Gary L. Wickert
It was last winter in Port Huron, Michigan than it has been in more than seven decades. Daytona Beach, Florida set an all-time low temperature of 58°. Cold temperature records were broken this year in Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and Colorado. Similar records were broken in the United Kingdom, Canada, Central Europe, France, and Italy. In Ozaukee County, August treated us to an evening of 46° along Lake Michigan, nearly breaking a record low set all the way back in 1892. All of this after global warming/anticapitalists wrongly predicted – once again – more hurricanes, a loss of Antarctic ice, and record high temperatures. Geez, it’s gotta be embarrassing.
You’d think they’d revert to the global cooling hysteria of the late 1970’s. But, no. Shivering in their August parkas, the global warming crowd still stammers that the "science" is "settled" and that it is mankind's production of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere which is public enemy number one and responsible for an increasing "Greenhouse Effect.” Hollywood elitists and Democrats in Congress continue to remind us about the now-discredited “hockey stick” for which Al Gore incredibly won both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize.
At the most recent one day UN summit, a Star Wars bar scene crowd eager to bring America to its industrial knees gave us one final, chilling warning: “Act now or humanity is doomed.” Despite falling temperatures, an Antarctic landmass which is rapidly gaining ice and snow cover, and the opinion of 31,000 U.S. scientists - 9,000 with doctorate degrees in atmospheric science, climatology, Earth science, environment and other specialties - who signed a petition rejecting global warming, the goose-stepping enemies of CO2 keep marching.
One hundred prominent scientists jointly signed an Open Letter to Ban Ki- Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, requesting they cease the manmade global warming hysteria and take CO2 off the Ten Most Wanted list. The final signature was from the President of the World Federation of Scientists. With the credibility of global warming theories hovering just below that of Area 51 and the Yetti, the anti-capitalists among us scramble to find new demons and new excuses to destroy Wisconsin and American businesses and force us into driving ethanol-powered riding mowers to work. They didn’t have to look long.
Sigourney Weaver, appearing on Fox News to promote her new movie, Avatar, blindsided Fox’s Brian Kilmeade by refusing to talk about the movie, but instead, rambled on about a her new documentary, Acid Test, the premise of which is that one quarter of the carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels enters our oceans, where it makes the water more acidic and kills plankton. I guess one quarter of the 97% of CO2 in the atmosphere which is naturally-occuring doesn’t enter the oceans. “Whether you believe in global warming or not, CO2 is going to run havoc in the oceans if unabated”, claimed a caring Sigourney. We’ve been warned. The sky is falling - again. The crime is new but the villain is the same - CO2.
The mass hysteria and paranoia sweeping our culture is both disappointing and disturbing. I understand that many are searching for meaning and purpose in life and saving mankind is about as heroic and fulfilling as it comes. But I might suggest they pick a different villain. You see, CO2 is good for life on earth.
The Manhattan Declaration – from the 2008 International Climate Conference - not only declared that global warming is not a global crisis, but also exonerated CO2. It turns out there isn’t enough CO2 in the atmosphere to absorb more than 2/1000 of radiated heat (IR) passing upward, and man is responsible for only a tiny fraction of that. The Declaration announced that, far from being a pollutant, CO2 is essential for all life and all biological processes on earth. It is no more a pollutant than nitrogen, which makes up 80% of the air we breathe. Increased CO2 is good for plant growth and causes trees and crops to flourish. This past spring, our president pressured the EPA into declaring CO2 to be a “pollutant” for the same political reasons he’s done everything else in his short political career. It's more than terrifying – it’s a slap in the face to science.
CO2 comes from animal life, the oceans, the earth, and the fuels we find in it. The fuels that produce CO2 have freed us from a life of back-breaking labor. They light up our lives, allowing us to create and move the things we need and the people we love. Carbon dioxide is our friend. It isn’t pollution – it’s life. As CO2 increases, so does animal life and crop yields.
Most global warming enthusiasts are not evil, they’re just wrong. Even if they were right, warming would benefit the earth, save lives, lengthen growing seasons, and feed millions. Ice is the enemy of life, not CO2. Trees absorb CO2 and release CO2 - animals inhale CO2 and exhale CO2. See how nice this all works! God does know what he’s doing after all. Scientists confirm that primitive forests made their prolific debut 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period. Before then, the atmosphere held far more CO2 concentrations than it does today.
The most significant greenhouse gas – responsible for 95% of the earth’s greenhouse effect - is water vapor, and water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Human activity and CO2 are responsible for less than _ of 1% of the earth’s greenhouse effect. The T-1000 robot from Terminator 2 would be a more likely villain to blame global warming on than CO2. After all, the T-1000 melted in the end. The next thing you know, radical environmentalists will be blaming manmade water vapor for the coming global Apocalypse.
Well, guess what. A recent study by climatologists at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK has now concluded that human activity is behind the rising levels of water vapor in the lower atmosphere over the past few decades. Man-made humidity is now a coconspirator on trial alongside innocent CO2 and the evil United States. Something tells me that Congress and the American Left will soon be rushing to the rescue to solve yet another problem that doesn’t exist.
Gary Wickert is an author, trial lawyer and town of Cedarburg Supervisor, who lives in Cedarburg with his wife, Lisa and two sons. He can be reachd at garywickert@ameritech.net.