The Top Ten Crazy Things Progressives Say About The End Of Civilization As We Know It

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Top Ten Crazy Things Progressives Say About the End of Civilization As We Know It


November 29, 2010 by Brad Fregger

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Recently, over at The Huffington Post, Bill Scher wrote a column titled “Top Ten Crazy Things Conservatives Say: Global Warming Edition.” I expected to see some pretty ridiculous comments chosen to make us conservatives look pretty stupid. Instead, the majority of the comments were right on the money — which, I guess, shows how ignorant progressives are on the subject.



In addition, I’ve just seen Bjorn Lomborg’s documentary, Cool It, and I’ve been reminded of potential danger the global warming fanatics are to the economic health of our civilization and the ridiculousness of their pronouncements. For example, below find a few bits and pieces by Lomborg that are reflective of the concepts presented in the documentary.



When it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping six meters of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world. Gore’s scientific adviser, Jim Hansen from NASA, has even topped his protege by suggesting that there will eventually be sea-level rises of 24 meters, with a six-meter rise happening just this century. [On Saturday, on Fox News Channel's Cashin' In show, I witnessed a lefty commentator insist that storm walls are ready to be built in Washington, D.C. to protect the National Mall from rising waters. These people are insane. -- Jeff]



Given all the warnings, here is a slightly inconvenient truth: over the past two years, the global sea level hasn’t increased. It has slightly decreased. Since 1992, satellites orbiting the planet have measured the global sea level every 10 days with an amazing degree of accuracy – three to four millimeters (3-4mm). For two years, sea levels have declined. (All of the data can be found at sealevel.colorado.edu.)



Increasingly, alarmists claim that we should not be allowed to hear such facts. In June, Hansen proclaimed that people who spread “disinformation” about global warming – CEOs, politicians, in fact anyone who doesn’t follow Hansen’s narrow definition of the “truth” – should literally be tried for crimes against humanity.



It is depressing to see a scientist – even a highly politicized one – calling for a latter-day inquisition. Such a blatant attempt to curtail scientific inquiry and stifle free speech seems inexcusable.



And from Charles Cloover, the environmental editor at the Telegraph:



Prof Lomborg points out that over the past decades, the global polar bear population has increased dramatically from about 5,000 members in the 1960s to around 25,000 as a result of the regulation of hunting.



In addition, Kurt Loder at Reason.com stated, about the film:



“[Lomborg] allows a generous amount of screen time to Stanford University environmental biologist Stephen Schneider, one of his most hostile antagonists. (“This guy needs to be taken down,” Schneider says.) And he does this without bringing up Schneider’s role in helping to trigger the long-building backlash against ecological alarmism with his famous remark in a 1989 magazine interview that “we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have”—a foreshadowing of last year’s “Climategate” email leaks.



After reading Sher’s article on the “top ten crazy things conservatives say” and then seeing the movie Cool It, I thought it would be fun to write a companion piece about the top ten crazy things that progressives have said regarding global warming. I won’t comment on any of these “crazy” statements … I’ll leave that up to you readers. I’m sure that you can easily destroy these progressives (and socialists) with your insightful comments.



#10



“The global warming scenario is pretty grim. I’m not sure I like the idea of polar bears under a palm tree.”



– Lenny Henry, English actor, writer, and comedian



#9



“I want to testify today about what I believe is a planetary emergency – a crisis that threatens the survival of our civilization and the habitability of the Earth.”



– Al Gore, former vice president of the United States of America



#8



“Global warming is causing significant harm to California’s environment, economy, agriculture and public health. It is time to hold these companies responsible for their contribution to this crisis.”



– Bill Lockyer, Attorney General for California



#7



“As best as can be determined, the world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last two millennia, and, if current trends continue, by the end of the century it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years.”



– American journalist and author, Elizabeth Kolbert



#6



“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late. The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.”



– Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California



#5



“Today we’re seeing that climate change is … about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world … the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.”



– Barack Obama, President of the United States



#4



“Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.”



– Al Gore, former vice president of the United States of America



#3



“The answer to global warming is in the abolition of private property and production for human need. A socialist world would place an enormous priority on alternative energy sources. This is what ecologically-minded socialists have been exploring for quite some time now.”



– Louis Proyect, moderator of the Marxmail discussion and The Unrepentant Marxist blog



#2



“Global warming has melted the polar ice caps, raised the levels of the oceans and flooded the earth’s great cities. Despite its evident prosperity, New Jersey is scarcely Utopia.”



– Godfried Maria Jules Danneels, Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church



#1



“I’d say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct or nearly extinct within 50 years. Weapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.”



– Ted Turner, Founder of CNN