March of the Polar Bears
22nd May 2008
George Will points out the silliness of listing as “endangered” a species that is increasing its numbers.
Because of restrictions on hunting, polar bears might be more numerous today than ever and might be twice as numerous as they were three decades ago — when the media were fanning frenzy about global cooling. (Science magazine, March 1975, reported “the approach of a full-blown 10,000-year ice age.”)
But it’s not about the polar bears — it’s about cancelling the Industrial Revolution.
Want to build a power plant in Arizona? A building in Florida? Do you want to drive an SUV? Or leave your cellphone charger plugged in overnight? Some judge might construe federal policy as proscribing these activities. Kempthorne says such uses of the act, unintended by those who wrote it in 1973, would be “wholly inappropriate.” But in 1973, climate Cassandras were saying that “the world’s climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age” (Science Digest, February 1973). And no authors of the Constitution or the 14th Amendment intended to create a “fundamental” right to abortion, but there it is.
May 24th, 2008 at 16:47
It’s worth noting that George Will keeps getting that alleged Science magazine quote wrong. It’s not Science magazine, it’s Science News, and it’s a cherry-picked line from a much broader article, the central point of which is that climate scientists, at the time it was written, did not know whether an ice age was coming or not. That’s a far cry from the message he sends by quoting the bit out of context as he has repeatedly done.
May 24th, 2008 at 19:05
A political columnist took a quote out of context? Oh, say it ain’t so….