From the Pew to the Pulpit:
Inside the Church of Global Warming
Walk carefully, I say unto you,
for thou art on holy ground. This was the
rude awakening that I received when I entered
the global warming debate. It would also be the
warning that I would forward to anyone wishing
to enter the debate over the validity of man
made global warming. I stepped into this
discussion after watching the similarities
between the scare tactics of the global warmers
and what I had seen of the scientific
community’s certainty of global cooling back in
the 1970s. When ex-vice president Al Gore
started saying, in a time of war, that global
warming was a more important issue for us all to
focus upon than international terrorism, I
placed even more focus on the issue. With the
help of the scientific community, those
who have reservations on the magnitude of
reported man made global warming, I wrote two
compelling articles meant to spark further
debate on where we should prioritize this issue
when the nation is at war. I was literally
assailed by the fanatics of the global warming
community. The Salt Spring News pen pusher
wished to enlighten me to the fact that Al
Gore must be brilliant because his theatrical
release, which I consider to be a movie
equivalent to a 5th grade slide show,
An Inconvenient Truth, was doing
financially well even though it was only being
aired in seventy-seven theatres. Much
harsher criticism would be thrust upon me by
Harvey Leifert, the Public Information Manager
for the American Geophysical Union. Leifert
would take offense with a cited paper source
that came from a survey of the American
Geophysical Union. Leifert stated that the
selection of the survey question did not reflect
a complete picture of their survey. What was
interesting to see was the fervor in which the
Public Information Manager would condemn a
skeptic. Though he completely side-stepped
addressing the main argument that I deduced,
that Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth,
was akin to a low stakes shell game. His rage
over the fact that I would challenge man made
global warming literally made spittle fly off
his letter to the editor. Within moments, little
smoggy bloggers from Canada, whose creed must be
‘We don’t think for ourselves, we leave that to
the professionals,’ would jump to the aid
of the American Geophysical Union and firmly
ensconce me in their ‘Halls of Shame’. This
anger, which goes beyond the realm of
debate, leads me to a new conclusion as
to what motivates the majority of the global
warming community. What may have started as the
observance of science and environmentalism has
now progressed to the level of cultish religion.
If this seems like a stretch, take a
moment to look at the evidence that is made
available daily. Al Gore, a failed presidential
candidate, is hailed as a visionary by
championing the global warming cause. His
slideshow movie as I affectionately call it,
wins an Oscar and the liberal Hollywood
elites praise his name not unlike a modern day
savior. CBS’s Harry Smith would broach the
topic, what global warmers may whisper at the
dinner table; which is of course that Al
Gore may indeed be a modern day prophet
(Rule, 2007). Gore’s anointing as a holy man
would be made complete with a Noble Peace Prize,
which looms in the near future. All
we have to do is step inside the church of
global warming to understand the fanaticism of
doomed earth believers. In this scheme, to
question any aspect of global warming is not to
invite debate, it is to blaspheme. Man made
global warming skeptics are not people with a
different view, they are the equivalent of
witches and warlocks whose voices must be burned
from existence. Am I too harsh in saying this?
Likened to a religious edict, Gore has stated
that all skeptic debate is to be silenced
through the ludicrous announcement of a
“scientific consensus” on the issue. Talk about
asking the choir to take a leap of faith.
It is within the contradictions of the
global warming argument, as well as the banner
carriers, that we start to see just how
much one must throw logic out the window to
support the global warming machine. What do you
do when your prophets no longer live up to the
image they portray? When they violate the
commandments they themselves have laid down?
This is something that religious cults have had
to try to deal with on many occasions. Jim Jones
who preached socialistic holiness, termed
“apostolic socialism,” was guilty of physically
and emotionally abusing both men and women from
within his flock. The contradictions of both his
actions and his vision of the future would lead
his congregation of over 900 faithful to
a cult death in Guyana in what Jones would term
“revolutionary suicide”. The death of the
followers of the Peoples Temple, of which
Jones was their prophet, should have taught us
all the lesson that we must be very
careful to never exalt people or ideas to the
level of the cult status. Is there no comparison
between the Peoples Temple and the Doomsayers of
Global Warming?
Al Gore, on a daily basis,
requests that all Americans make that
walk from the pew to the pulpit, within
the church of global warming, to limit their CO2
fossil fuel emissions to save the planet no
matter what the personal cost may be. Of
course we would expect the portly prophet
of doomsday prognostications to be the most
pious when it comes his own CO2 emissions right?
Sorry flock. Gore has been found to be lumbering
across the globe with a personal carbon
footprint the size of Sasquatch. According to
Nashville Electric Service records,
Gore’s palatial home and pool house use
more than twenty times the national
average of kilowatt-hours (Tapper, 2007). So
what do you do when your leader, who
preaches that the masses should reduce their
deadly emissions, is found with his pants
down consuming enough energy to power a third
world country? Well, that’s when
fanaticism comes in handy. We are quickly told
that Gore is still among the holy,
despite the fact that his utility bill was
$30,000 in a single year. Why? Because he
had a coupon! Thus enters the saga of the carbon
credit. Like group hypnosis, the carbon credit
sales pitch conditions the global warming
convert to believe that if you have enough
money, your spirit can be pure, without reducing
your carbon foot print at all. Of course
the ones that do not have the financial means
will have to be doing the sacrificing,
but by expanding government regulation there is
little doubt that a fair and even reduction
system can be found for the unwashed masses. In
case, you don’t understand this system, it’s
called socialism and it’s the business end of
the church of global warming. There is little
doubt that when we get to this point, we will be
asked to put a lot more than money into the
collection plate; but for the prophet Gore this
will never be a problem. Even at Global Warming
Hearings in the Senate in late March, 2007,
where the red carpet was laid in his honor, the
prophet of consumption reduction refused to take
an energy ethics pledge to use no more energy
than the average American. If this article is
making you rant, I’m going to have to ask you to
quiet down; after all, we are in church.
We have seen the same kind of
fanaticism in the push for the United States to
join the already failing carbon emission program
in Kyoto (Murphy, 2007). That’s right, even the
believers abroad that are free from the taint of
individuality that stains the American
consciousness seem to be in constant violation
of Kyoto carbon emission limits. Canada’s
emissions are reported to run at 24 percent with
their agreed limit set at 6 percent. Japan runs
at 13 percent which is 7 percent higher than
their target limit. The original members of
Kyoto, the Europeans (EU-15), carbon emission
has risen for the second year in a row. Of
course one of the world’s biggest growing
polluters, China, is not even a part of the
Kyoto agreement; but hey, it’s a great place to
buy a carbon credit!
In the end, no one is really reducing
carbon emissions, but the rhetoric is
running full blast. What are the limits to the
global warming hoopla? Will we be seeing little
smiling people with billboards and bells selling
carbon credit coupons at the airports? I want to
exhale in exasperation, but to do so is to kill
the planet; you know CO2. In time, the church of
global warming will close its doors with its
parishioners having exceeded their cool-aid
tolerance level. The confusion, if not the
deception, that Al Gore and his minions
propagate about “who is the creator, and who is
the created” will be swept away. I look forward
to that time when so many of my brothers and
sisters, currently enthralled by the
church of global warming, will come home.
So many of us look forward to that day, and like
with the story of the prodigal son, when they do
come home, there will great rejoicing and a
wondrous feast.
References
Murphy, C. (2007). The dirty secret behind
Kyoto. Retrieved March 4, 2007 from
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/28/news/international/pluggedin_murphy.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes.
