March 22 2007
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009819
Several readers had interesting comments about Al Gore's comment, which
we noted yesterday: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever,
you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you
don't say, 'well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not
a problem.' " Reader Martin Shimp notes:
Clearly Gore never cared for his children while they had a fever. Fevers
can be a symptom of either a bacterial or viral issue. A doctor can
attempt a solution to a bacterial issue, but not a viral one. A virus
has to run its course while the body fights it--and a fever is a sign of
the struggle to eliminate the virus. Let's see a scientific consensus
that the Earth's fever is bacteria-related.
Reader Scott Jacobson questions Gore's premise:
Some great news for Daddy Gore: Little baby Earth does not have a fever.
It's been awhile since Daddy Gore had a little bundle at home so maybe
he has just forgotten that an infant is not considered to have a fever
until her body temperature is at or above 100.4 degrees, or 1.8 degrees
above normal. In the last century, little baby Earth's temperature has
only gone up "almost one degree."
Overreacting is common among parents. I remember one morning when my
first child was still an infant. Imagine my horror when I discovered
that her temperature had risen to 99.5 degrees, almost a whole degree in
just under 12 hours. Naturally, I immediately sat down and built a
computer model, which clearly projected that by age 30, her temperature
was going to be a staggering 19,710 degrees!
Thankfully, with the help of a patient wife and an impatient
pediatrician, I came to realize that these fluctuations were normal, and
that my baby daughter would not be going supernova by the time she
reached her golden years.
And Kelly Murphy puts things in perspective nicely:
So let me see if I have this right. According to Al Gore, I would have
to be an idiot to decide, after reading "a science-fiction novel" (he
must be referring to "State of Fear") that it's OK to go about living my
life in a normal fashion. Instead, I should see one science-fiction
movie (his) and run screaming out of the theater prepared to change
every aspect of my life to avoid certain destruction.
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
: "They don't tell you, that, in their computer models, it's assumed
that CO2 drives global warming. In other words, you assume the result
and say the computer model proves we were right. It's garbage in,
garbage out. If you don't program the computers to cause temperatures to
rise with CO2, then you have nothing." Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Professor
Emeritus Geology, Western Washington University
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