Posted by
Philly Joe on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 10:56:13 PM
Welcome to this special edition of The Evening News.
Tonight, we will be taking an in-depth look at one of the
most contentious issues facing America, Global Climate Change.
Is it real? Is it carbon unit made? Is it natural,
unnatural, supernatural, preternatural?
To answer these questions and others, we will be going back
to 1970. A study, conducted by Professor Bullard C. Dingbat PhD, JD, AKA, DOA
of the Harvard University Institute of Pseudo-Science, brought to light the
first evidence of the effects of carbon unit activity on climate.
Dr. Dingbat observed that in winter, when carbon units wear
heavy clothing, the weather turns cold. Likewise, when carbon units wear less
clothing, the weather warms.
To prove that this was not just a seasonal occurrence,
Professor Dingbat noted that Eskimos wear heavy clothing year-round and the
weather in those areas stays cold. Polynesians, on the other hand, go about
nearly naked all year and the weather remains warm.
This led to a flood of studies as pseudo-scientists around
the world began looking for more correlations between carbon unit activity and
weather.
In 1972, another phenomenon was observed. When most carbon
units sleep, it is dark outside. When they awaken, it is daylight. Could carbon
unit activity be affecting the rotation of the earth?
The growing body of evidence that carbon unit activity could
have an effect on the climate led to a new branch of environmental pseudo-science,
Climo-Carbo-Unitology.
Climo-Carbo-Unitologists soon began to investigate Climo-Carbo-Unitilogical
relationships.
At the same time, legislators, looking for new ways to
squander taxpayer’s money, began handing out billions of taxpayer dollars in
grants to local universities. Hungry for a piece of the grant cash pie, Climo-Carbo-Unitologists
began sounding the alarms on the
dangerous effects that C-C-U relationships could have on the weather and,
ultimately, the environment.
The disaster race was on. C-C-U research departments around
the nation began competing to see who could predict the worst catastrophe. Like
prophets in the park, university professors were proclaiming, “The end is
near.”
In November of 1972, the former head of Poultry Studies at U.C.
Berkeley, Dr. Wilbur “Chicken” Little, was elected to Congress. Dr. Little, as
the Democrat representative from the People’s Republic of California, introduced
a resolution to make perilous C-C-U relationships a Congressional priority.
At the same time, President Nixon was under heavy fire because
of Watergate. Hoping to win allies in Congress, he adopted C-C-U relationships
as a personal cause. Nixon established the Department of Government
Interference in Nearly Everyone’s Life, DOGINEL. He appointed his longtime
friend, Bruno “The Proctologist” Goering, to be the first Secretary of DOGINEL.
Goering was directed to make C-C-U his primary focus.
In 1973, President Nixon was slipping out the back door of
the White House in order to avoid impeachment hearings. Cynics believe that he
turned the DOGINEL loose on America as a last act of defiance, sort of like
giving America the bureaucratic finger.
Also, in crisis-prone 1973, it was discovered that hair
spray was destroying the ozone layer. Ozone supposedly protected the earth from
the harmful rays of the sun. Hundreds of thousands of large-haired female carbon units
protested. They couldn’t see a problem. Since, according to the weather
report in the daily paper, ozone was listed as a pollutant, they believed that
the use of ozone-destroying hairspray should be beneficial to the
environment.
Pseudo-scientists explained that ozone in the air was very
bad, while ozone in the atmosphere was very good. Pseudo-scientists then
unsuccessfully tried to explain the difference between air and atmosphere.
Dr. Sheldon Shelby, Professor Emeritus of pre-Mayan Mayan
Literature at Yale’s School for Obscure Studies, stepped into the fray.
Professor Shelby won the Nobel Obfuscation Prize for a paper that gave what is
now considered to be an irrefutable explanation of the difference between air
and atmosphere. “The single most important difference between Air and Atmosphere
is the spelling.”
Hardly had the “holey ozone” threat been addressed when it
was overshadowed by a greater danger. In 1975, America was hit with the coldest
winter on record. The upper Chesapeake Bay froze from bank to bank. Another
extreme winter followed the next year. Pseudo-scientists were now predicting
the imminent return of the glaciers. The lead article in the “Science” section
of the April 28, 1975 issue of Newsweek announced the looming presence
of the next Ice Age.
Snowmobile stocks skyrocketed with the plummeting
temperatures. Ski resorts were built in southern New Mexico as entrepreneurs
attempted to heat up their portfolios by cashing in on the coming cold.
This news wasn’t really new as ice age predictions had been
going on continually since back in the 1930’s. Except, of course, when they
were interrupted by predictions of global warming.
Traditional pseudo-scientists claimed that the extreme cold
was the result of all the heavy clothing that carbon units were wearing. This
was dismissed by neo-pseudo-scientists as “Been there. Done that.” A newer,
more fashionable, explanation of global cooling was required. Particulate
matter being emitted from smoke stacks was considered to be most stylish. These
particulates were creating an umbrella that was blocking out the warming rays
of the sun, no matter how large the holes in the ozone layer.
In 1975, temperatures were reaching record lows. President
Gerald Ford named Bertha Bernstein to head DOGINEL, the aforementioned Department
of Government Interference in Nearly Everyone’s Life. Secretary Bernstein
imprinted her identity on DOGINEL so firmly that DOGINEL came to be known as “BIG MOTHER”.
In June 1976, BIG MOTHER instituted requirements that all
smoke stacks have scrubbers to remove particulates. Many corporations
threatened to move their factories overseas to avoid “scrubbing their stacks.”
Many Americans worried that large numbers of American
businesses going offshore would lead to job and tax revenue losses and would increase
the trade deficit.
BIG MOTHER assured citizens that the loss of employment due to
companies moving facilities out of the country would more than be made up by employment
in industries that manufacture and install scrubbers, so-called “Clean Jobs”. Another
claim by BIG MOTHER was that any tax losses could easily be offset by a smokestack
scrubber tax. And, finally, the trade deficit was already so bad that any
increase would hardly be noticeable.
Skeptics pointed out that with the large number of companies
expected to take their smokestacks out of the country, the expected tax revenues
from the companies that stay behind might not meet expectations. The government
replied that this was excessive attention to minor details and it was time to
move forward and stop the incessant nit picking.
Critics also expressed fears that the atmosphere would
suffer even more if companies were operating in countries where there were no
controls on pollution. Pseudo-scientists pooh-poohed those worries. It had long
been established that foreign pollution is harmless. “It is only American
pollution that causes problems.”
By 1978, smokestacks were again making news. It had been apparent
that despite the added scrubbers, smoke emitted from smoke stacks was still causing
smog. It was determined that raising the height of industrial chimneys could
reduce smog. A minimum height requirement for smokestacks was set. In theory
this would allow the emitted gasses to be spewed far above the heads of the population.
A fine was immediately assessed on chimneys that did not
meet the minimum heights. It was known as the short stack attack. The owners of
chimneys which met the regulations were forced to pay levies to fund regulation
enforcement.
We still weren’t finished with smokestacks. The following
year, a study by the Evergreen University School of Advanced Whining proved that
tall smoke stacks pumped sulfur high into the atmosphere. This sulfur, combined
with moisture in the air, became sulfuric acid. The acid then returned to earth
in the form of acid rain.
This resulted in both warming and cooling conditions. The
rain clouds cooled the surface of the earth but the sulfuric acid burned the
heck out of everything on that surface.
So, companies emitting too much sulfur had to pay heavy
fines, known as antacids.
Rain forest defoliation became the next great threat to the
climate. No one was really sure why, but pseudo-scientists and bureaucrats
everywhere were absolutely positive that rain forest defoliation was a greater
danger than nuclear proliferation. Wags suggested we replace the missing trees
with missile silos.
By the year 2000, both the number and the frequency of
climatic disasters had exploded. Everything from batteries to bovine flatulence
seemed to affect climate change. Carbon units, showered with “the sky is falling”
alerts, began showing signs of disinterest. They were said to be suffering from
Post-Climatic Stress Disorder.
If the environmental movement was to be revived and survive,
it needed a single cause to rally around. At the end of the twentieth century,
James Hansen, a disgruntled NASA scientist (not to be confused with Jim Hensen,
the creator of the Muppets), predicted the earth’s temperature would rise by 3
degrees over the next decade with dreadful results.
James Hansen’s prediction proved to be off by 2.7 degrees. That
made his prediction 10 times higher than the actual change. In most
places, an error of 900% is considered a miss. Hansen claimed his prediction
was within the margin of error and bureaucrats and pseudo-scientists agreed. After
all, Hansen is a government employee.
Al Gore, another former government employee, had been having
trouble getting back into the private sector. After a number of entrepreneurial
dry holes, Gore brought in a gusher, by sinking a well in GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE.
Today, as we move into the 21st century, we see the
defenders of the planet divided into two differing but loosely allied
movements.
The first group ascribes to the “Nature Rules” philosophy.
They believe that all carbon units are equal and that humanoid primates are no
more important than learning-disabled slugs. Therefore, all carbon unit
technology is unnecessary and dangerous with the exception of Ipods, Iphones, plasma
televisions and X-boxes.
The fundamental goal of the “Nature Rules” movement is to
return all carbon units to living a miserable existence in caves with a life
expectancy slightly longer than that of a poodle. This is the only way to
achieve the joy and contentment of being one with nature. Of course, the caverns
would have to be wired for cable.
The Nature Rules movement hasn’t gained much popularity
except with carbon units wearing dreadlocks and knit caps in the summertime and
geriatric hippies.
Contrasting with the Nature Rules advocates are the Nature’s
Guardians. They believe we are outside of nature and anything we do is
therefore preternatural. Thus, it must be our divine mission to protect the “Natural”
world since there is no one else to do it. Fantasy film producer and Hollywood
hanger-on, Al Gore, is the acknowledged leader of this movement. It is highly
lucrative. Al Gore is well on the road to becoming the world’s first Eco-billionaire.
So, what have we learned tonight? We have learned that the
climate is more fragile than a teenage boys ego and that the earth needs more
protection than Arlen Specter at a Town Hall meeting.
Is the planet warming or is it cooling?
The answer is yes.
What can we do about it?
Whatever BIG MOTHER tells us.
What happens to the environment if we don’t?
Probably the same thing that happens if we do… except it
will be cheaper.
Thank you for joining us in looking back at the wonderful
world of Climate Change.
After this commercial break, stay tuned for a treat for the
kids, a cartoon on climate change with an all-star cast:
That Waskely Weatha Wabbit featuring
Barney Frank as Sylvester the Cat, “Thufferin Thuccatash”,
Nancy Pelosi as Daffy Duck,
Glenn Beck as Bugs Bunny,
Al Gore as Fog Horn Leghorn,
Chris Dodd as Bashful Buzzard,
Rahm Emanuel as Wiley Coyote,
Harry Reid as Porky Pig,
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright as Yosemite Sam,
Chris Matthews as Pepe LePew,
with a special
guest appearance by
Barack Hussein Obama as Elmer Fudd.
Good Night and remember, your government is looking out for
you.