In honor of the bloggers in Amsterdam today:

It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank - Linda Pastan

It is raining on the house
of Anne Frank
and on the tourists
herded together under the shadow
of their umbrellas,
on the perfectly silent
tourists who would rather be
somewhere else
but who wait here on stairs
so steep they must rise
to some occasion
high in the empty loft,
in the quaint toilet,
in the skeleton
of a kitchen
or on the map-
each of its arrows
a barb of wire-
with all the dates, the expulsions,
the forbidding shapes
of continents.
And across Amsterdam it is raining
on the Van Gogh Museum
where we will hurry next
to see how someone else
could find the pure
center of light
within the dark circle
of his demons.

The argument against global warming (as with the argument against evolution) seems to be “if even one scientist says it, you can take it to the bank, unless almost every scientist says it, in which case it’s clearly politically motivated bullshit.”

Like so:

So, Paramount is gearing up to release an Al Gore documentary about global warming. But at least two scientists in the Philippines are rejecting Gore’s hot air. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports:

‘Not everyone was pleased with the way former US Vice President Al Gore was given “celebrity” treatment when he spoke as a crusader against global warming in Manila.

‘Two scientists from the University of the Philippines yesterday lamented how Gore’s “doomsday” pronouncements apparently received more attention than the more detailed analyses and solutions offered by Filipino environmental experts. They also challenged and branded as “exaggerated” what the former US leader said about Manila Bay “overflowing” because of the greenhouse effect…’

…I hope more scientists committed to the truth speak up about Gore’s bloviations.

Now, if one reads the full reprinted section, it’s clear that these Filipino scientists are, for the most part, picking nits. They’re worried that the focus on global warming will lead local officials to ignore the other problems involved in causing Manila Bay to overflow. Still, they do call global warming exaggerated, which should lead to a job offer from the Heritage Foundation any day now.

But it’s an unfortunate coincidence (for both Malkin and the scientists) that this week also happens to be the week in which some obscure rag called Science decided to release some interesting news about global warming.

Spoiler warning: It’s even worse than we thought. (No direct link available because of the paywall.)

Increased meltwater production, if it reaches the glacier bed through crevasses, provides a clear mechanism for enhanced flow through basal lubrication and sliding.A clue to this is provided by observations of the coincidence of ice acceleration with the duration of summer melting on the ice sheet even beyond the boundaries of fast-flowing outlet glaciers…

Existing and forthcoming satellites will continue to measure ice-surface elevation and any shifts in the rates of surface melting and accumulation. In a warming world, it is likely that the contribution to sea-level rise from Greenland is set to grow further, assuming that the observed acceleration in outlet-glacier velocities is sustained, with possible increases in precipitation providing the onlyprospect of short-term amelioration.

Whatever the cause of global warming (hint: it’s us), global warming is happening, and it’s a problem. Rather than wringing our hands about who’s saying it, conservatives like Malkin need to face up to it and move on into supporting solutions.

Shorter Michelle Malkin:

This is what criminals look like in case you’ve forgotten.