The Long Pole In The Tent

“The long pole in the tent” is anlater with the record cold winters blowing though
expression used in military parlance to meanmuch of the Northern Hemisphere, Greenpeace
“the intractable part of a problem.” Theand others of their ilk, such as the FOE has gone
editor of Aviation Week defines the term to bestrangely quiet!
“the thing in a long list of tasks for a projectWhen the environmental movement, politicians
that will… hold everything up” – inand journalists declare that the science of global
essence, the core of the problem.warming is settled, they show a regrettable
Now that 2007 is over, the long pole in the tentignorance about how science works. We were
for the climate change movement appears to betreated to another dose of it recently when the
the weather itself! Over the New Year, Siberia isexperts of the Intergovernmental Panel on
bracing itself for its coldest winter in 149 yearsClimate Change issued the Summary for
with temperatures dropping to a teeth chatteringPolicymakers that puts the political spin on an
minus 55 degree Celsius! All over the Northernunfinished scientific dossier on climate change due
Hemisphere, from the United States to Europe,for publication in a few months’ time. They
the thermometer continues to drop to recorddeclared that most of the rise in temperatures
lows with plunging temperatures, ice and sleetsince the mid-20th century is very likely due to
causing major road chaos as Europeans returnedman-made greenhouse gases.
to work after the festive break. TemperaturesThe small print explains “very likely” as
dropped to an un-seasonal minus 17 degreesmeaning that the experts who made the
Celsius in Britain, and Piers Corbyn from longjudgment felt 90% sure about it. Older readers
range forecasters Weather Action says: “Themay recall a press conference at Harwell in 1958
winds are going to make it extremely cold like thewhen Sir John Cockcroft, Britain’s top nuclear
conditions we experienced in January 1987 wherephysicist, said he was 90% certain that his lads
it was minus 12 degrees C in the South.” Allhad achieved controlled nuclear fusion. It turned
month through December 2007 to January 2008,out that he was wrong. More positively, a 10%
the Weather Report on CNN showed shockinguncertainty in any theory is a wide open breach
videos of the consequences of record plungingfor any latter day Galileo or Einstein to storm
temperatures throughout much of the Unitedthrough with a better idea. That is how science
States as well as shots of the Sierra Nevadareally works.
snowed under with 5 feet of snow forcing theSo, 2007 is another grim year for environmental
closure of roads and airports with the attendantscams. Riding on the global warming scare initiated
chaos that ensued.by well meaning but misguided weather scientists
The Palm Oil Truth Foundation ( observes thatand unwittingly blown up by the unsuspecting print
through all this, the environmental movement hasand electronic media, environmental NGO’s
been conspicuous by their silence. After thesuch as Greenpeace and the FOE, et al have, with
melodramatic attempt to exploit world mediaobscene haste quickly jumped on the hot-air
attention on the United Nations Climate Changebandwagon and just as quickly been knocked out
Conference held in Bali from the 3rd to the 14thcold when the weather hits them hard in the face!
of December 2007, when Greenpeace published aThe proof of the pudding is in the eating. So when
report called “Palm Oil: Cooking thethe weather decides to act as the long pole in the
Climate” and the blockade of a shipment oftent and refuses to dance to the tune of these
palm oil from Indonesia, ostensibly to protestenvironmental scam artists, it is only a matter of
against the destruction of rain forests that theytime when the world would wake up to the
say goes hand in hand with the extinction of theunsteady platform on which they’ve pitched
orang utan. and global warming, just two weekstheir billowing tents!