Global warming and a cold winter

Pity the poor "environmental Cassandras," said George Will in The Washington Post. Global warming is proving maddeningly "slow to vindicate their apocalyptic warnings." In a recent New York Times article, prize-winning German climate scientist Mojib Latif said temperatures have hit a "plateau" and that the planet might even cool for the next decade or two. Global warming alarmists must be careful what they say about actual temperatures on Earth, or they might commit "the unpardonable faux pas of denying that the world is coming to an end."

"George Will can't seem to get his facts straight on global warming," said the Union of Concerned Scientists, but at least he's getting "warmer." But, oddly, Will ends his column saying we need a national commission to assess the evidence of climate change. "Huh?" We've done that, and a consortium of scientists at 13 federal agencies and several major universities and research institutes concluded that "global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced."

Sorry, but the same old global warming line is becoming harder to sell, said Ed Morrissey in Hot Air, as we head into what's expected to be the coldest winter in a decade. But that's not stopping "noted meteorologists John Kerry and Barbara Boxer, insisting that the world is growing warmer" as they try to introduce a bill designed to fight global warming by slapping emissions controls on the energy industry. "Great timing, senators!"

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"Republicans, as usual, were fairly unified in their opposition to the Senate climate bill released Wednesday," said Kate Sheppard in Mother Jones, although the party is "divided between those who think action will destroy the economy and those who still question whether climate change is occurring at all." So the Democrats will have their work cut out for them to get their proposal passed—although it will be awkward for Republicans with "reasonable critiques of the climate bill" to push their rival proposals while their teammates "are still stuck in denial mode."