Life imitates Niven, Pournelle & Flynn.

Where have I heard this one before?

Human emissions of fossil carbon into the atmosphere and the resulting increase in temperatures may be holding off the next ice age, according to research from Sweden’s University of Gothenburg.

“We are probably entering a new ice age right now,” Lars Franzen, a professor of physical geography at the university, was cited as saying in an online statement today. “However, we’re not noticing it due to the effects of carbon dioxide.”

Of course, “right now” is a somewhat nebulous concept to a professor of physical geography; he’s probably not talking about the Sumerians, but I wouldn’t bet that he means anything later than, say, the 18th Century AD either.  Which is part of the problem of science reporting, alas (the other half being that both sides fondly think that they’re speaking the same kind of English*)…

All of which leads to my real point: Fallen Angels wasn’t half bad.

A little dated by now – nobody really expects that the Greens and the Religious Right will make common cause – but still not half bad.

Moe Lane

Via… dagnabbit, I don’t remember now.

*Or, um, Swedish in this case.

8 thoughts on “Life imitates Niven, Pournelle & Flynn.”

  1. Oh, I don’t think that the religious Right would have too many problems working with the Greens under the correct circumstances – namely, the fiscal cons manage to peel off enough of the folks currently allied with the Democrats to boot those who are purely social cons, but want waaaay more big government cheese. It’s really no odder than the Jewish Americans in a coalition with the party that wants Israel to go away, or the African-Americans in a coalition with the party that wants to keep them unemployed and on welfare.

    1. Concur, Skip .. just requires a few tweaks to make Gaia an acceptable alternate term for Yaweh… Tashlan by any other name…
      .
      I’ll take it one step more .. so long as the greens and the religio-statists remain frustrated by their respective parties, some form of common cause remains possible.
      .
      Mew

    2. I disagree; the religious statists might make common cause with progressives in general (heck, the original progressives often had religious or pseudo-religious justifications for their philosophy) but never the Greens. Even the most pro-government elements among religious conservatives are also pro-life and pro-human in general. The Greens consider humanity a blight on the face of Gaia that should be reigned in or eliminated at every opportunity. You might see a temporary, tactical ceasefire between the two, but never a strategic alliance.

    3. Have to join FRO in disagreement – Greens and secular progressives have told everybody religious to drop dead too many times.

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