Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Know-nothing judges

"We can't even tell what the weather's going to be two weeks from now, but these models tell us what the climate is going to be like 100 years from now," said Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a federal appeals court judge hearing a case by 12 states asking the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to set standards for greenhouse gas emissions.

Thus, we have the confusion of the ignorant about the difference between weather and climate. Let me illustrate it for Judge Randolph's sake. It can rain on any particular day in the Arizona desert, and occasionally it does. But, the desert doesn't stop being a desert because of one day's rain. The climate remains the same: dry. Everything clear?

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