Pine trees causing global warming?

Question

Who's next? This is Wayne in eastern Virginia. Hi, Wayne. It's nice to have you with us on the EIB Network.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you today?

RUSH: Good, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: Sorry I missed your blue funk, but I may add to it a little bit. The Blue Ridge Mountains stretch all the way from Maine to Georgia.

RUSH: Yup.

CALLER: They get their name, the Blue Ridge Mountains, because -- I'm a Ph.D. chemist -- and pine trees exude a compound called "pinene" that is all carbon and hydrogen.

RUSH: Wait. How do you spell that, pinene?

CALLER: P-i-n-e-n-e.

RUSH: Pinene, and it's all carbon and all hydrogen?

CALLER: Yes. It's also got a double bond which makes it reactive.

RUSH: So what's the point? We gotta cut down pine trees?

CALLER: That's right. The point is, every pine tree in the country should be cut down to reduce the carbon we put into the atmosphere.

RUSH: But then what would happen to the Blue Ridge range?

CALLER: It would disappear. You'd cut down all the pine trees.

RUSH: Well, we can't cut down trees. The environmentalists won't let us cut down trees, but they'll burn the next time a fire breaks out.

CALLER: (laughing) I know that. But they're just being so idiotic about the whole thing.

RUSH: So you are not a member of the "consensus" of scientists who believes in this man-made global warming hoax?

CALLER: No, I believe that there may be some climatic change going on, but I don't believe it's global warming, and I don't believe that we have enough data to predict what's going to happen in the next 50 years.

RUSH: Of course not. That's why they say 50 years, instead of next year. Because 50 years, "Oh, we can't afford to wait! We've got time to fix it: raise taxes, roll back your lifestyles, make some sacrifices, vote Democrat, and go socialist."

CALLER: That's right. I've done enough modeling, computer modeling to know that I can tweak the parameters on the model and make it say anything I want to.

RUSH: Well, of course. Exactly. The models do not factor in all the relevant data anyway, such as precipitation, because we can't even measure every drop of precipitation that happens on the planet every day. We simply don't have the ability. We don't have the systems. We don't have the equipment, and when you leave precipitation out of these models, it renders them worthless. You know, you, as someone who doesn't believe in the man-made aspect of the warming that is going on -- according to Algore, you, Wayne -- are an "outlier."

CALLER: Yes, I know. In scientific data, I would be called an outlier in statistics and just chopped off at the ankles.

RUSH: Now, you know, but I want to make sure everybody else knows. Outlier is spelled o-u-t-l-i-e-r, and it's not that you're lying. It means that you are on the fringes.

CALLER: That's right.

RUSH: You're way outside the "mainstream of accepted science" on this bogus hoax.

CALLER: That's right -- and in science, outliers are ignored.

RUSH: In fact, they are totally ignored.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: That's why they're called outliers. All right, thanks, Wayne. I appreciate that. Well, so what? We're going to have to cut down every pine tree to eliminate... Well, that's sacrifice. Sacrifice. Bye-bye Christmas trees! Cut down all the pine trees. A Christmas tree is a relative of the pine tree. By the way, the Brits, some stupid government agency in the UK has warned Santa Claus to lose weight because he's setting a bad example for British kids. I kid you not. I have that and more coming up on the program in the stacks of stuff.

Answer 1

I don't like pine trees either there are a lot of them in north Florida ant the make sticky stuff all over your car, what you mean that is the Jolly Green giant making the Sticky stuff.

Answer 2

more silly BS from Rush. It is obvious that this was just another one of his stunts rather than an actual caller, considering the fact that anyone with half a brain realizes that just because something is bound up in an organism contains carbon and hydrogen, doesn't mean it is affecting our atmosphere, or mean that it creates excess CO2.

This is more of Rush's "amateur" geologist stuff that he claimed when he was filling the airwaves with misinformation about Mars.

The stuff is liquid at 20 degrees C with a boiling point of 155 degrees C. any intelligent chemist would realize that this stuff isn't getting into our atmosphere in any significant amount other than a few pine trees blasted off the top of Volcanoes.

This stupidity is like saying Diamonds are bad for the environment because they are mostly Carbon.

Answer 3

No, they don't. They sequester more carbon than they release (unless burned, then all of their carbon is released.

Reducing carbon emissions (to curb, halt or reverse global warming induced by the green house effect) is all about reducing the man made emissions that have tipped the atmospheric balance, not the natural ones. The natural emissions were there before the industrial revolution. That is the baseline below which we need not worry, so it is acceptable that they remain.

True, reducing natural emissions would be like an offset for allowing man made emissions to remain for a time. But just about everyone thinks its better to work on the man-made emissions. Certainly no one is advocating cutting down forest to combat global warming, except for the phantom liberals in the minds of Rush listeners.

Answer 4

This is not even a question.

I care about a chemist's opinion about global warming only slightly more than I care about Rush Limbaugh's opinion. Based on this transcript, both are completely oblivious to the science behind global warming. Assuming that this caller is even really a chemist, which I doubt.

Answer 5

Lets get rid of Christmas and call it simply a day of giving to friends and family something that should happen all year long anyhow .

Why invent a story to tell kids in the first place you have to explain latter was just that a story .
People then talk about santa for the rest of their lives .

Its how they get people to talk about Jesus which they then do the rest of their lives .

Only as you get older you find out no Santa No Jesus just people making money off the stories .

Answer 6

The only thing Limbaugh is an expert in, and can offer any relevant tips on, is how to get your dirty hands on lots and lots of Oxycontin prescriptions. .

Answer 7

Don't know your exact point, but if you're trying to deny global warming, your about three years behind the times. It's proven, its happening, and if you have children, you MIGHT want to care about it rather than btching and moaning and saying its some conspiracy. Even the big oil companies are trying to find ways to reduce fossil fuel use. The debate is over.

Answer 8

Thanks for the read, I love Rush. Good point. Lets avoid the Christmas rush (christian holliday by the way) and cut all the pine trees down now.