Noel Sheppard is begging you not to take him seriously
December 09, 2009 12:37 pm ET by Jamison Foser
On the extraordinarily unlikely chance that anyone out there takes Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard seriously, his latest offering should put an end to that:
Later, Sheppard declared Chetry's mention of a snowstorm "absolutely delicious."
Whenever you see someone suggesting that a December snowstorm in New England undermines the scientific consensus behind global warming, you know one of two things is true: Either they are a fool, or they think you are.
It's basically the equivalent of saying "The economy is fine: Bill Gates still has a lot of money." And yet it is one of the central talking points of the right-wing media's assault on global warming science.
Drudge will post any & all LOW temps from anywhere on the globe for that day, insinuating that somehow means global warming is fiction.
Funny thing is, you'll never see the HIGH temps, melting ice caps, disappearing water or record temps for the decade anywhere on sites like Newsbusters or Drudge Report.
Because to be a conservative in the U.S. means you must deny global warming even exists.
It must be global cooling, run for the hills, stock up on firewood, run to the store for parkas for next summer. The ice age is coming!
It might be funny if it was just some extreme fringe group, but Newsbusters is not only used as a source by right wing posters at this and other websites,but cited by mainstream conservatives in the media.
Around here a cool July is evidence for many that there is no climate change. They miss the significance of changing weather patterns.
and yes, large storms in early december would count as climate change.
On another note, this whole thing reminds me of an episode of South Park where Kyle confronts his own Judaism. To paraphrase, he compared Judaism to Christianity by saying "if you're wrong and Jesus isn't The Messiah, nothing happens when you die. You just get put in a grave and that's it. But if I'm wrong, I go to hell and burn for eternity. How is that fair?" Basically, they're saying that if they're right and climate change doesn't exist, we would have wasted some money buying more fuel efficient cars and solar panels, but if they're wrong, the entire planet is in peril. How is that fair?
I would also add that such snowstorms are not "out of season" at all. Sheppard's, or rather, Chetry's diversion (winter still two weeks away) is totally meaningless. Meteorologists know that the three coldest months of the year in the northern hemisphere are December, January, and February; it's an anomaly that we say that winter begins at the solstice. And even if their point had merit, two weeks is hardly a big enough time to get so excited about.
Up here in Michigan, I'm used to winter weather in November, and sometimes in October. The fact that we didn't get our first snowflakes until December seems much more out of line than the current storm could possibly be.
great analogy, JF. you're absolutely right. the wingnuts just dont get it... they are so desperate to find ANYTHING to refute global warming that they dig up this BS and pass it off as evidence against real research that has been done by reputable scientists.
newsbusters is a complete joke... they literally have ZERO credibility when posting articles like this. look at that picture of gore... whats the point of making such a childish and photo-shopped picture? why even waste time on it? how can you take a website seriously when they do stuff like that?