Deep South Divers
Contributor
Yeah, I hear this one all the time, too. They say things like, "It's obvious..."
Actually I WAS a scholar on it... And no, it's not changing. Sure, what we've got now is pretty unusual, but we had a spell 20 years ago where it was colder.
I remember a couple of years ago when we had like seven hurricanes come at the Southeastern US... Everyone was saying, "The climate's changing..." No it's not. Every ten years or so, there's a heavy hurricane year. How many last year? Three. Well below average. So what?
When climatologists talk about global warming, they talk about REAL change... Degrees of change in average temperatures. A two degree average change over 100 years would be proof. A five degree change over 100 years would be proof. A cold spell enveloping the South for two weeks is not proof. Getting sunburned at the beach (just like you did 10 years ago) does not mean that the hole in the ozone layer is getting bigger. And as far as we know, no, we're not going to be hit by a meteor tomorrow (remember when everyone thought THAT one?)
One day, a crab was standing at the beach and as a wave washed over him, he declared, "The sea is rising! The sea is rising! Soon there will be no land available..." Moments later, the wave washed back out, and other crabs declared, "The sea is shrinking! The sea is shrinking!" Other crabs declared, "Well, if Joe Crab over here wasn't drinking it all the time, maybe it wouldn't be shrinking!" Other crabs decided to enact crab-laws to prevent Joe Crab from drinking any more of the sea - from now on, he was only to drink from the tidal pools (which of course were connected to the sea, the crabs just never understood the connection). Then President Crab decided that if all of the crabs looked away from the sea at the same time, the sea would get it's feelings hurt and would stop shrinking... Because, of course, it was "obvious" that the sea was shrinking, and that it was the crab community's fault.
So President Crab declared that everyone look away from the sea... And those that didn't would be fined two shells. Payable immediately. To President Crab. Pretty soon, President Crab had a large pile of shells on which he could stand and look for crabs not looking away from the sea.
At that moment, a boat went by and made a big wake. And as the crabs were swept into the sea, two were overheard on Scubaboard arguing whether or not the sea was rising.
The End.
mmmmm Hooters. 
