Winter Storm Barbara

As we brace for a good old-fashioned Nor'easter in the midst of one of the coldest winters we've had in awhile (and after one of the coldest years we've had in awhile), I can only wonder one thing: what ever happened to Al Gore's "inconvenient truth"? You know, the artist formerly known as Global Warming, but now known as climate change, so that way no matter how things change, whether it gets hotter or colder, its believers can claim vindication.

The outlandish predictions, the doomsday scenarios, the shameless scare tactics...all these elements of the radical environmentalist movement (or, to be more accurate, the Church of Environmentalism, because at bottom it's a religion) are being exposed for what they are: overblown, irresponsible, and often blatantly unscientific maneuvers that would usher in a global project of wealth redistribution and massive government regulation that intrudes into every nook and cranny of our day-to-day lives.

Up until last year, it almost looked like these folks were winning. But then "Climate Gate" hit, and all of us got a sneak peek into the "scientific" process that brought us Global Warming. We found out for certain what many of us suspected all along: that it really hasn't been much of a "scientific" endeavor at all. In those emails, we witnessed scientists willing to go to extreme, completely unprofessional and unscientific lengths to manufacture a "consensus." They massaged the data to "hide the decline." They short-circuited the peer review process, freezing out anyone who wished to publish articles that challenged the phony "consensus." They unlawfully refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests- a shocking insight into just how far these folks are willing to go to make what they desperately wish to be true a fact. Aided by countless politicians and a mostly sympathetic media, they engaged in a campaign to marginalize anyone who challenged the existing "consensus," dismissing them as "deniers" (heretics?) who were mere tools of the big oil companies.

Think about it. Many of these scientists have staked their reputation, their credibility, their careers on their predictions of impending global doom. So why let temperature data from recent years that don't support your conclusions or preconceived notions discourage you? What's more important- facts, or that big fat research grant you're applying for to continue your "research"? Now, don't get me wrong: a lot of scientists are noble enough to stick to the facts. But, as the emails revealed, a number of them aren't...including some of the cause's most cherished leaders (priests?) in the scientific community.

The UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently had many of its lies exposed too. Their hysterical claim about the Himalayan glaciers disappearing in a few decades turned out to be nothing more than improperly-quoted speculation based on a ten-year old phone interview. Their alarmist predictions about the Amazonian rain forests turned out to be based on claims made in two unpublished Masters' theses as well as articles in the World Wildlife Fund's magazine...which is advocacy journalism (if you can even call it that), not rigorous scientific research.

So, as we prepare here in New England for 6-12 inches of powder, remember this: the coldness and snowiness of this winter isn't proof that Global Warming is a fraud. It's proof that Climate Change is real and happening right before our very eyes!