SOUNDING OFF:

Let’s take a break from politics and the election and have a look at another topic that’s of extreme importance: global warming.

In my humble opinion, this has got to be some sort of mass hysteria, perpetrated by those with something to gain, and on those who are either easily led or who don’t take consider the evidence.

Is the Earth warming up? According to most scientists, yes, it is. Over the past century our average temperature has gone up about 1 degree Fahrenheit. Is the temperature expected to increase in the future? According to some scientists, yes it is. They say we can expect the Earth’s temperature to increase about 1 degree over the next 100 years. Are humans responsible for global warming? According to Al Gore and a number of “the sky is falling” scientists, yes they are.

Gore says the matter is settled and that there’s no further reason to even discuss the cause.

Of course, you should know that Gore is chairman of a company called Generation Investment Management LLP. This outfit sells carbon credits to those who pollute more than they should, which he buys from those who don’t pollute as much as they could.

This enables him to minimize the incredibly large carbon footprint that his 20,000-square-foot Nashville mansion and his dirty, thirsty Gulfstream 2 cause, and make an enormous profit in the process ($100 million so far, by some estimates).

This kind of reminds me of Renaissance-era kings who bought official Papal dispensations when they dumped their tired, used-up wives to marry a hot new squeeze. These get-out-of-sin-free cards made it as if the sin never happened. So it is with carbon credits in a “cap and trade” scam like Gore’s, which, by the way, both of our presidential candidates endorse.

Apparently, you can pollute to your heart’s content if you can afford to buy down your carbon footprint. How hypocritical.

Have you heard that 2008 is on target to be the coolest year since 2003? Didn’t think so. It is, according to the World Meteorological Society, and according to these nice folks it could well signal we’re at the end of the global warming trend that’s taken place over the past 30 years. Also snowing on the global warming crowd is the “Farmer’s Almanac,” phenomenally accurate over the past century on matters climatic, which predicts this winter will be “catastrophic” due to bitter cold weather. “Numbs the word,” says the Almanac.

Better bundle up.

So here’s the deal. Buy a little hybrid automobile if you want and do your part to save Mother Earth. But know that to some this global warming thing is not just a fact; it’s a new religion.

And if they get their way, they will bankrupt the country on the altar of this new god.

In summation, please remember: Don’t exhale.

CHUCK CASSITY lives in Costa Mesa.