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Climategate
burned by reality
by Gene Lyons
What with the Northeast sweating out a triple-digit
heat wave, naive observers might expect a spate
of global-warming stories in the media. You know, retreating Arctic sea
ice, vanishing glaciers, etc.
After all, last winter's record Washington, D.C., snowstorms triggered
a veritable avalanche (sorry)
of pundits and TV talking heads prating about
the "elitist" idea that rising world temperatures constitute
a grave threat to humanity and the natural world
as we know it. No less an authority than Fox News'
Sean Hannity announced that "climate change is
a hoax."
Supposedly, see, there's this global cabal of
scientists conspiring to bring about socialist one-world
government. But what really got the ball rolling
wasn't the weather, but a manufactured, media-driven
scandal. The orchestrated release of more than
1,000 e-mails hacked from computers at the U.K.'s
University of East Anglia's climate research
center quickly became a cause célèbre.
Cherry-picked and quoted out of context, almost
20 years of informal, occasionally bitchy communications
among scientists were cited as evidence of fraud.
Nor were Hannity and Fox News the only ones pushing
the alleged wrongdoing. CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC
News, everybody joined the party. "NBC Nightly
News" host Brian Williams was typical:
"Climategate they're calling it," he reported
on Dec. 4, 2009. 'A new scandal over global warming
and it's burning up the Internet. Have the books been cooked on climate
change?'"
Gene's right - as always.
When they announced "Global
warming is a hoax," it was the
top headline for days.
When they retract their mistake, it barely gets a mention on Page 32.
The good news?
Maybe the never-ending oil spill will kill us off before global warming
does.
BTW, I have a scary theory:
I think the oil spill is 50-100 times
worse than they're telling us.
I think the Gulf is being polluted beyong repair in our lifetimes.
I think tar balls will be showing up on our beaches for decades.
If you have beachfront property in the Gulf or
even on the East Coast,
better sell that before the Black Tide comes
in.
Soon, your beachfront property will be as valuable
as Enron stock.