Fact or Fantasy?

 

When asked in a press conference at the White House if climate change caused the devastating outbreak of tornadoes in Kentucky and other states last week, President Biden declined to give an affirmative answer.  However, some pundits on the right and on the left are vigorously asserting or denying the proposition; and it seems to me that a great many ordinary people "just know" that climate change was - or was not - the direct and immediate cause.  But then again, many people have short memories.

I have no expertise in this field, so I cannot say for certain one way or the other; but I do clearly remember other such horrific outbreaks in my own lifetime, in Texas and elsewhere.  For anyone interested in the subject, I recommend taking a thoughtful look at this long Wikipedia List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks, dating back as far as 1657.  Many have indeed happened in December, and at least one on New Year's Day.

My point being, it's always a good idea to get all the facts before you make up your mind about weather or climate change or anything else.  Otherwise, it's just a species of fantasy, isn't it?

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The Queen on Climate Change

 Her Majesty the Queen, heeding her doctors' advice to stay home and take a little rest from her outside duties, today sent a video message to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), which is meeting in Glasgow this week:

 

Whether the nations will listen to her, any more than they listen to me, remains to be seen.

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Prince Charles on the Climate Crisis

The Prince of Wales, who has championed protection of the environment since long before it was hip to do so, expresses himself in a thoughtful interview about the problems now facing the world, marred by a somewhat hysterical interviewer and a completely misleading video title.  Well, listen to what he says, and see what you think.  

The interview takes place in the garden at Birkhall, the Prince's Scottish country house, part of the Balmoral Castle estate.

 

And here's the scoop on that "wine and cheese" fuel - it's ethanol, people, which all of Brazil and several other countries already run on.  Grow up.

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Hurricane Harvey

Embed from Getty Images

We are okay here, no problems from that terrible hurricane, which is hundreds of miles away; but of course the news of all the devastation is distressing. We heard today that M.P.'s nephew and family in Houston have 20 inches of water in the house, and the cars flooded too - awful.

Here's a little vid I found on the link between hurricanes and climate change - I do not say it is accurate or inaccurate, as I am not a scientist, and all that business is just too big and too technical for my ethereal mind to fathom. And I am certain that nothing I do or say here in my small, hemmed-in world will make the slightest difference, anyway.

I don't doubt the fact of man-made climate change - I well recall a biology professor telling us back in 1973 or so that the newly discovered greenhouse effect would be causing climatic changes, and it only makes sense that it would.  But how and where to deal with it is beyond me.  So I present this as a conversation starter only, and what you do with it is up to you.

Climate Change = Extreme Weather? NASA Says No

Is the frequency of extreme weather events a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions?

Bill Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says the evidence that extreme weather events have been more frequent in recent years is definitely to the contrary:




So now you know. Climate and weather - even extreme weather - are two different things.  Besides, as everybody knows - its teh gayz who are causing all them nasty hurricanes and such!

Muwahahaha!

Sucked Dry in West Texas

You boys from the frozen Nawth should understand that West Texas is a land unto itself: sort of like the Sahara, only with traffic lights, Dairy Queens, and Baptist churches. My late husband always said, "They call it God's Country because nobody but God wants it."

But now the right-minded, God-fearing, Bush-and-Perry-loving denizens of that dusty wasteland are perhaps encountering for the very first time in their lives a little cloud of doubt as to whether all is well in the world they voted for. It's hard to ignore a sign like running slap out of water - sounds kinda Biblical, don't it?

But hey, you can't argue with free enterprise - can you?  The Guardian reports on the consternation now bubbling up in the little nowhere town of Barnhart:




Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh said yesterday that you cannot believe in God and believe in climate change, too. Why? Because "You must be either agnostic or atheistic to believe that man controls something that he can’t create." 

I wonder if anybody in Barnhart, Texas, agrees with him today.


Honk to Americablog.