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| Rush Limbaugh |
Limbaugh told listeners today that the polar vortex is being used by the Left to help convince us that the record cold temps do not negate global warming. That may be so; I would not put it beyond them. But there is a problem with the way Limbaugh said this, which I'll get to in a moment.
"Limbaugh opened his program after a long holiday hiatus with a screed against the media," noted Conservative Infidel, "telling listeners that cable network weather reports are obviously designed to promote the idea of man-made climate change."
"We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country," Limbaugh said, "and right on schedule, the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it’s completely unprecedented, because they've got to find a way to attach this the the global warming agenda."
But here's the problem: Limbaugh He went on to say, "And they have. It’s called the ‘polar vortex.’ The dreaded ‘polar vortex.’ Have you ever heard of it? Well, they just created it for this week!" That, my friends, is simply not true. A lot of people will only remember Limbaugh saying that the polar vortex was made up by the media, which is untrue.
Scientists have been discussing the stratospheric polar vortex for decades. (By the way, polar vortices occur in both the Arctic and Antarctic.)
I do agree with Limbaugh that many liberals and their allies in the mainstream media bend over backward to deny the reality of cold weather and how it counters their global warming arguments. We're all tired of hearing them tell us that warming magically makes things colder. That seems to defy at least one of the laws of physics.
Where I disagree with Limbaugh is on intention: It seems that the vast majority of the mainstream media's reports about the polar vortex over the past few days have not used it as a tool to perpetuate the global warming theory. What they are doing is accurately referring to well-documented phenomenon. More to the point, however, I think it's a case of the media parrotting each other. The vast majority of the reporters and bloggers who have glommed onto the phrase "polar vortex" probably never heard of it before a week ago.
But don't take my word for it: See a some articles and papers, below, that discuss the polar vortex. All are more than 10 years old.
Limbaugh contradicted himself. He also said, "Normally the polar vortex stays up there in the polar region, but SOMETHING is causing it to dip down like it’s never happened before! We’ve never had Arctic air blasts before." Okay, so he admits that the polar vortex "normally....stays....in the polar region." That negates his accusation that the liberal media "just created it for this week." It's not a made-up thing, as Limbaugh said earlier in the same broadcast.
"If they can make it sound new and unprecedented, then they can blame it all on man," said Limbaugh. "They can blame it all on progress. They can blame it all on success, which leads to excess." He explained that this means blaming people who use "more than their share of things, like oil and fossil fuel, and they destroy the planet when they do this."
"You may think this ridiculous," Limbaugh pointed out, "I’m telling you folks, low-information people eat this up when they’re told this."
What irony. There are "low-information people" on the right, too. Many of them will eat up Limbaugh's accusation that the media just created the polar vortex "for this week."
More About The Polar Vortex:
- On the Motion of Air through the Stratospheric Polar Vortex [1994]
- Stratospheric Polar Vortices [2010]
- Breakdown of the Polar Stratospheric Vortex [2002]
- Climatology of Arctic and Antarctic Polar Vortices Using Elliptical Diagnostics [1997-1998]
- Polar vortex rules: Snowy PM drive today [January, 2011] Minnesota Public Radio
- Where is winter? Look to the polar vortex [February, 2012] Mountain Xpress
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