If you needed proof that God has a wicked sense of humor, look no further than the timing for the next big global warming hearing from Senate Democrats. The hearing, entitled “Extreme Weather Events: The Costs Of Not Being Prepared,” is scheduled to take place at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 12.
And on the very next day, forecasters are expecting a massive snowstorm to blow through the Washington, D.C. region.
According to Weather.com, there’s a 100 percent chance of snow on February 13 with a high temperature that day of a balmy 36° F. The Weather Underground forecast for temperatures following the global warming hearing is no less hilarious:
A mixture of winter precipitation in the morning. Then snow mixing with rain at times in the afternoon. High 36F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 90%. Snow and ice accumulating 3 to 5 inches.
But what about the rest of the country? What type of frigid weather will normal people with real jobs be experiencing while lawmakers talk about the dangers of being ill-prepared for the “extreme” effects of global warming? In other words, how susceptible to global warming hysteria will millions of Americans be on February 12? Back to you, Weather.com:
If you live in the South, now is the time to prepare for another disruptive, potentially crippling winter storm. Winter Storm Pax will bring a long swath of ice and snow across the South through midweek, and the ice may accumulate enough in some areas to knock out power for thousands of people and litter roads with fallen tree limbs and downed wires. Travel will become difficult, if not impossible, in the hardest-hit areas.
But wait, there’s more!
By Wednesday [the day of the Senate global warming hearing], we will see a widespread area of snow, sleet and freezing rain from the southern Appalachians and adjacent Piedmont of north Georgia and the western Carolinas, spreading farther east into eastern North Carolina and the South Carolina Midlands and northward into Virginia. Significant snow, sleet and freezing rain accumulations are likely in all of these locations with this phase of the storm.
Now, your garden variety global warming apologist will read this post and say something along the lines of, “It’s not ‘global warming’ anymore — it’s ‘climate change.’ And these extreme weather events are all because of man-made climate change, and of course you should be preparing for them, just like that hearing says.”
Unfortunately for the apologists, all the time and money they spent hyping the threat of global warming led some people, like me, to conclude that they were worried about…global warming. You don’t get to just change your name around and pretend everything’s rosy when the circumstances inconveniently fail to support your chosen brand identity. And while we’re on the topic of preparation for extreme events: it’s winter. Snow happens. In summer, hot happens. In the fall, hurricanes happen. Climates do change, but it’s just silly to pretend that every weather event — no matter how big or small or hot or cold — is somehow related to your crackpot political agenda. The PR strategy from the global warming hysterics is eerily reminiscent of that game you play with a pre-schooler where the rules constantly change but somehow the child always wins.
But the continued overselling of global warming has bigger consequences than just making its advocates look silly. As a column by Forbes contributor Patrick Michaels noted last week, the hype threatens to put science itself at risk by giving people reason to believe that maybe “science” is just political propaganda dressed up in opaque numbers and formulas:
In the light of all this, we have at least to consider the possibility that the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously overstating the climate problem—or, what is much the same thing, of seriously understating the uncertainties associated with the climate problem—in its effort to promote the cause. It is a particularly nasty trap in the context of science, because it risks destroying, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society’s respect for scientific endeavour.
Anyhow, to those who would take umbrage with those of us who delightedly point to the weather whenever it happens to contrast with the tired hype of global warming alarmists: it’s freezing outside and you’re whining about warming. You should’ve been more prepared for extreme mockery.
