In 2007 Glenn Beck published his book "An Inconvenient Book," the title of which is obviously meant to be a poke in the eye to Al Gore and environmentalists everywhere. Though I certainly do not have a copy, nor have I put myself through the nightmare of reading it, I discovered recently that the first chapter of the book deals specifically with climate change, before moving on to illogically blather about a host of other topics.
Given that, I thought I'd check into Amazon.com and see if the first few pages of the book were available for public viewing. Lo and behold, they are.
Like most people on planet Earth, I've been aware of Glenn Beck's insanity for quite some time, but it hadn't quite hit me yet, perhaps because I typically don't subject myself to the videos of his nuttery posted on the intertubes, just how seriously unhinged his thinking is from start to finish. Look no further than his inability to compose a single page of rational, logical thinking at the beginning of his book.
His thoughts go a little like this (I'm paraphrasing, of course):
- Lots of people want to move to Miami, including a pointless list of celebrities I will now tick off.
- If climate change were true, why would these people want to live near the ocean?
- The fact that they live there proves people aren't listening to Al Gore.
- Lefties will say people aren't listening to Al Gore because of Big Oil, but the truth is that nobody is questioning global warming.
[In this space I was going to tear into the above nonsense, but decided y'all are more than smart enough to see the 10 billion things wrong with it.]
Speaking of tearing in, the publisher has this to say about the book:
Beck goes paragraph for paragraph with global-warming alarmist Al Gore, merrily slaughtering the sacred cows of the environmentalist crowd.
Right. I'm sure it's absolutely riveting. And accurate.
Around the time the book was released, Beck had the founder of the Weather Channel, a climate change denier, on his show (while he was still on CNN):
I think my favorite part is where Beck asks why so many scientists are "all in on it," and why they're saying that climate change/global warming is real. His guest then says that it's good business for the scientists.
Well here's some recent news from scientists. A report released Friday in the magazine Science detailed a five-year study reconstructing Arctic temperatures over a 2,000-year period.
Mr. Ban [Ki-moon], who recently visited the Arctic, was addressing a 150-nation climate conference in Geneva on Sept. 3. The research, published the next day in Science, backs up his concern point by point. Led by Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., this five-year international study reconstructed 2,000 years of Arctic summer temperatures. Until now, the record extended back only 400 years. The research team combined data from lake sediments with previous data from ice cores and tree rings to build the longer record.
Ban noted that "the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth." The study shows the Arctic is warming two to three times faster than anywhere else at a time when it should be cooling down. Natural changes in Earth’s orbit vary our distance from the Sun over a 21,000 year cycle. The closer we are, the warmer the Arctic and vice versa. Right now, we’re in the cool down part of that cycle. The study confirms a cooling trend over the past 2,000 years until it reversed about a century ago. The Arctic summer now is about 2.5 degrees warmer than it should be.
In an announcement of this result, team member Nicholas McKay explained that, "The 20th century is the first century for which how much energy we’re getting from the Sun is no longer the most important thing governing the temperature of the Arctic." His co-author, Caspar Ammann at NCAR, said, "This study provides a clear example of how increased greenhouse gases are now changing our climate."
Another summary of the study.
While some have argued that global warming is merely a natural trend, new conclusive evidence gathered from the geological record in the Arctic prove that the increasing temperatures are not a natural cycle and are indeed caused by human activity, mainly, the burning of fossil fuels.
Darrell S. Kaufman , a leading climatologist from Northern Arizona University, lead a team of researchers who collected tree rings, glacier ice samples, 14 ice cores from various lakes around the Arctic and other evidence that showed a clear trend, that temperatures in the Arctic did not begin to rise until the Industrial Revolution hit which is when we began to empty tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The past ten years has shown a sharper increase almost three times higher than any other period in the past 2,000 years.
So what about the arguments that this warming is just a natural trend? Because the Earth has been slowly tilting the Arctic away from the sun, the region should actually be a degree or so cooler. That would be the natural trend, for the gradual cooling of the Arctic not a warming as some naysayers have suggested. But instead, the Arctic temperatures have increased by more than a couple of degrees.
The National Science Foundation has some videos of the lead author discussing the study. Doesn't seem like I can embed them, so check out the link.
I know this isn't all scandalicious and everything, but it's worth pointing out, both for the unequivocal proof of serious human impacts on the planet Earth, and as a showcase of Beck's inability to acknowledge the truth or allow for even a sliver of humanity in his opponents. Rather than believe that scientists might actually be looking for the truth, and that they might be trying to do the right thing and save us from our own stupidity, Glenn Beck charges "merrily" along in his quest to make a profit by peddling lies and fear.
Funny, that projection. Yes, the "scientists" are in it for the money, eh Glenn? How much loot did you haul in from your book, by the by?