Friday, February 2, 2007

Climate but not Change, Global but not Warming

I was reading a news story yesterday that I found on either thinkprogress.org or drudgereport.com that profiled scientists who were prohibited by the current administration from using the words "climate" and "change" and "global" and "warming" next to each other. They were speaking at a Congressional Oversight hearing, and they could say the word "climate" but they literally weren't allowed to say "change" afterwards. The worst part was that these scientists weren't so called "climate change sceptics." They were honest-to-god scientists whose hands were tied behind their backs by ideologues.
Comedy and Politics has a solution for these scientists: charades.
Sure, they can't say, "All available evidence points to the fact that humans are causing global warming," but they can act out:
2 words
first word
2 syllables
first syllable
[sounds like] make "snow" angels
audience eventually gets "snow," shortly after gets "glow"
then
first word
second syllable
scientist walks around miming humourously large testicles swinging back and forth between his legs
audience eventually gets "glo-ball"
See...that's not so hard. If these scientists want to get the word out, they have to take some risks and think unconventionally. I mean, they were at a Congressional Oversight hearing. This is all basically make-believe anyway. What's Congress going to do, pass a non-binding resolution asking the President be blinded by science? So, Scientists, take a cue from Congress: play charades.