After every major natural disaster, someone will inevitably blame global warming for the disaster. At first, it annoyed me to no end. But now, I find it absolutely hilarious. On Thursday, Congressman Ed Markey decided to have some fun and play the blame game as well. Story from CNS News.
A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels.
Actually, the beginning of the article is a bit wrong. Markey said that global warming caused hurricane Katrina, the conflict in Darfur, and the salmon that caused US humanitarian intervention in Somalia in the early 90s. Darfur had nothing to do with the Somali intervention. Now let the ridicule commence.
"In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” said Markey.
This makes perfect sense, because Africa never had famines before the late 20th century. No one ever went hungry before then, right?
And it gets better from there. The article has quotes from high school students talking about the imminent danger of global warming.
The students who testified at the event, most of whom had lived in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, described the difficulties they faced after the storm and blamed global warming for the disaster.
"Katrina woke me up and made me pay attention,” said 17-year-old Danielle Wold from Harvey, La. “One of the worst disasters in history made me want to do something. In 100 years, New Orleans could just be another Atlantis.”
One of the worst disasters in history? What about the dozens of floods in China that killed hundreds of thousands of people each. What about the recent Chinese earthquake? How about the recent Southeast Asian tsunami? Need I go on?
And while I'm at it, pinning the blame of hurricane Katrina on global warming doesn't entirely stand up to scrutiny. Why, do you ask? Well, have the last couple of hurricane seasons being especially severe? No. So, if global warming is spiraling out of control why haven't we seen more destructive hurricanes hitting the US Atlantic Coast? Just thought I'd ask.
Fifteen-year-old Stephen Bordes from New Orleans called on lawmakers to do something to end global warming. “Cutting carbon emissions is mainly in your hands since you pass the laws,” he said. ‘You basically control climate change. We should have changed yesterday, but it’s too late to change yesterday so we should start now.”
Bordes said that he thinks the warming of the atmosphere could lead to a situation in which his home, which is near the superdome in New Orleans, could become permanently inundated with water.
Sage advice from a climatology expert. Oh wait, he's a 15-year-old high school student. Maybe it's just me, but having high school students talk about global warming really doesn't do it for me.
Markey finished his talk by comparing the debate against global warming to the 20th century fight for women suffrage. “Back 100 years ago, women rose up and said we want the right to vote, and they were successful,” he said. “Now, you are like the green generation and you are rising up and saying we must ensure the planet does not suffer the worst consequences of climate change.”
The scientific debate over global warming is about whether human induced carbon emissions or causing the earth to rapidly warm. Like any other scientific debate, there is an answer to that question, it just hasn't been hammered out. It's a ridiculous analogy because the 19th amendment has nothing to do with scientific facts whatsoever. But when you're throwing analogies out, relevance isn't really relevant.
In conclusion, everybody panic, the world's going to end. The sky might fall. It's the end of the world as we know it (no, I'm not paying royalties REM, so don't ask). I'm out of catchphrases, so I guess this is the end.
(Hat tip:
Right Wing News)