"Global Warming hysteria has all the earmarks of a religion."

A few posts ago I alluded to "the religious fervor of the global warming movement." 

Many more now are noticing it as well, including she who blogs with soul:

If the Globalwarmingists are going to start acting like a church, I think they and their beliefs should be treated like a church and respected (or disrespected) like a church and most importantly, they’re going to have to stay out of politics, just like the churches.

When I read this crap about Carbon Off-Setting I had precisely the same thought as Instapundit: this is like buying indulgences for sin (or actually to cut time in purgatory, but let’s not get into that just now). Global Warming is the greatest crisis the earth has ever seen! It’s going to kill us all! Everyone must change the way they live their lives, especially Americans!!!

But not the rich Americans. They can just, you know…plant some trees…send some low-wattage lightbulbs to other sinners to get them to mend their ways, and then they’re “carbon neutral!” They can continue to fly their private jets, air-condition their 9,000 square foot homes and six car garages, and so forth. It’s all about how much you care, you see.

Global Warming hysteria has all the earmarks of a religion. It has mythology. It has a savior (Al Gore!). It has sin, and it has easy and harsh penances (”plant trees” for the rich, renunciation and sacrifice for the rest of us). And it has an end-of-the-world scenario.

Wow. And in just a very short time - nothing like 2,000 years - The Church of Eco-Hysteria “Globalwarmingists” have even managed to become extreme and repressive toward unbelievers. Hmmmmm…JUST like they accuse the “Christianists” of being. They don’t want their orthodoxy challenged at all, but that’s the problem when you form a religion. Someone is always going to challenge it.

What was it St. Paul said, “all I hate, I am become…”

The eco-church of Global Warming is becoming everything it purports to hate! It’s a genuine religion, after all.

And perhaps in bloggers it will find its many Martin Luther(s).

So…the “super concerned” about global warming, who want to beat everyone else up with their new religion (or, if possible, at least get us lined up and goose-stepping, or fired from our jobs for not going along), have all sorts of concerns about leaving carbon footprints on poor Gaia (who is a much stronger babe than they give her credit for) and they want laws enacted and additional taxes, punishment for eco-sinning…but they don’t want to have to actually participate in all that conservation junk.

Hmmmm…seems to me if “carbon-offsetting” can effectively balance out one rich guy’s energy usage, then why can’t it be extrapolated into something larger, but still balanced? America uses lots of energy? America will plant trees and give other countries florescent lightbulbs! China pollutes the world with barely a regulation? Well, let’s regulate China and get her to plant some flowers.

Let’s EVERYONE plant stuff, so that Valentine’s Day does not destroy the earth! Because the ice caps are…well, actually, some are melting. Others are growing…. But…how can that be? Global warming is a fact, right? Ummmm, well, no, it’s only a theory.

That folks is a righteous rant.  With links.  It doesn't get any better than that. 

And the allusion to getting fired from your job for not going along... it's deja vu all over again... and wouldn't you know that the source for that deja vu is a bona fide card carrying member of the Church of Chicken Little?  Maybe that explains his behavior.  (I really must one day share the recent e-mail exchange Will and I had on that whole episode... it's a hoot folks... and oh so deliciously telling...)

Recent commenter Jane Reinheimer calls this kind of behavior hatred. 

Hard to disagree. 

UPDATE: As if on cue, Mike at WorD, another high priest of the Church of Chicken Little, is plugging this GreenPeace video.  Freakin' incredible.

Normally Mike is one who abhors "the with me or against me" meme...  no longer apparently...

What. A. Load. Of. Crap.

Comments

[Terl]

Oh, for crying out loud. Let's exploit the children, like we did when Reagan was president, and we were treated to commercials with teenagers telling us how the world would be all over in twenty years in the post-apocalyptic era. This is disgusting.

And is this supposed to be a threat? I love it. And they call the Christians Nazis.

[Anon]

I cannot understand how you can believe this crap. You call Globalwarmingists like they are a group of people. what about watercycleists, haha . Global warming is a real thing. And for the people who say its not, i'm sure they believe smoking is healthy.

and about this
"Global Warming hysteria has all the earmarks of a religion. It has mythology. It has a savior (Al Gore!). It has sin, and it has easy and harsh penances (”plant trees” for the rich, renunciation and sacrifice for the rest of us). And it has an end-of-the-world scenario."

With that definition anything can have the earmarks of a religion.

This is just a bad maddox rip from somebody with a better vocabulary and a smaller intellect.

[j]

THE GLOBAL WARMING TREND REALLY OUGHT TO LAST MORE
THAN A YEAR TO LEGITIMATELY BE CALLED A TREND

There's a bit of irony here. The House hearing on "Warming of the Planet" was cancelled yesterday due to a snow/ice storm in Washington, D.C. This is the hearing that Nancy Pelosi herself appointed herself to lead. It's that important. The self-proclaimed most powerful woman in America doesn't want to leave anything to chance on such an important topic.

Also, in the St. Louis area, a showing of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was cancelled because of wintry weather -- like the snow/ice storm that banded the entire state of Illinois like a big pink girdle stretching from eastern Missouri all the way to Ohio.

One of the side benefits of being married to a chemist/physicist is that his continued membership as Emeritus in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) brings him the journal entitled Science.

In the most recent issue dated February 8, 2007, research findings are published from a team at the Applied Physics Lab (Polar Science Center) at the University of Washington in Seattle and from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Basically, these findings challenge the notion that the shrinkage of two of Greenland's glaciers during 2004 and 2005 are going to bring about a rise in the sea level and as a result the entire Atlantic coastline is going to be flooded. What these non-scientitific threateners fail to tell the public --after getting politicians and celebrities (including media talk show hosts who like to look very scientific) all excited, is that in 2006, the mass-loss of Greenland's glaciers went back to its previous rates.

The researchers say this is likely due to the fast re-equilibration of calving -- that total mass-loss is a fraction of concurrent gravity-derived estimates, pointing to an alternative source of loss and the need for high-resolution observations of outlet dynamics and glacier geometry for sea-level rise predictions.

The research team used satellite-derived elevation and velocity data. They presumed nothing.

Glacial calving isn't new. We know it's been going on since at least 1912 when the Titanic got hit by one of these giant floating boat slashers. If you want to see an animation of a huge glacier calving, watch what John Hastings captured a www.pbase.com/earthling/image/65268465. These are the Margery calves from Glacier Bay. (Awesomely beautiful sequence. It's also copyrighted.)

What I learned today while writing this blog: In order for ice to be called a glacier, it must be capable of moving. That makes sense. And what makes even more sense is that in order for a glacier to be able to calve, it must connect with water. Big water. Like an ocean or a bay.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in India, an article written by Anil Anand from New Delhi, dated February 11, 2007, says there are only a dozen scientists working on some 9,575 glaciers in India.

These scientists call to task what they call the alarmist theories that say the Himalayan glaciers are shrinking due to global warming. One glaciologist -- V. K. Raina, says that to date, there has been research on a mere 50 of these glaciers in the Himalayas. He further adds that after nearly 200 years of data gathering, there has been no evidence that anything abnormal has occurred in any of these glaciers.

Raina and other scientists who are quoted in the article at www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1925164,0008.htm have some comparisons to the Himalayan versus the Alps versus the Alaskan glaciers. But the scientists don't make much money so there's not a lot of work being carried out in the Himalayas.

Maybe, and this is just a thought, it would be a convenient time to pump some good old greenbacks into some very real science. For instance, Raina says that when he was on an expedition in the Antarctic, he was disturbed to learn that the cook made more money than he did.

##

[Eric]

Yes, Anon, global warming is a real thing. However; anthropogenic global warming is a concoction. You have to differentiate between the two. In the last 500 million years the planet has gone through several warming and cooling cycles that we are purportedly going through now. Were humans around to be blamed for any of these? Of course not! The recent escalation in eviro-rhetoric arises from the fact that the latest research is showing the solar radiation is the number one driver of global temperature with CO2 being number 4 or 5 on the list. Also, the most recent satellite data is showing an actual drop of atmopheric temperature since 2000. Many of your people realize the the AGW house of cards is about to collapse, and are trying at a fever pitch to get your political agendas fulfilled before this happens. I can say this as a student of science (I am working on my second degree): Anyone who says that the science of AGW has been settled is either misinformed or is purposefully lying to advance their political agenda.

[Mike]

Rick - next time read the comment stream... it might prevent you from taking the post completely out of context.

[Virgil]

I'm going to roast up another whooping crane over a burning truck tire to celebrate the latest BS from the Kyoto crazies.

[Rick]

Interesting conversation... all of which I think helps proves my point.

Also interesting in that commenters have assumed that Greanpeace is endorsing ecoterrorism. Maybe they're warning us? (There's probably some study someone could do on reactions to negative messages, ie. head in the sand, criticism of the medium, etc. Fascinating.)

Either way, I maintain that video is where it's at.

Your words Mike, from your comments. Where am I taking you out of context?

Hmmm?

[Leslie]

What impresses me is the vile manner in which this child is addressing his adult audience. Climate shift is real -- we now look to our children for advice instead of imparting our wisdom to them. Why?

Because we are no longer wise.
We don't have to be, we can just believe everything the smart men inside the TV tell us.

[Rick]

Beautifully put Leslie... beautifully put...

And by the way all, Mike writes me privately in reply to my comments here to tell me:

Dude - the whole point of my post was the power of video... not global warming. Based on your view of the world (and your view of me) you've read things into it that weren't there.

I replied with a one word answer rhyming with full-spit.

UPDATE: Mike swears that the central focus of his post was on the power of video and not global warming... since then, he's posted on this:

We reported to you last week that Al Gore is going to be organizing a concert event to even further promote the issue of global warming. Yesterday, the formal announcement came: “The 24-hour event on July 7 is part of a campaign, Save Our Selves -- The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis.” The concerts will take place on seven continents, with concerts in China, South Africa, Australia, London, Japan, Brazil and the United States. It’s said that this concert, dubbed Live Earth, could reach as many as 2 billion people. "In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people,” Al Gore said in a statement. “The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement.” More than 100 performers are scheduled to appear, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Snoop Dogg, Melissa Etheridge, the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Duran Duran, Korn, Pharrell, the Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Proceeds will create a foundation to combat climate change led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, which is chaired by Gore. Don't forget to submit your video about climate change! Visit our Convenient Truths contest to find out more. Via ::CNN ::Live Earth

Yea... it's all about the power of video and not global warming.

Full-spit.

[robert]

it's really amazing that we can't even agree on what we're arguing about. We should all retire to our own quarters and communicate only with those whose views we share.
Nothing would get accomplished but at least it would be quieter.

[Rick]

Robert... I think what's more amazing is the blatant dishonesty being used by one side of this argument... blatant...