Another botched joke, perhaps

Bob Krumm is all over John Kerry for insinuating Tuesday's tornadoes might have been fueled by global warming. Krumm made the point well enough, but I'd like to add that Kerry wasn't the only one attempting a pre-emptive strike on Bush's planned tour of the region Friday. Both Barack and Hillary got their shots in on Super Tuesday.

Actually, as hard as this might be to admit, Kerry is technically correct. A warmer planet would produce larger temperature contrasts in winter--especially in the south--which is the bread and butter of tornadogenesis. The question has always been who or what is causing the warming? The liberals are in lockstep in believing it's mankind because it helps promote socialism, while conservatives sometimes tend to overlook the obvious in defense. The planet is warming, boys and girls.

But Kerry's error, other than conflating climate and weather for political reasons, is to assume womankind has conclusively proven that mankind is actually causing all the global warming (trying to be diverse here). For instance, perhaps some of the warming is being enhanced by external sources:

Recent magnetic field readings are as low as he’s ever seen, he says, and he’s worked with the instrument for more than 25 years. If the sun remains this quiet for another a year or two, it may indicate the star has entered a downturn that, if history is any precedent, could trigger a planetary cold spell that could bring massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.

The last such solar funk corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715.

It's simply hard to know with certainty without instrument records dating back thousands of years. Sure, humans have a role, especially when they site thermometers in urban heat villages or beside the nearest airport tarmac.

But there should be absolutely no debate about the sun's influence on weather and climate in general. That big yellow ball's impact far surpasses that of humans and pretty much always will, until it burns out or blows up. So while there's still uncertainty as to whether John Kerry himself caused global warming by flying in too many private jets or allowing his family to own SUVs without his permission, anyone who discounts the sun is basically an idiot or a moonbat with an agenda. If Kerry wanted to be unambiguously correct he would have blamed the tornadoes on the sun.

Speaking of moonbats, the original Monbiot recently weighed in about this subject and recommended we cut our carbon output to zero. A lofty goal, one I'm sure Gordon Brown is deeply contemplating after he gets past the suggestion to convert to Sha'ria law. One thing about being forced into zero emissions, the few hearty inhabitants left on earth would definitely get to see whether the IPCC was correct or not.