Antarctic Climate Expedition Is A Dead Parrot

It turns out it is quite difficult to sail through ice. This, it seems, is one of the many lessons that can be learned from the current predicament of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, a scientific expedition whose purpose was to further prove climate change. By “climate change” they naturally mean made-caused global warming. Instead it is stuck in ice, lots of it. It is stuck in so much ice that even ice breakers sent to rescue the expedition cannot reach it.

In a statement released to the media, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said, “We’re stuck in our own experiment.” No mention was made of how stuck they were in their own ideology. Yet, to prove that point, Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at Australia’s University of New South Wales and leader of the expedition, remained adamant that the sea ice is melting. Oh, now we understand.

This suggests two analogies. First, allow me to quote from my own book, The Constitution – I’m Not Kidding and Other Tales of Liberal Folly, where I compare the almost religious zeal of the global warming crowd to, well, religious zeal:

We are all familiar with the small religious groups whose leaders claim to have calculated the exact date the world will end. “The rapture is upon us,” they claim. They sell their worldly belongings. When the day arrives, those expecting the rapture spend the afternoon on the roof of their condo in Oskaloosa, Iowa, expecting to be whisked away to some better afterlife, or at least a three-bedroom place – with a Jacuzzi. As we have seen with each of these instances, the day comes and goes with no activity. The believers are still earthbound. The only difference is that the true believers are now more sure than ever in their beliefs. To put that in perspective, it’s like being a Cubs fan.

The belief in man-caused global warming has for years taken on this type of religious fervor.

As the head of the expedition seems to suggests, we should never let the fact that there is a preponderance of ice in any way prove that there is a preponderance of ice.

The second analogy comes courtesy of Monty Python, specifically the hilarious Dead Parrot sketch. In the sketch a customer (John Cleese) returns to the pet shop to complain that he was duped by the clerk into buying an “ex-parrot.” The parrot was indeed dead and not, as claimed by the pet shop clerk (Michael Palin), merely resting. The clerk remains unwilling to admit that the parrot is dead, despite all evidence to the contrary, including banging the deceased and very stiff bird on the counter and the fact that the bird was actually nailed to its perch in the bird cage when sold.

I’m old enough to remember when scientists were skeptical until, through experimentation that included provable and reproducible results, theories could be tested and verified. That may be still true for most science, but there is apparently no grant money for climate change skeptics. Yet, there is a lot of money (see: Al Gore) to be had in promoting global warming hysteria.

So, as you are sitting hunkered close to the fire in Duluth, Minnesota (recent temperatures hit -23 degrees), keep in mind the Rapture and the dead parrot.

 
Curtice Mang is the author of the two books, including the new book, The Smell of Politics: The Good, The Bad, and the Odorous. He can be contacted at www.mangwrites.com, where one can also purchase his books; or contact Curtice at mangwrites at cox.net.