Hot Air

Thomas Friedman is a best selling author, a lecturer and New York Times columnist. Quite obviously, he’s a bright guy. But his recent column (Global Weirding is Here, New York Times, 2/17/2010) leaves RedStateVT wondering if he’s an honest guy. Friedman objects to the argument that global warming is disproved because of record snowfalls this year. We agree that a single storm or a single year proves nothing…except Friedman doesn’t acknowledge that the warming crowd has been making exactly the same argument in reverse for years, e.g. global warming is real because it hasn’t snowed here or there is a drought over there. Nor does he mention that the climate change crowd has declared that the record snows are actually evidence in support of global warming! Even a child would recognize that you cannot use two opposite arguments to prove the same point.

But Friedman then continues by chastising the warmists:

The climate-science community is not blameless. It knew it was up against formidable forces — from the oil and coal companies that finance the studies skeptical of climate change to conservatives who hate anything that will lead to more government regulations to the Chamber of Commerce that will resist any energy taxes.

So if we hear this right, the problem with the warmists is that they didn’t fight hard enough against the mean old oil companies and the bad old conservatives. Hit ‘em again with that pillow, Tom!

And what about the Climate-gate scandal? Well Friedman again digs deep and gets right to the heart of the matter:

…climate experts can’t leave themselves vulnerable by citing non-peer-reviewed research or failing to respond to legitimate questions, some of which happened with both the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

If he were really an honest guy, Friedman would say: climate experts can’t make stuff up.


Runner-up Quote of the Week
Asked if the administration had focused too heavily on health care changes and new energy initiatives during its first months in office, when the recession had a grip on the economy, Biden said, "We've had to try to walk and chew gum at the same time." (FoxNew.com, 2/17/2010)