Wednesday, July 25, 2007

All weather is climate change

L. Ian MacDonald gives us a science lesson.

And I'm still having trouble figuring out this double negative:

Climate change? Something is going on. There hasn't been an evening in the last two weeks when it hasn't been cool enough to start the fireplace - in July. In two decades of summers here, this has never happened before.


Thanks, Ian. I can skip today's brain teaser. (That should set up Red Tory quite nicely for a snarky comment.)

* * * *

Related: Good chance Mayor Andy Wells isn't a member of the Gore-Suzuki fan club.

5 comments:

John M Reynolds said...

Why not just write that the fireplace had to be lit every night for a fortnight?

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Oh thank you.

The cardinal rule of writing IMHO is simplicity. If you confuse your reader, what's the point? I have a university degree, and yet that line had me rereading it several times.

Rather affected writing style.

Anonymous said...

Right - L. Ian MacDonald, Mulroney's speechwriter, is suddenly and expert on science - much like that mayor.

Yawn....

Tomm said...

anonymous,

...And Al Gore isn't a career patrician politician with a professor who told him stuff back in the 50's, and David Suzuki isn't a media maven with a post graduate degree in genetics from the 60's.

Right.

Yawn.

Tomm

Brian in Calgary said...

Anonymous, check out David Suzuki's web site, click on "About Us" at the top right, then on the good doctor's name on the left, and you will come to his Brief Biography. It describes him as a "geneticist" (first sentence of the fourth paragraph of his biography). Click on the word here near the top, under the good doctor's name, and as indicated you will get his CV. It gives his complete academic and scientific credentials. Not once is climatology, atmospherics, or meteorology (the science dealing with phenomena of the atmosphere, especially weather processes and weather forecasting) mentioned.

One would think that if he had scientific or academic credentials concerning global warming or climatology, he would trumpet them aloud, and not hide them. One can only conclude that he has no such credentials.

So, what was your point about MacDonald's credentials again?