(Update 02/04/2008: Please note the date when this was posted!)
This is the last post that I will be making at Harmless Sky. It is very difficult to admit that you are wrong, but there are times when overwhelming evidence makes it impossible to do otherwise.
I started this blog after much research had led me to believe that some activists and scientists were exaggerating the evidence for human caused global warming and misleading perfectly harmless and respectable people about the effects that CO2 emissions were having on the climate. How wrong could I be?
Now I realise that I have been the victim of disinformation in the media spread by oil companies and tobacco salesmen. Their sceptical claims, backed up by plausible sounding but feeble and distorted scientific research seemed so convincing.
This ‘Damacus moment’ happened just before Easter, after reading a front-page story in The Independent. It was headlined, ‘How blurring of the seasons is a harbinger of climate calamity’. No other newspaper could have made such a profound impression on me, and instantly I knew that what they were saying was a blinding revelation of the truth.
To hammer the point home, the editor had thoughtfully provided a picture of a red admiral butterfly contentedly feeding on snowdrops. Yes really, snowdrops!
Martin Warren
Now we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that the camera never lies, so it was almost superfluous for the author to add, “Although many people see the changes as quaint or charming – butterflies certainly brighten up a January day – they are actually among the first concrete signs that the world is indeed set on a global warming course which is likely to prove disastrous if not checked. … It is undeniable confirmation that a profound alteration to the environment, the consequences of which are likely to prove catastrophic, is under way.”
The rest of the article provided a wealth of equally convincing evidence, and you can find it here:
It is also worth seeing what a deep impression the story made on the faithful readers of the ‘Indi’ by visiting their ‘Have Your Say’ page here:
Dazed by this revelation I wandered out into the garden to have a look round for similar signs of global warming. An hour or so later, I was able to upload a very interesting photograph to my computer that provides even more startling proof of our progress towards Armageddon.
Climatis changii spoofata, which I believe to be of oriental origin, feeding on primroses in our garden in Wales, March 20th 2008.
I will be starting a new blog tomorrow, Wednesday 2nd April, as an act of contrition for all the scepticism that I have shown in the past. It will be at www.vengefulbluevault.org.
Update: 01/04/2008
Here’s something else in the same vein, but much, much funnier. Don’t miss it!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/epeng001.shtml?src=ip_potpw
Uhhhh… Well today is 1st of April…I hope…
stargazer
Stargazer:
Oh dear – rumbled so quickly!
But the scepticism, and even anger, of some of the comments on the Indi blog astonished me. I’ll be posting an analysis of the other ‘evidence’ in this article, and of the response it got from readers, tomorrow.
TonyN
Oh my…….another defection. I guess they’re getting wise to my evil plot…trying to convince people through subterfuge that global warming doesn’t exist so that I can get rich and continue to drive my Hummer….Curses!
Brute:
I am keen fan of your restrained and subtle approach to the debate.
Audiatur et altera pars!