CO2, Polar Bears, and Volcanoes

A New Years Eve Wrap Up. Courtesy of Phil Brennan of Newsmax. Video and pictures added by Me.

If you want to get an idea of just how absurd the global warming propaganda has gotten, consider a current TV commercial that suggests that “our green planet” will cease to be green if we don’t do something about the things that threaten its greenness, such as growing levels of atmospheric CO2.

Think about that for a moment. Ask yourself this question: What makes our planet green?

If you guessed CO2, you’re right. CO2 is to trees and foliage and all vegetation what oxygen is to humans — they can’t survive without it. It’s what makes them green and healthy.

The more CO2, the greener and healthy our planet. Yet the global warming fanatics are classifying CO2 as a pollutant and blaming it for dangerously warming our (fast cooling) planet.

How stupid do they think we are?

They call CO2 a “greenhouse gas” getting that description from what happens when the sun penetrates the glass in a greenhouse and not only heats its interior but also traps the heat, which cannot escape trough the panes enclosing it.

Atmospheric CO2, we are assured, acts like the panes of glass in the greenhouse, trapping the heat in the atmosphere and thus warming the planet. But CO2 levels have skyrocketed since 2000, and guess what’s happened?

It’s gotten colder, that’s what happened.

Maybe some kid broke the glass in the greenhouse.

Then there’s the latest panic about the alleged plight of the polar bears. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) polar bears face extinction — but not quite yet.

According to the WWF, “With 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not currently endangered, but its future is far from certain.”

They go on to assure us that, “If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century.”

To help stop that from happening, the WWF would like you to send it money.

Didja hear that? They still believe it!

Like all solemn pronouncements from the warmiacs, the predictions concerning polar bear extinction is based solely on computer models, not on what’s happening now. Remember, the group said, “The species is not currently endangered.” And what’s happening now is the swelling of the polar bear population, which grew from a low of 5,000 to 10,000 in the ’50s and ’60s, according to The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Moreover, a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.”

A Jan. 30, 2008, report from the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee notes, “The alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. And the methodology of these computer models is being challenged by many scientists and forecasting experts.”

In other words, garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).

The report cites Canadian biologist Mitchell Taylor, wildlife research director with the Arctic government of Nunavut, as saying: “Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.”

Taylor added, “It is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria.”

A study by Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and his colleague, forecasting expert Kesten Green of Monash University in Australia, found that one of the two key reports in support of listing the bears had “extrapolated nearly 100 years into the future on the basis of only five years data — and data for these years were of doubtful validity.” GIGO!

Asks botanist David Bellamy, a famed U.K. environmental campaigner, former lecturer at Durham University, and host of a popular U.K. TV series on wildlife: “Why scare the families of the world with tales that polar bears are heading for extinction when there is good evidence that there are now twice as many of these iconic animals, most doing well in the Arctic than there were 20 years ago?”

If you want something real to worry about, try an eruption of the Yellowstone caldera where scientists have discovered that the ground is over 70 centimeters higher than in was in 1923 — indicating a massive swelling underneath the park.

Mount Saint Helens Erupts 1980

There was a swarm of 16 earthquakes in 24 hours this past weekend. The reservoir is filling with magma at a staggering rate. The volcano erupts with a calendar-like cycle of every 600,000-650,000 years.

The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago.

Last time it erupted, 642,000 years ago, it ejected 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma into the air. If this happened in today’s world, it would kill millions and cover most of the United States in a layer of ash at least a centimeter thick. The lighter ash would rise up into the atmosphere, initiating a volcanic winter and ruining crops worldwide.

This is something genuine Al Gore could get really his teeth on. Instead of recommending carbon caps, he could suggest sacrificing a few virgins to the god Vulcan. It would be cheaper than cap and trade.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! SEE YOU IN 2009.