Yesterday evening I was at a friend’s house for a Christmas Eve party. Most of the people there were Hollywood types with a sprinkling of what is known locally as “civilians,” plus a few journos. But it wasn’t a business party. Everyone was in a friendly mood, drinking champagne, eating the generous spread and singing Christmas Carols.
Still, there was casual conversation. What have you been up to, etc. etc.? I, as readers of this blog know, had just been to Copenhagen for the UN climate conference. People asked about it, but I didn’t go into my thoughts heavily because I knew I was in conventionally liberal territory and why cause dissension on Xmas Eve? Changing minds isn’t an easy thing to accomplish in any situation. Changing minds at an event like that would be nearly impossible and the attempt to do so rude. Also people tend to conflate skepticism about AGW with being pro-pollution, as if they were the same thing. Incredibly, I heard James Carville make that very accusation on television, even though the reverse may be true. (Focusing on a bogus or inflated CO2 correlation with global warming takes attention away from legitimate problems like clean water.) I didn’t want to have to explain myself on that score.
Nevertheless… ill-mannered fellow that I am… I did get into it with one gentleman – a man from a background encompassing Hollywood, high lit and politics – who insisted that anthropogenic global warming is a problem because “NASA says it is.” Until the respected NASA tells him otherwise, AGW is a major, perhaps catastrophic concern. Well, I love NASA too, but that doesn’t mean it’s always right or that all its many divisions are of equal merit. NASA has “interests” too, as we all do. Anyway, this post is for the man at that party, not that I ever really expect him to read it or consider the information in the following video. People believe what they want to believe. (The speaker in the video is Rep. Ted Poe, R-TX.)
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