Tom Toles for January 28, 2013

I don’t get it.

On this planet, if you have deep skepticism about man-made climate change, then you are most likely an American without a significant schooling in science.

From your NOAA:“November 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive November and 333rd consecutive month with global temperature higher than the long-term average. The last month with a below average temperature was February 1985, nearly 28 years ago.”

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2012/11

And I also don’t get the cartoon. ;)

I think we should make it illegal to make laws that make it illegal to cite something you don’t like. I think NC runs afoul of the First Amendment.

Dalmatians are white dogs with black spots, often seen with fire trucks in olden tymes – see wikipedia for more info.

In representing them as dice, Toles seems to be commenting that the global response to GW is gambling with our future. Sure it’s a forced analogy and not exactly ROFL-funny, but you know what they say about desperate times…

If you were told that there was a 10% chance that your house would catch fire in the next month if you didn’t fix the wiring, which would be an expensive job, what would you do? How about if you were told it was 50? Or 90%? If you decided to chance it and three months went by without a problem, would you consider the problem solved? And say the fire inspector was full of it? We are rolling dice with our future, the odds are against us, and the stakes are very high. That doesn’t mean we are SURE to lose, but it is just plain stupid to bet everything against the odds, when the payoff is small. Remember, in the end, the house always wins. And the house, in this case, is old Mother Nature.

Meanwhile, Al Chakra Gore buys a multi-million dollar beach home….

Anyone see anything wrong with that??

I think the cartoon and some of our better commentators have said it all.I’ll just ad, in response to the quip in the bottom right corner of the toon….I think we’re all getting hosed. :(Sadly,C.

All that is very nice, but on MY dice the five and two are opposite each other.

“On this planet, if you have deep skepticism about man-made climate change, then you are most likely an American without a significant schooling in science.”#When 99% of “science” for most Americans comes from the Bible, what do you expect? These folks think the world is flat, the Moon and Sun are just “baubles” in the sky and the “flood” is a real historical event. It’s no wonder that America is in last place when it comes to science.

I think that Google and you may have provided the meaning of this strange “cartoon.”

Climate change isn’t happening because Al Gore is fat and has a big house!!!!! (Or, as Jon Stewart said last week, “Global warming is a hoax. Because it’s cold. Today. Where I live.” Thanks for such a nice demonstration of conservative thinking processes, avarner.

Could it be that he could afford it after shedding that “Dungeons & Dragons is satan worship” wife of his?

yup

The Russians have drained the Aral Sea to grow cotton, causing massive economic, social, and climatic changes in the region. Utah ski resorts seeded clouds for quite some time to produce more snow at in the Wasatch range, causing serious problems in the “rain shadow” increase to the east.

Those are indeed regional changes, similar to what humans have been doing GLOBALLY, like wiping out rain forests, in South America, but also in Southeast Asia, and of course polluting oceans, world-wide as well.

Toles does state in the corner that folks forgot to put any hose on the truck, and the Dalmations represent a lousy roll of the dice by those responsible for “fixing” things.

Yes, we HAVE affected climate, regionally, and globally, and yes, we’re near, if not past, a serious “tipping point”. The short-term problems with sea rise, loss of marine habitat, and terrestrial habitats that we depend on for survival, are nothing compared to what is on line for those coming along in the next 100-150 years on the planet. By comparison, the impact of Bubonic Plague in Europe will be a mere “blip” with respect to what “posterity” can expect. But “deniers” don’t care a whit about posterity, as profit tomorrow is “long term investment” for them.

Yep: the government’s response to climate change has been a crap-shoot thus far!

For those that still don’t get cartoon.It’s a gamble to do nothing about climate change but, if as the science agrees, it’s real. The rising water table will put out the fire for you.

Gila Bend, Arizona always got the “hot spot” designation. Lake Havasu City, the weather service moved the reporting station from out by the golf course, to city hall area. Suddenly Havasu City was the hottest in the nation, day after day. The ’city fathers", read chamber of commerce, got them to move it back out to the cooler area by the watered and grassy golf course. Of course, back up the hill away from the lake, you still baked all summer long.

Somebody needs a nap…

Notice Paul Harvey did NOT refute anyone, just repeated his original post. I think Copernicus, da Vinci and others persecuted by the Church for their “scientific” not “religious” findings would be surprised to learn that they are interchangeable. And it was only within the last few years that the Church officially “apologized” for that persecution.