Prove It. Backwards.

If something is hard to understand, try turning it upside down.

In the "argument" about climate change (accepting data vs. denying it), again and again the Americans For Prosperity (the Koch brothers' political front) have demanded proof that humans are responsible.

Kentucky Senator Paul Rand yesterday afternoon, speechifying in 

front of a banner showing who he works for.

The data are there, but that doesn't quiet those who profit from burning fossil fuels - like the Koch brothers.

So, look at things differently.

An analysis of temperature data since 1500 all but rules out the possibility that global warming in the industrial era is just a natural fluctuation in the earth's climate, according to a new study by McGill University physics professor Shaun Lovejoy.

In other words, there is no way that climate change as dramatic as has been seen in the last few centuries could be caused by natural fluctuations in nature.  

Lovejoy's study applies statistics to determine the probability that global warming since 1880 is due to natural variability. His conclusion: the natural-warming hypothesis may be ruled out "with confidence levels greater than 99%, and most likely greater than 99.9%."

See more information on the study by clicking here.

And, on another cheerful note, add a new member to the list of tropical diseases that followed warmer temperatures up north:  to Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and the insects that carry them, add chikungunya virus, which causes crippling pain and sometimes death.