Is it cold in here?

The right leaning media (which normally I appreciate) is in need of a little perspective when it comes to global warming.

The D.C. Examiner (one of a nationwide series of free papers offering pretty straight news and center-right opinion) showed ole Al Gore with an official editorial declaring global warming a hoax. The key piece of evidence was a pronouncement from government scientists that 2008 will be the coolest year in a decade.

To which I responded with the following letter to the editor that actually got published:

"Even Gingrich is worried about climate change"

Re: “An inconvenient truth: The Earth is cooling,” Editorial, Dec. 23

One would not expect an editorial entitled: “An inconvenient truth: The market is rising” - but such absurdity is exactly what your piece on global warming conveys. The Dow has risen a thousand points from its recent low, but few would say that our nation’s economic crisis is over.

Similarly, even if 2008 will be “the coldest year in a decade,” the same National Climatic Data Center you quoted also says, "The year 2008 is on track to be one of the ten warmest years on record for the globe." In fact, the Top 10 Hottest list since 1880 is completely filled with post-1996 years.

Instead of this useful perspective, you slap up a picture of Al Gore and use words like “zealots.” Even Newt Gingrich states that climate change is a real danger that must be addressed. I myself am a conservative Christian Republican who is concerned. Are we zealots, too?


– John [removed to protect the semi-anonymous], Arlington

True, it hit the presses on New Years Eve, so I'm guessing something less than their claimed circulation of 260,000 people actually read it . . . but hey, you do what you can.

FoxNews is riding a similarly lame horse in today's Political Grapevine. The difference between "weather" and "climate" seems to escape them. Their logic is the equivalent of declaring a heat wave over because the temperature is down to 99 from 105.

Climate change doesn't mean that we'll never have cold days (or years) anymore, but it does mean that things are not the same over the long haul. Hopefully, some editorializers will ask the 6th graders in their house before they declare global warming over due to the next record low.

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