Friday, September 5, 2008

Some Examples of Climate Change Illiteracy

Following on the heels of my previous post in which I attempted to put up arguments in favor of human induced global warming, a stark and scary reminder of what I am up against. A couple of example of climate change illiteracy I picked up from the blogosphere.

This one is from Climate Progress and an interview with Barb Davis White a republican who is running for the 5Th Congressional District in Minnesota.

WHITE: My name is Barb Davis White and I’m running for the 5Th Congressional District against Keith Ellison for the United States House of Representatives, which is called Congress.

ROMM: Where are you on global warming?

WHITE: Well, global warming really has not been proven. There are 30,000 scientists, including Al Gore’s professor, from Princeton, who says that we are now in a cooling stage. And ev-every — also every other climate that has been warmed had better grapes.

ROMM: So you don’t believe in global warming and you don’t think that people caused it.

WHITE: No, I think global warming is a scam. I think it’s a scam to put taxes — more taxes on us, and it’s called carbon taxes. Our environment has never been so clean, and if we want to push global warming, let’s push it on China, where the smog is so thick that you almost need a helmet to breathe. Let’s push it on Africa and see how they adapt to it, because they’re not going to.

And from Pharyngula who got it from Diatomaceous Earth. A letter sent to the local paper in Fargo, North Dakota. Is Fargo really this eerie?!!

When God sent the rain on this Earth for 40 days and nights, all this water had to go someplace so the Earth would be dry again.

Remember, God is the Creator and controls the universe.


God tilted the Earth from its original position and caused all the excess water to rush to the poles, and there he instantly froze the water into the ice formations that exist today. Time is ticking down on God's time clock.

With all the nuclear bombs that are made and stored for the fast-emerging last battle, this Earth would burn up when these nuclear bombs are set off.


We are not creating global warming - God is tipping the Earth back to its original position on its axis and thus getting all this ice to get ready to move and extinguish the nuclear destructive fires man will create.


Is this being taught in church or at home.? Where do people learn this?
Unbelievable! I have come across the first type of illiteracy i.e. the Barb Davis White type in India, but so far not the second. We can find humor in this but it is a rather depressing example of how a religious fundamentalist education can warp your world view. Have you experienced such extreme views in India?

4 comments:

  1. Are these comments for real or is this some kind of a joke. And I thought after Al Gore's Film people at least in the erstwhile USA would be "literate" !! Well what do I know!

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  2. It's the 'vocal' Christian right that is promoting this way of thinking in the U.S. Most of us are intelligent creatures with a brain and can think for ourselves. We believe that humans are contributing to global warming - yes, and that it is happening (and so do our children)!

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  3. Well, we probably have our own set of eccentric ideas and superstitions, not directly related to global warming per se, but equally amusing... For example:
    - marrying off donkeyS to bring rain (in a city like Bangalore): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2998872.stm
    - wedding humans to dogs to break curses: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7093422.stm

    That's why I love BBC...only there have I found these amusing incidents... :-)) I am sure you must have heard of numerous doomsday predictions from Indian astrologers...some predicting times of their own death and then 'postponing' it to 'respect' the prayers and good wishes of others gathered around him...

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  4. Hi Suvrat,

    I think you have not missed a news item I read some time back, maybe a year ago: Trees contribute to global warming. I thought it is weird. Isn't it? All along we have been cramming that trees are responsible for cooling the environ...and today we've a different thing to read in newspaper.

    Since religion is being discussed, isn't it weird to believe that the balance of the plannet rests on the hood of a snake? All religions say things like that--not everything is to be matched with reality!

    Thanks, it's a nice post, to say the least.

    Nanda
    http://ramblingnanda.blogspot.com
    http://remixoforchid.blogspot.com

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