You Can't Have It Both Ways

I'm assuming it's just a matter of time before we start seeing politicians blame the recent spate of tornadoes on a) global warming; and, b) George Bush. 
But you can't have it both ways. 

Flashback: 1975 -- Steven Goddard reminds us of the terrible run of tornadoes --

"Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage in thirteen US states."

Why the upsurge in tornadoes. Hold unto your hats, buckaroos!

"To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental change sin the world's weather. The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth's climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change (global cooling) is as profound as some of the pessismists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic." -- Newsweek, April 28, 1975

In fact, US corn crops have become so abundant, Al Gore is burning corn-derived ethanol in  his gas-guzzling SUVs.

Now, somehow, an enquiring mind has to reconcile this data.

Back in 1975, global cooling, for whatever reason led to a spate of tornadoes. Then the earth started to warm and the tornadoes sort of disappeared (at least in number and intensity). Then in 1998, the warming trend stopped (yes, came to a standstill, dead stop, the BBC reports), and now we are back in that cooling phase and the tornadoes are back.

I can't make this stuff up.

A huge "thank you" to:

a) Real Science for a spectacularly good website
b) for Don, again, finding this article

Here's the link to the original Newsweek article on global cooling, the coming ice age. I remember it vividly. It was back in 1975. Of the three major weeklies at the time (US News & World Report, Time, and Newsweek, I subscribed to the latter. The first was too conservative; Time was too liberal. Newsweek was "just right.")

Al Gore got rich off a lot of gullible folks, it appears. Good for him. The American Dream.