The Great global warming update:

A History of Hoaxes

E. Ralph Hostetter

The perpetration of a hoax follows a fairly well-established pattern.

First, there's the initial propaganda stage. As skepticism increases to the point the hoax may be foiled, desperation sets in. The second stage begins by attacking the skeptics.

America is entering the second stage, and it's not very pretty.

A review of the most recent hoaxes is important.

One Hot Hoax: The Ice Age Cometh

The "ice age" hoax of the late 1970s took advantage of the general population's unfamiliarity with climate. A massive climatic change, like an ice age, normally taking centuries to develop, can be encapsulated in seconds by computers into a form that may be interpreted as short term as weather. The marketing ploy is based on fear � not the type of fear generated by such incidents as 9/11, but a distant fear of "We're all going to die."

The ice age hoax was melted away with warmer weather. However, the perpetrators were not.

The devil's workshop was still intact.

Very cleverly, the great deceivers of the "ice age" hoax turned up the thermostats on their computers and developed models which revealed a greater threat to mankind than an ice age.

It was global warming.

Unlike the ice age hoax, where there was no real identifiable cause, they found one for global warming. It was man himself and the use of the love of his life, his automobile, particularly his SUV.

And what did his automobile do for the global warming hoax? It produced carbon dioxide in its exhaust, an atmospheric gas that constitutes 378 thousandths of one percent (0.00378) or 378 parts per million. It is a trace. One part per million has been equated to one bogey in 3,500 golf tournaments.

Not seeming to get traction in the early 90s, the global warming hoax was relegated to the back burner.

The Dreaded Y2K

The hoaxers saw a bigger fish. The 20th century was soon to fade into history, a monumental event. And they identified for this hoax a cause, the computer itself.

The issue selected was the changing of the date on the computer from Dec. 31, 1999 to Jan. 1, 2000. That simple change was going to prove disastrous to the nation and its economy. Present computers would confuse the "00" date identification as being the year 1900. The computers would become confused and "crash," losing all their information. Upgrades of old computers or purchase of new computers would be necessary.

Banks would be forced to close (translation: horde cash), power plants would cease to operate (buy electrical generators), aircraft would be unable to land (don't fly) were just a few of the dire predictions. Other nations of the world had done nothing to prepare for the great catastrophe of Y2K. It turned out to be a non-event, the greatest hoax of the 20th century.

Global warming is back once again on the front burner.

The global warming hoax has passed through the "We're-all-going-to-die" phase and is now entering the next phase: "Attack the skeptics." The global warming debate degenerated several notches when Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goldman equated those who question the present dominant media hype on climate change with Holocaust deniers.

Holocaust denial is the belief that the genocide of Jews during World War II, either did not occur, or did not occur to the extent described.

Shameful Holocaust Deniers

A resolution co-sponsored by more than 100 countries was adopted by consensus in the United Nations on Jan. 26, 2007, which "rejects efforts to deny the Holocaust."

This resolution elevates the issue to a level of criminalization within the nations which endorsed the resolution, including the United States.

Holocaust denial had already been criminalized in Israel, France, Germany, and Austria. Prosecutions under racial defamation and hate laws have occurred in Canada, with resulting prison sentences. David Roberts, staff writer for Grist Magazine, wrote on Sept. 19, 2006, "When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and when we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for those bastards � some sort of climate Nuremberg."

The Weather Channel's communication director, Heidi Cullen, who hosts a weekly global warming program, "The Climate Code," is advocating that the American Meteorological Society revoke the "seal of approval" for any television weatherman who expresses skepticism that human activity is creating a climate catastrophe.

This is vicious. It could cost weathermen the loss of their careers.

Within the past several weeks, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, threatened to fire State Climatologist George Taylor for speaking out against the issue of global warming.

Dan Webster, an Ohio TV meteorologist, claims that 95 percent of the nation's weathermen are skeptical of man-made global warming fears. Scores of global warming skeptics seem to be coming out of the woodwork.

Of note is U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, former chairman, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and at present the ranking minority member of the committee. Sen. Inhofe is a long-time skeptic of the present global warming hype which he describes as the "hoax of the century."

Sen. Inhofe congratulated Czech President Vaclav Klaus for calling man-made global warming a "myth."

A list of the skeptics and skeptic organizations is too numerous to mention here. Rest assured, skepticism is increasing by leaps and bounds as the basis of global warmers' "science" is exposed.

E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is a national and local award-winning columnist. He welcomes comments by e-mail sent to eralphhostetter@yahoo.com.