Want to read something truly, truly bizarre?
Here, via Chris Mooney, are Rush Limbaugh’s thoughts about the recent study showing that Atlantic Ocean currents are shifting.
The strangest thing about it is that he summarizes the science pretty well. He’s explaining the science, quoting from news reports, and then, out of nowhere …
Now, you might be asking yourself, "Okay, how is global warming causing this cooling?" Well, the first thing you have to understand is that global warming explains everything! Global warming explains why Bush sent troops to Iraq. Global warming explains what happened to New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Global warming is said to be the reason for everything. Global warming is a political issue.
Global warming is a political issue, and as such, it cannot die; it will not die. It is an issue that leftists around world are carrying in their hip pockets and trumpeting from their mouths as a means of doing their best to destroy or weaken capitalist industrial societies.
And then it’s back to summarizing the science.
He doesn’t even seem to be questioning the science, or skeptical about it. Nor does he seem to notice that the science is directly at odds with his well-worn political screed about global warming. There’s no sign of cognitive dissonance. It makes my brain hurt.
And then this:
Folks, don’t get confused. I’ve not done a 180 and starting to buy this. I believe what may be happening could be happening, this conveyor belt business with the Gulf Stream and being interrupted. We’ve had ice ages on this planet, in case you don’t know that, and we’ve had ice ages long before man was ever industrial, before we started burning all these fossil fuels and so forth. I have not abandoned my belief that whatever is going on is not caused by us.
So, I guess this is the new state-of-the-art rightwing position on global warming: Okay, fine, it’s happening, but it’s not our fault. And we certainly don’t need to change anything we’re doing!
I just think these wacko environmentalists take these naturally occurring climatic cycles and try to blame primarily America and other civilized industrialized nations for all this, and it’s purely political. But these things are going to happen, and if this is happening, there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
And just in case his fans are getting uncomfortable in the vicinity of awkward truths, a little red meat is called for …
We’ve had ice ages. If you’re in France, don’t worry about it. You can burn cars! You’ve got all kinds of cars in France you can burn to stay warm.
Lovely.
