>The Crazies are at it again. What is the world coming to when Massachusetts elects a Republican who has vowed to block health reform to replace the liberal lion of the senate, Sarah Palin is given voice as a “contributor” for Fox News (and some people take her seriously) and a new report out shows that the Himalayan Glaciers are not melting as fast as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had predicted – www.guardian.co.uk. This just gives more fuel to the duped-denialists out there (along with the “climate-gate” papers of a few months ago) that climate change does not really exist. Where has rational thought gone?
Maybe it was never here to begin with. After all, George was elected twice (at least the second time). Even with the revised statement that glaciers are not melting as fast as previously predicted, the IPCC obviously stands by the overarching premise that human induced climate change is a real threat to global security (in the broadest sense of the word). Still, crazies like Sarah Palin will use this new information to make the case that more “science” needs to be completed to truly understand the validity and impact of climate change. We have all the data we need. No free-thinking, rational scientist denies climate change or it’s potential consequences. Whether glaciers will melt by 2035 or by 2100, it still does not take away from the eventual threats posed by global climate change and the urgency with with we need to act to mitigate those threats.
You would think Palin would have a different perspective on climate change given that her home state has been so afflicted with warming-related problems such as the disappearance of sea ice, “drunken forests” and melting of permafrost and the decimation of forests due to infestations of beetles. But, she isn’t the most observant of public figures. Except when looking at Russia from her house. Wink.