Craziest Newspaper of the Day: Orange County Register (for global warming denialism)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Yes, global warming denialism is alive and well in the OC, and specifically at its main newspaper, The Orange County Register, where, yesterday, the editors of that right-wing rag editorialized that carbon dioxide limits are, and I quote, "unneeded, unjust."

What, you ask? Isn't almost the entirety of the scientific community -- and, certainly, virtually all of the scientific community that deals with reality -- convinced by the evidence that carbon dioxide emissions are behind global warming? Yes, that's true. But the editors of the OCR have no time for science, or reality, or the truth, given that they're all about right-wing ideology and propaganda:

There's no evidence man-made CO2, even if it increases temperatures, is harmful. Indeed, some argue that warmer climes would benefit mankind by increasing crop productivity and reducing deaths from severe cold. None of that matters when government is intent on forcing change.

No evidence? Really? And who are these "some" who "argue" that warming would actually be beneficial? More crops and fewer deaths? That may be one of the stupidest arguments ever, denialism at its most insane. There is simply nothing to it. Global warming is already changing the world in profound ways -- and not in good ones, as, among others, Elizabeth Kolbert showed in her wonderful book Field Notes from a Catastrophe. And -- yes, let me go all-caps on this -- EVEN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ADMITTED THAT CO2 EMISSIONS FROM HUMAN ACTIVITY ARE WARMING THE ATMOSPHERE. Well, sort of. It commissioned a study that arrived at that pretty obvious conclusion.

Would some people like some warmer temperatures. Sure. But, again, how utterly ridiculous is that? The regions of the world near the equator would heat up and dry out to unlivable extremes. The seas would rise, threatening millions and millions of people who live near the sea, especially in extremely poor parts of the world. And so on... and so on...

There is even the possibility, as I mentioned back in October 2007, that changes to the earth's hydrologic cycle, including to the so-called Ocean Conveyor, which regulates the Gulf Stream, the flow of warm water up into the North Atlantic, could have disastrous consequences. If the Conveyor slows down significantly as a result of more and more fresh water coming down from the north, as Arctic ice melts, temperatures would cool significantly in Europe and elsewhere in the region, and, more dramatically, much of the Northern Hemisphere could be plunged back into another ice age. Researchers have already discovered remarkable changes in oceanic salinity levels. It is real. It is happening."

No matter, though, such reality-based developments apparently don't register in the OC. (Sorry, had to do it.)

It almost makes me welcome the death of the newspaper industry. (Seriously, a fine publication like The Boston Globe is in danger while a right-wing rag like the OCR pumps out this shit? What a crazy, fucked-up, warming-to-the-point of apocalyptic catastrophe we live in.)