The last argument you'll ever have on global warming

I'm going to boil this down as succinctly and simply as I can. I'll ask only three questions and you, the reader, must answer honestly.

1) Do you believe that the earth went through a period where much of it was covered in ice?

2) Where is that ice now?

3) Were the dinosaurs mining coal and driving SUV's?

Those of you who answered honestly can see the line of reasoning I'm going for here. Those of you who believe that the debate is over on global warming stopped after the first question because it doesn't fit into your paradigm for how humans are destroying the planet. You think that the argument on global warming being based on "accepted science" negates the need for further discussion. So monolithic in your beliefs and so narrow in your view, you prefer instead to label anyone who questions that accepted science as "earth raping planet killers". If I question the logic of global warming, I must hate the environment and want dirty air and water all across the globe.

Actually...no.

The green movement, headed largely by Al Gore, has come to see an opposing viewpoint as a sacrilege not to be given any due consideration. That same group finds it just fine to shout that God does not exist but bristles uncomfortably at the denial of their own religion...global climate change. I call it that, as many others do, because the fever pitch at which the debate rages sometimes borders on the divine. It's almost a holy war on industry. A crusade against the progress of the last 100 years. Al Gore believes that the internal combustion engine is perhaps the most evil invention in mankind's history. The internal combustion engine for heavens sake. Not nukes...or other varied and sundry weapons of warfare but the engine. If we had to I suppose we could use FEDEX or UPS to deliver our nuclear payloads when the time comes. They would of course have to deliver said payload on horseback or drawn carriage to be "green" about it.

"When it absolutely, positively has to blow up over night!" or "What Can Brown Nuke For You?"

Terms like "carbon footprint" have crept into our language like fog rolling in slowly across the water. I suspect the only "carbon footprint I'll really have to fear is the one left by the government on my ass after my energy prices go through the roof. My only hesitation about drinking the global warming Kool-Aid is that Al Gore stands to make a fortune if the green movement finds it's way into our daily lives in the form of carbon credits and it's associated industry. He's poised right now to make millions upon millions of dollars through the application and trade of carbon credits. One should honestly question his motives on this. The reverse is that those of the ruling political class on the right side of the aisle want our energy to remain oil and coal based, with the occasional mention of nuclear power because they themselves have investments in those areas of energy.

So who's right and who's wrong? Neither actually. We have the reserves of natural resources in our own country to break our addiction to foreign energy sources and power the engine of our economy but we need smart people working on alternative fuel sources for cars as well as homes. Not the government...smart people. I'm beginning to think that the old maxim has been changed to "Obama is the mother of invention." The government can't change the way we acquire energy. The private sector, with it's years of innovation and genius, will do that. There is a process that isn't being allowed to complete itself though by constant babbling about greenhouse gases and how the mean temperature of the earth rose almost a whole degree in 100 years.

You poor folks in the northeast are in for a rude, cold awakening in future winters if Obama has his way and shuts down the coal industry and raises taxes on heating oil. Here in Georgia, I suppose I will feel the same pain at the proverbial "pump" but in the summer months instead. That's what Cap & Trade will effectively do. It will raise EVERYONE'S energy costs by some estimates of 40-60%. All because some ice melted.

I'll make the argument here the same way I make it to my friends.

If the earth was covered in ice thousands of years ago it follows that since that ice is no longer here, it must have melted. Logical.

If that ice melted thousands of years ago then either the earth or the sun caused that to happen. The earth may have created too much of it's own CO2 causing a greenhouse effect or the sun may have gone through a period of increased heat output. Either way, man was not around to cause, slow down, or halt that climate change.

The earth will continue to change long after humans have died out. It's temperature will rise and fall as it has for millions of year and all without our help. It's arrogance to believe that humans could have any lasting effect on this planet. Like the dinosaurs, when we grow too aggressive for our environment, the earth will simply select us for extinction. It's that simple. That's the odd conundrum about the "greenies" though. They believe in natural selection, to a degree, but won't allow for the brilliance and perfection of nature to actually do the selecting. They instead, inject themselves into the process to assuage their own guilt or to stop the inevitable and inexorable march of progress. A futile and self motivated act at best and the tramp of doom to our economy at worst.

The debate is not over. In fact, it hasn't really even started yet. When the green side stops shouting "PLANET KILLER" long enough, then the other side will have a chance to speak. The main green argument for me to accept global warming as a man-made phenomena is, "Because we said so! Now shut up!" Don't ask me to question the faith of religion or call me a sheep because of it and then expect me to accept your religious beliefs on even shakier faith.

The hypocrisy is so thick that you could cut it with a recycled knife forged at a green factory with environmentally friendly materials using rendered packaging by workers who drive electric cars and live in smart houses.

Whew...that was a mouthful eh?