Star QB fights climate denial: Tom Brady beat the Colts this Saturday night.
In his typically modest way, he also fought climate denial.
How did Mr. Brady do that? Consider this passage from the sports section of today’s New York Times:
ARATON (1/13/14): If you had the Patriots scoring six touchdowns without Tom Brady throwing for any in a 43-22 thrashing of the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night, there’s a handicapping job waiting for you somewhere...Why was Saturday evening’s game played “in a New England downpour?” Because after our recent Arctic freeze, temperatures have been much higher than normal on the East Coast in the past several days.
In a New England downpour, a hard reign fell on Andrew Luck and the Colts at Gillette Stadium. Luck was intercepted by the suspect Patriots defense as many times as Blount—an undrafted fourth-year running back—crossed the goal line while running for 166 yards, or 15 more than he gained last season in Tampa.
On Saturday, the high temperature in Boston was 59. Normal high for that date: 36 degrees.
Mr. Brady got famous beating teams in the snow. Saturday night, he played in hard rain.
Whenever it snows these days, we hear idiotic claims about the end of global warming. Saturday night, Mr. Brady was fighting the Colts—and The Big Stupid itself.
So what exactly did we learn from Mr. Brady, who apparently beat the Colts single-handedly?
ReplyDeleteThat climate change is real?
I hope Brady paid attention to the people sitting on the sidelines because he will be accused of knowing all of them a few decades from now. Weather won't be any excuse.
DeleteWTF did I just read?
ReplyDeleteWhen you feel that way it is a sign that you need to read it again.
DeleteSurely, Somerby isn't using the same logic as the Big Stupid.
ReplyDeleteThe overwhelming body of science on global warming/climate change is based on far more than the weather on any particular day in New England.
Well, the Big Stupid might also conclude Tom Brady beat the Colts even though he did not throw a single touchdown pass.
DeleteThe Patriots, with a far superior offensive line, rushed for all six of their scores.
Bob Somerby doesn't care about black running backs.
Somerby actually says that himself (see the quote by Araton excerpted).
DeleteI'm reading that Araton excerpt for about the 10th time, and I still tell what Tom Brady's views on climate change are.
DeleteLet me try that again:
DeleteI have now read the excerpt 12 times, and I still CAN'T tell what Tom Brady's views on climate change are.
He did it by overturning the theory that the Patriots can only win in the snow because Brady can then throw TD passes while the defense is hampered by weather conditions. In this game the Patriots won because the other teams allowed interceptions, despite Brady not completing any TD passes. So, he confounded the climate-based theories about why the Patriots are a successful team.
DeleteThis is a post about football, not global warming (aside from the unusually warm, rainy weather during the game).
You can choose to be part of the Big Stoopid or oppose it. The first step is to think before commenting.
Gee, I didn't even know of the theory that the Patriots could only win in the snow. I would think there would be a lot of evidence to the contrary, but thankfully Bob is here to set the record straight.
DeleteSpot on parody. Leave it to a Boston sports fan to go over the top with ridiculous "hometown" platitudes. When their sports team wins it's supposedly for all of mankind. They really are that full of themselves.
DeleteYes. If the Colts happened to win that game, I guess it means climate denial would also have won. Thank God for the New England Patriots!
DeleteI am certain that in the next "director's cut" re-issue of "An Inconvenient Truth" we will have footage added of Tom Brady beating the Colts in a New England downpour.
ReplyDeleteThat should shut up The Big Stupid once and for all.
There's no doubt that the globe has warmed and that anthropogenic gases have a warming impact, However, the key question is the magnitude of that impact. The actual rate of warming since 1979 has been less than half as fast as the UN IPCC says it should be. And, there's been essentially no warming at all since 1997 or so.
ReplyDeleteMirroring those who wrongly claim that a cold spell proves the world isn't warming are those on the other side who claim that a warm spell or a hurricane proves that that climate change is taking place.
Then there are those who point to the shrinking area of Arctic ice without mentioning that the area of Antarctic ice has expanded as much as Arctic ice has shrunk. Today, the total area of global sea-ice is slightly larger than the long-term average, but climate change worriers won't tell you that fact.
Unfortunately David, wherever you got your notion of expanding Antarctic ice is selling you bullroar.
Deletehttp://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/01/13/3924653.htm
But I do agree with you on your middle graph. Don't confuse the weather in one particular spot at one particular time with global climate change.
Only idiots do that.
Thanks for that link Anon. It illustrates the kind of deceptive cherry-picking done by the warmist side. That article says nothing about the total extent of Antarctic ice. By focusing on one piece of it, the article gives the impression that all Antarctic ice is shrinking. BTW the article doesn't show actual data even for the piece if addresses. The article refers to Gael Durand's prediction. I believe I've seen other experts whose predictions differ, although I don't have a link handy.
ReplyDeleteTo see the total Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, go to http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/01/13/3924653.htm
This site shows a plethora of exhibits. The very first one shows global sea ice extent. The red line at the bottom is slightly above the long term average, as you can see.
BTW the article you linked to refers to a glacier on land. My comment and my link are about sea ice. Although one might imagine that glaciers and sea ice would change in the same direction, that's not necessarily the case.
"...although I don't have a link handy."
DeleteImagine that.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/01/13/3924653.htm
DeleteThis link directly contradicts what you are writing about, try reading the link and try not being offensive with bizarre terms such as "warmist."
Huh? This link precisely confirms what I wrote, namely "the article doesn't show actual data even for the piece [of Antarctica] it addresses. The article refers to Gael Durand's prediction."
DeleteIncidentally, Anon 6:03 PM, if you go to this google page , you can that lots of publications have reported Antarctic sea ice growing to record extent, including such liberal organs as WaPo and the Guardian. Anon 6:03 PM, do you want to rescind your comment?
PS to AnonymousJanuary 13, 2014 at 8:27 PM: sorry you were offended by the term "warmist". I didn't mean to offend. I meant it to refer to those who believe with a high degree of confidence that the earth is warming, that anthropogenic emissions are the primary cause of this warming, and that the warming will be catastrophic. What label would you prefer for this group of people?
Deletehow about "climatologists."
DeleteWe can't use the word "climatologist" to mean people who believe in catastrophic anthropogenic climate change (CACC), because some climatologists believe there are fundamental uncertainties
DeleteThere is more than enough uncertainty about the forecasting of climate to allow normal human beings to be at least reasonably hopeful that global warming might not be nearly as bad as is currently touted….The World Meteorological Organization of the United Nations [conference]...in the early nineteen-seventies… focused on just two [uncertainties]. The first concerned an inability to simulate the amount and character of clouds in the atmosphere. Clouds are important because they govern the balance between solar heating and infrared cooling of the planet, and thereby are a control of Earth’s temperature. The second concerned an inability to forecast the behaviour of oceans. Oceans are important because they are the main reservoirs of heat in the climate system. They have internal, more-or-less random, fluctuations on all sorts of time-scales ranging from years through to centuries. These fluctuations cause changes in ocean surface temperature that in turn affect Earth’s overall climate.
The situation hasn’t changed all that much in the decades since the conference....
Some other climatologists go farther and reject current climate models as unsound. E.g., William Gray, Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, Tim Patterson, etc.
Also, many people who believe in CACC are not scientists at all, so cannot be called "climatologists."
Ah, so only the few "climatologists" who agree with you deserve the title, while the vast majority who disagree do not.
DeleteInteresting.
"We can't use the word "climatologist" to mean people who believe in catastrophic anthropogenic climate change because some climatologists believe there are fundamental uncertainties."
DeleteYour words. The only "climatologists" are those who "believe there are fundamental uncertainties."
Some climatologists believe in CACC. Some non-climatologists believe in CACC. Some climatologists are uncertain about CACC or disbelieve it. Therefore the word "climatologist" isn't identical with the set of people who believe in CACC.
DeleteI have no idea what this post is about, none at all. What is the point being made, and why be impossibly obscure with no hint to a reader?
ReplyDeleteBob, this is a distraction. Please go back to writing about black children. No one else will; no one else cares.
ReplyDeletenot sure what the topic is but this isnt on it:
ReplyDeletebrady marries a model who, believe it or not, makes or made more money than him. the dominant are attracted to the dominant, not just mate-wise but socially generally. this seems to be human nature and the genesis of aristocracy.
we as a putative democracy need to artificially do whatever we can to place roadblocks to these successful social climbers to minimize their control of the levers of power in this country.
we need mentally to develop a revulsion, a disgust for these people, and by association, those who we see idolizing or gravitating to them.
the solution to many of our countries ills is found between our ears. we should want to vomit when we hear someone has gone to harvard or yale, etc. or if they have any cinematic celebrity or association to any form of royalty, past or present.
they are for their gang of aristocrats, not the vast majority of us. they are the enemy within.