions soon.
According to an article in the Washington Post today, our President is now chanting the mantra too--Bush prepares global warming initiative: (Emphasis added)
"This is an attempt to move the administration and the party closer to the center on global warming. With these steps, it is hoped that the debate over this is over, and it is time to do something," said an administration source close to the White House who is familiar with the planning and who said to expect an announcement this week...
...Still, Republican members of Congress who were briefed last week let top administration officials know that they think the White House if making a mistake, according to congressional sources and others familiar wit the discussions. Opponents said Mr. Bush could be setting off runaway legislation, particularly with Democrats in control of Congress."
One of the things we are doing at present is jumping on the ethanol bandwagon to reduce our carbon footprint. In fact reducing the carbon footprint is one of the cornerstones of this new religion.
Like another religion in bygone years, this Global Warming religion also provides the opportunity to purchase Indulgences to atone for breaking the rules. In our new Global Warming religion, we call these Indulgences, Carbon Credits.
All 3 of our Presidential candidates favor the practice of using Indulgences for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, they do not call them as such, they call them, "a cap-and-trade system, such as the Europeans have. The system sets an overall limit on carbon emissions and allows polluters to buy credits from companies that stay below their carbon targets."
"..Congressional and administration sources said it's not clear whether Mr. Bush will go that far this week." So we don't know how deep President Bush's conversion is.
Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research stated the US is already ahead of Europe:
"US taxpayers are already spending more than $40 billion a year to address climate change, and to date we're achieving better results than the Europeans... ...That should be kept in mind before any rash--or political--decisions are made inside the White House. Excessive regulations would come with significant economic consequences and additional costs for consumers."
Considering fuel and food prices are already through the roof, our economy does not need the further encumbrance of mandates and extra fees.
Thankfully, not all politicians are being indoctrinated into the new religion, but because there is so much political pressure to jump on the bandwagon (become a believer), resisting is difficult. Our Congressman James Sensenbrenner and Illinois Congressman John Shimkus "told the White House it was making a mistake" to call for congressional action on this.
You may wish to drop Congressman Sensenbrenner an email or give him a phone call, (262) 784-1111, to encourage him in his fight against global warming initiatives. Or, tell Congressman Sensenbrenner in person. He will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on Sunday, April 27th at 1pm at the Brookfield Safety Building.
Links to counter Global Warming articles. There is still very much room for debate:
ICECAP A great source for alternative views
2008 Climate Debate: "Over the past few years, more than 19,000 American scientists have
signed a dissenting petition coauthored by Dr. Frederick Seitz,
renowned physicist and former president of the National Academy of
Sciences, and Dr. Arthur Robinson, president of the Oregon Institute of
Science and Medicine (www.oism.org/pproject)".
The petition urges political leaders to "reject the Gore-supported Kyoto
Protocol or other similar proposals that would mandate draconian tax
and regulatory measures aimed at virtually all human economic activity"...
..."As the NIPCC (Nongovernmental International Panel of Climate Change) report, Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate, points out, the hard data from satellites and weather balloons shows the exact opposite
of the predictions of the IPCC and the climate alarmist choir: a slight
cooling with altitude in the troposphere and slight warming on the
surface."
Hurricane expert reconsiders global warming's impact
Weather Channel Founder: Global Warming 'Greatest Scam in History'
Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling
NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for US, Globe
Recent cold snap helping Arctic sea ice, scientists find
Surprise! There's an active volcano under Antarctic ice
Links:
Brookfield7,
Fairly Conservative,
Betterbrookfield,
Vicki Mckenna
