HURRICANE SANDY, GLOBAL WARMING AND HOW THE FASCISTS ARE WINNING THE WAR ON YOUR MIND

Way back when I was in college when dinosaurs roamed the earth and fire was a novelty, I took a class that examined conspiracy theories, cyptozoology and UFO's. In it, my professor, Dr. Kenneth Feder, told us that whenever you read or hear something that has "facts," treat everything as if it is a falsehood until you can prove it yourself. He used the example of Erich Von Daniken's book "Chariot of the Gods" as a good example. He was reading it one day and was fascinated by what he read until he got to the part about Mayan glyphs that Daniken said showed a man piloting a spaceship. As an anthropologist and well versed in Mayan culture, he knew that wasn't what was being depicted at all but was instead a picture of Mayan afterlife beliefs. But anyone with little to no knowledge of Mayan culture might take Daniken's word for it and repeat it to others, spreading the myth until it becomes a "truth," in and of itself.

This is exactly what has happened with climate change. People like the Koch brothers have an invested interest in NOT allowing climate change to be seen as truth and, as a result, puts out dozens of "scientific" studies that say it's all a myth. Only it isn't and the world is being fooled into a false sense of reality that may kill us all.

Are all climate change theories true then? Hardly. The climate change field has it's share of problems too with people putting forth false ideas for the sole purpose of continuing funding to their pet projects, but these are far fewer than the anti-global warming idiots who are putting out studies than are in no way replicable and, therefore, junk science.

Here are a few facts that are NOT in dispute. The earth is getting warmer. The oceans are getting warmer and more acidic. Glaciers are melting at a pace never seen ever in history. The Arctic and Greenland are melting at record levels while the Antarctic is getting colder. We are breaking environmental records at a rate unheard of in modern history and beyond the rate of statistical anomalies. None of what I have said above is disputable. If anyone out there has any proof of the above not being true, I would love to see it because all the studies that say it ISN'T happening that I have seen so far, are bunk.

The loss of Arctic ice is going to have profound effects on the weather, of which we have started to see. On August 26th, 2007, Arctic sea ice hit record lows and has continued to decline every year since, dropping below 1.5 million square miles or a 45% loss. This is unheard of in human history. Because of this drop in ice, solar radiation is increasing, raising the temperatures and melting more sea ice. Eventually, we will hit a tipping point and the Earth may warm rapidly then and end all civilization as a result.

This is also causing wide fluctuations in the jet stream and this could alter weather patterns in the US causing drought, hurricanes and blizzards in record numbers. Oh wait a minute, we already HAVE seen this as the Midwest is a dust bowl and the Northeast just saw its second major hurricane in the last two years. I have lived in this area for most of my life and I have only been in four hurricanes ever. Two in the last year is a little suspect. Mind you, back in the fifties, the Northeast had three hurricanes, two of which were category 3, so frequency in and of itself is not a sole indicator of global warming. However, the size and scope of these storms are much different from even stronger previous ones which does make it more likely to be caused by climate change.

What about temperatures? The month of June broke or tied 3,215 high temp readings, which followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere and the 327th consecutive month the entire planet exceeded the 20th century average, which statistically to happen by chance is 3.7x10-99, a number that has more digits than grains of sand on a beach.

So was Sandy a product of global warming? Most likely, yes. The size and scope of this hurricane has never been seen before. I have never heard of hurricane warnings in places like Ohio and Michigan. Last year, Vermont got pummelled by Irene and that never happens. This year, New Jersey and New York got flooded. Parts of Queens burned to the ground. Seaside Heights and Atlantic City boardwalks are in people's front yard. Most disturbing, the Jersey Shore house is no more. Let us have a moment of silence for all the herpes germs that lost their lives when the condo sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Hurricanes like this one are exactly the predictions made by experts who say there will be far less hurricanes but the ones that hit are going to be doozies. Warmer ocean temps cause greater storms and the Atlantic this year is one degree warmer than usual. That may not sound like a lot but our oceans are a lot more fragile than you would think. A temperature spike of just one degree is one of the major factors in coral deaths world wide. It was also enough to strengthen Sandy and cause the devastation those of us who still have power have witnessed. The fact it happened during a full moon and high tide certainly didn't help.

The fact is the world is getting warmer and weather patterns are shifting dramatically as a result. If you read anything that says otherwise just remember what Dr. Feder used to tell me: Unless you are an expert of what is being told to you, look farther than what just one idiot says. Fox news viewers should take that to heart.