Anthony L. Hall is a descendant of the Turks & Caicos Islands, international lawyer and political consultant - headquartered in Washington DC - who publishes his own Internet Weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com offering commentaries on current events from a Caribbean perspective

First of all, until I saw that program, I had assumed that the TV network Al Gore bought last year was nothing more than a cleverly-produced website on which he could recycle streaming clips from his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which has become the celluloid bible for his climate-change disciples.  But after seeing this global-warming Cassandra bloviating hot air as the star of this 20/20 special, I’m beginning to think that he may, in fact, have bought ABC!

Why else would this TV network hype a program on seven doomsday scenarios that could “end the world” and end it not with a bang (by having real scientists warn us about the perils of nuclear war, asteroids or super-volcanic eruptions), but with a whimper (by having Gore warn us about climate change)?

“There’s no debate” - Gore intoned as he recited hackneyed phrases from his movie script.  (And, all we needed was for Hurricane Ernesto to pack a real punch in Florida for last-minute editing to allow him to cite it as yet more evidence of his global warming (self-filling) prophecies.)

Of course, there is a debate.  But instead of taking my (or Gore’s) decidedly unscientific word at face value, I offer the following unassailable reports for your edification:

A Der Spiegel report by acclaimed scientists Hans von Storch and Nico Stehr (dated 4 January 2005) entitled “Exaggerated Science – How global warming is creating a climate of fear”, which makes a mockery of Gore’s global-warming prophecies; and,

A BBC program hosted by science reporter Simon Cox (dated Thursday 20 April 2006) on how critical mass has developed amongst scientists who are worried by the quality of research being proffered by celebrity climatologists in a perverse PR effort to win “The Battle for Influence” on global warming.

Since cable feeds them throughout the Caribbean, perhaps you recall how all TV networks saturated our screens a month ago with simmering reports on the heat wave that had North Americans suffering through Death-Valley summer days.  Indeed, it’s a wonder that all of those reports did not end with homage to Gore’s climatic prognostications.

But it’s a public disservice for the media to exploit Americans – with singed brains still recovering from heat exhaustion - by proselytizing the politics of global warming as scientific fact.  And that ABC would tout climate change as the greatest threat to humanity is nothing short of yellow journalism.

I hasten to note, however, that I have no doubt that the globe is warming (by a sweltering 1 degree Celsius every 15 to 20 years, ouch!), that Americans are (primarily) to blame and that it’s going to get even warmer. But I also have no doubt that this warming is due entirely to natural climate variations (i.e. a cyclical phenomenon).

But think about this folks: 

Dinosaurs roamed the earth for over 200 million years. (Before, as Gore might argue, their flatulence caused so much ozone depletion that the Sun's harmful UV rays came beaming through big holes in the ozone layer and killed them off.) Therefore, is there any reason to doubt that we’ll have at least 100 million years, only 4 to 5 of which we’ve used up so far? (Before, as Gore argues, our CO₂ emissions cause melting glaciers to drown us in another flood.  This notwithstanding - I remind all ye of little faith – God’s covenant that he would never destroy us by flood again... So, who ya gonna trust: Gore or GOD?)

Speaking of which, I’m sure I am not the only one who found this ABC report profoundly insulting to the 36% of Americans (and billions of Christians all over the world) who – according to a TIME / CNN poll from 23 June 2003 – “believe that the Bible is the word of God is to be taken literally”.  After all, conspicuously absent from ABC’s seven doomsday scenarios - with its subliminal diss of the seven deadly sins that date back to early Christian teachings - was any reference to the Apocalyptic prophecies in the Book of Revelations.

I have high regard for the intellectual appeal of secular humanism.  But it seems positively blasphemous for ABC News to encourage Christians to accept as their fate (and, indeed, to place their faith in) Gore’s theories on global warming.  Especially since its 20/20 report showed such utter disregard for God’s signs (of the end of times), which include the battle of Armageddon, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and, of course, the Rapture - when all Christians will be taken from Earth by Jesus Christ into Heaven...

But since I’m acutely aware that there are heathens amongst us, I feel obliged to admonish them that Gore’s climate-change gospel can’t even stand the test of these times.  And, here’s why:

In late-July, when North Americans were in heat, they could’ve been forgiven the naïve belief that they were truly experiencing Gore’s Earth-in-the-Balance wrath. But the truth of the matter is, the only weather phenomenon that occurred during this period was that – as Americans were sweating bullets - South Africans  were breathing the fog of unprecedented winter cold. Indeed, so much so that these Africans were cursing the “freak of nature” that had snow falling in their Karoo desert. (How’s that for global warming...?)

Furthermore, here are some cold hard facts to cool-off your brain and save your soul from global-warming damnation – courtesy of no less authorities than the Cato Institute and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):

As much as Americans may believe that this summer was the hottest on record; in fact, that dubious distinction dates back to 1922 – decades before global warming became the yuppie political spawn of hippie self-consciousness; Moreover, this July was only the second hottest on record because that dubious distinction dates back to July 1936;

In addition, Patrick Michaels, senior fellow for environmental studies at Cato, cautioned in a CNS report last week that from June 1 to August 31, 1930, 21 days had high temperatures that were 100 degrees or above in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. And that that summer has never been approached, and was not this year;

The highest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth was in Aziziyah, Libya, in September of 1922 – 136 degrees Fahrenheit; and,

The highest temperature recorded in the United States was in Death Valley, Calif., in July of 1913 – 134 degrees Fahrenheit.

NOTE: Gore and his disciples invariably refer to melting glaciers to inspire scientific faith in their prophecies. But try sucking on these ice-cold facts from a NASA study bout glacier melting in the Arctic and Antarctic:

Between 52 and 57 million years ago, the Earth was relatively warm. Tropical conditions actually extended all the way into the mid-latitudes (around northern Spain or the central United States for example), polar regions experienced temperate climates, and the difference in temperature between the equator and pole was much smaller than it is today. Indeed it was so warm that trees grew in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and alligators lived in Ellesmere Island at 78 degrees North.

The present ice age began 40 million years ago with the growth of an ice sheet in Antarctica, but intensified during the Pleistocene age (starting around 3 million years ago) with the spread of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. Since then, the world has seen cycles of glaciation with ice sheets advancing and retreating on 40,000 and 100,000 year time scales. The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago.

Alas, we have at least 30,000 years before another cycle of glaciation freezes all this myopic and misleading nonsense about global warming...