Massive Ice Island heading toward Canada

Well, the headline seems to be threatening enough. Get ready for a big bump. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43848004/ns/us_news-environment/

But the real story is a little different. We've had icebergs before and we'll have icebergs again. Even Manhattan sized ones. There are two things that struck me about this article. The first was that the first comment was "Nothing to see here. Global warming is just a liberal lie; this was just Al Gore with a hair dryer." Thanks Toasty. Other comments discourage me about the state of debate in the world.


I got a little side-tracked reading these comments. I noticed Toasty had commented also on Modern Humans had Sex with Neanderthals and I wondered if I could characterize him in my vision of the kind of right wing evolution-denying anti-global-warming crackpot that I envision stalking the margins of the internet. However, I could not discern a trend in his comments. Perhaps, as they say, "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds" (i.e. mine). I'd like to think I could keep a consistent set of attitudes and beliefs. Toasty clearly has eclectic beliefs. Good for him.


The other thing that got me down about the comments on the ice island story was the fact that Toasty got 23 thumbs up for his liberal lie comment. Other commentators went ahead and quoted stories on how our warming is not global http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/GW_NotGlobal.htm and "your nuts" (sic) mentioned how the 12 hour weather forecast isn't accurate, so how can a century forecast be right? (Frankly, I wish he'd leave my nuts out of this and remember we know it will be hot next summer and cold next winter, but we don't know exactly which days will be the hottest or coldest until we get much closer.)


This "not global" theory is a new denialist tactic I've seen recently. By stating that the evidence of climate change is local, not global, they derail the data train. Even when we have evidence, they can state that the overall theory is wrong, even though some evidence seems to be right. You just can't win with these people.