The Great Climate Crack-Up
Is global warmism cooked? Institutional, political and cultural developments all point in that direction.
"Britain's University of East Anglia says the director of its prestigious Climatic Research Unit is stepping down pending an investigation into allegations that he overstated the case for man-made climate change," the Associated Press reports from London:
The university says Phil Jones will relinquish his position until the completion of an independent review into allegations that he worked to alter the way in which global temperature data was presented.
Jones could just be a fall guy, but global warmists have also suffered a major political defeat, in Australia, the AP reports from Sydney:
The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration's proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.
The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government's bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party. . . .
Rudd had wanted the legislation passed before he attends next week's U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen so he could portray Australia as a world leader on the issue.
The AP makes Rudd sound like an insecure high school student, doing something foolish merely in order to look cool. But what's really astonishing is that this is described as if it were a perfectly reasonable way for adults to behave.
NewsBusters.org reports that Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, who is very liberal and often very funny, last night delivered a merciless monologue at the expense of global warmists on "The Daily Show." Sample:
If you care about an issue, and want it to be your life's work, don't cut corners. It's disheartening for people inclined towards the scientific method, and it's catnip to these guys who are going to end up celebrating tonight drunk, roaming the Arctic Circle trying to [perform unnatural acts involving the eye sockets of] polar bears, which are quickly disappearing because of rising oceans caused now apparently by God's tears!
The other day a boy described to us the way his middle school has inculcated children with global warmism: "My peers all say global warming is real and the right is stupid." Climate scientists really have influenced how peer review works! But those youngsters will know better by the time they're old enough to watch Jon Stewart.
online.wsj.com |
