It was only a matter of time.
LiveScience.com “Senior Science Writer” Robert Roy Britt wonders, “Could Global Warming Trigger Mega-Tsunamis?” Apparently so.
University of Michigan history professor—I'm not making this up—Juan Cole declares “Tsunami a Foretaste of Global Warming,” though he is careful to point out that this tsunami was unrelated to climate change. Thanks for that.
The New Zealand Herald opens with the recent Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunamis, as well as last year's devastating earthquake in Bam, Iran—which killed 43 thousand people—announcing that
Across the planet, it caused unprecedented economic damage, new figures reveal—adding to fears that the disastrous consequences of climate change are beginning to take effect.
What's the “it” that caused unprecedented economic damage, according to the Herald? The weather. Not earthquakes. The editors relate the two by association, and allow that impression to stand, uncorrected.
What does all of this add up to, beyond a few gigabytes wasted on the ignorant maunderings of a few eco-pundits? As the New Zealand Herald piece demonstrates, efforts are already underway to weave the recent Southeast Asian disaster into the political fabric collectively called “Climate Change.”
Never mind that no model exists that even remotely accounts for a connection between current climate conditions and the movement of tectonic plates. Never mind that minor shifts in sea level—a favorite bugaboo of climate-change Cassandras—essentially vanish into the noise when compared with the 35-foot reality of a racing tsunami. Never mind that actual Indian Ocean sea levels—despite dire predictions to the contrary—are demonstrably declining somewhat, and have been for decades.
That the effects of the December 26 earthquake constitute a human disaster of biblical proportions is axiomatic. That this event was in any way a consequence of human activity—you know, CFCs and gas-guzzling SUVs—is at best an enormously questionable assertion, if not outright laughable.
Nevertheless, I expect that public policy will soon be formulated around the world—and billions of dollars wasted—based on precisely that assertion. I expect that America in general—and American conservatives in particular—will soon be raked over the coals of world opinion for failing to recognize the “fact” that global climate change (for which, naturally, we are primarily responsible) now threatens to crush coastlines worldwide with 35-foot walls of water.
Bollocks.