American Everyman – by Scott Creighton
A democratic senator from Rhode Island, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, had this to say about the tornado that touched down in Oklahoma yesterday, at least partially blaming those who question man-made global warming, people he calls “extremists”, for the tornado and pretty much everything else bad that has (will) happen across the country:
“We are stuck in this together. When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn’t just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms. It hits Oregon with acidified seas, it hits Montana with dying forests. So, like it or not, we’re in this together…
… I don’t want this future. I don’t want a Republican Party disgraced, that let its extremists run off the cliff, and an America suffering from grave economic and environmental and diplomatic damage because we failed, because we didn’t wake up and do our duty to our people, and because we didn’t lead the world. I do not want that future. But that’s where we’re headed.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
It’s not surprising that a politician would leap to the podium as soon as people start weeping for a lost child, trying to make political points off someone else’s horrific tragedy. After all, those who seek power these days are possibly the lowest form of life on the planet and certainly the most destructive. The fact that he is pushing for an agenda (man made global warming) which will create a vast carbon credit market (another bubble for the banks and financial elites to profit from) while enacting strict regulations on the basic building block of all life on the planet (carbon) is also not surprising. The financial institutions are the primary backers of congress and all politicians these days. Service to their interests above all else is the mantra of the modern-day political animal.
It’s also not surprising that Sen. Whitehouse would resort to calling those of us who think for ourselves and don’t just go along to get along, “extremists”. It’s a dangerous word these days. And a dangerous association for Whitehouse to make. But that is the world we live in, isn’t it? If you don’t praise the emperor’s new clothes, if you think for yourself and say what you see clearly before you, you’re an “extremist”.
And we all know what fate awaits the extremists in America, don’t we?
When a tornado hits Oklahoma, it’s not really shocking. Oklahoma gets a lot of tornadoes. That’s not to dismiss the tragedy these people feel nor is it to say we don’t need to do everything we can to help them.
In times like these tragedies of the natural kind are used to promote man-made global warming and in order to do that, they are often made to appear much worse than they are.
I always take hits when I write articles like these. I certainly did when Sandy came ashore as little more than a tropical depression and the press turned it into some sort of biblical tempest. The “global warming” crowd lept all over it, till actual scientists came out saying global warming had nothing to do with it.
The same will probably happen here, but that isn’t stopping the opinion makers from using the deaths of these people to claim the end is nigh if we don’t hand over still more billions to Al Gore and his venture capitalist partners so they can craft a carbon credits market which somehow will defend us all with the credit default swaps and derivatives they make from it.
So before that all happens, let’s put this Oklahoma tragedy into perspective.
Over at Gawker, this is the report:
“A massive, mile-wide tornado touched down in Moore, Oklahoma Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, including 20 children. A reporter from local news station KFOR supposedly called it “the biggest, most destructive tornado in the history of the world,” and estimated it was two to three times the magnitude of the massive tornados that hit Oklahoma in 1999.” Gawker
“The biggest, most destructive tornado in the history of the world“? That’s just simply stupid. Or it’s a lie. It’s not even the most destructive in Oklahoma’s history.
Two years ago to the day, an F5 (one classification higher than the F4 that hit yesterday) hit Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people
Back in 1999 a series of tornadoes spawned a true F5 monster, the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, which hit the exact same area, Moore Ok. killing 41 people.
Back in 1953 over the course of only two days, the Waco Tornado Outbreak saw 33 twisters touch down, killing a total of 140 people, 114 of whom lost their lives when a true F5 ran straight through the middle of Waco.
On March 18th, 1925, the single deadliest tornado in U.S. history, the Tri-State Tornado, took the lives of 695 people. It was massive to say the least.
That’s just a few of the worst from the history here in the states. There is a list of the ten worst tornadoes in our brief history. Yesterday’s tornado in Oklahoma won’t make that list.
In 1996 in Bangladesh, an F5 touched down killing 700 people and destroying 30,000 homes.
Another one in the same country in 1989 killed 1,300 people and cut a mile-wide swath of destruction 50 miles long. It’s wind speeds were so high, it simply erased everything it touched… even pulling the grass out of the ground.
In April of 2001, more than 1,000 tornadoes touched down in the United States. That was a record then. I don’t know if it still holds up today.
In April of 2011, just two years ago, the most tornadoes ever spawned in one day, 209, occurred on the 27th.
My point is simple: this is not the most destructive and deadly tornado in the history of the world, nor does it qualify to lead those classifications in the U.S. or even in Oklahoma.
When you exaggerate events like this at a time like this, one can only surmise that you are doing it in support of a political agenda, the kind made perfectly clear by Sen. Whitehouse. Your credibility is tossed out the window in exchange for recognition from those who aim to mislead the public to their own ends.
But, just to put it in perspective, this horrible tragedy being felt by so many in Moore Ok. certainly feels like the worst that has ever happened in human history because it has happened to them. And we need to help those people recover and rebuild their lives as best as we can because we are a community in the end, no matter where you live, no matter what side of the artificial divide you claim as your own.
But this is no more the fault of those critical thinkers who look at the “scientific consensus” of man-made global warming and say “bunk” than yesterday’s tornado was the biggest and most destructive in the history of mankind. Like the science of global warming, facts like his just don’t stand up to further review and you marginalize the suffering of those effected by it when you try to use it so disingenuously for your own purposes.
I am in OK. This was a big one, but not as damaging as May 3rd (as we call it) tornado(s) of 1999. As for Sheldon, he’s a political opportunist. Tornados in central OK are an annual event, no surprises there. The oddity is that the last few years have been early thaw followed by drought. However, this year has not replcated this pattern and is not supportive of global warming claims.
Think HAARP
Its a fact Tornado’s happen. Its what happens when heat meets cold and tragedy strikes. Lets dismantle HAARP and stop spraying chemicals in the air and see if the frequency and magnitude decreases.
Hurricane Sandy in NY and Fukushima come to mind
We really should demand politicians know something about science before they open their mouths and spend the taxpayers’ money.
What causes storms is not heat, but a temperature differential. You can get severe storms by cooling the upper atmosphere just as much as by warming the ground and the proof is in the outer gas giant planets, which have violent storms the size of our entire planet yet are hundreds of degrees below zero.
We know the arctic air is colder from the long winter, form the snow still falling across North America as I type these words, and by the explorers who recently succeeded in driving from Russia to Canada across the North Pole, putting an end to the myth of the “ice-free Arctic” proclaimed by the Carbonazis.
The severe tornadoes are caused by that COLD arctic air flowing south, pushed east by the Rockies, hitting the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
Is this guy on meth?
Has he ever heard of Facts & Logic?
Is crazy the new normal?
OK Bleh, let’s review. Is he on crack? Maybe, we don’t have video yet. Facts and logic? He’s a politician. To him facts and logic are dangerous and scary things. They prevent grandstanding or posing for photo-ops. Is crazy the new normal? Well, when a society goes insane, those in power call all truely sane people “crazy”. So sadly, the answer is yes.