A tortured baby analogy

Best of the Web as an excerpt from Al Gore's testimony:

"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem,' " Gore said. "If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."

Wow, that's an incredibly poor analogy. Let me try to rephrase it to accurately reflect the problem of global warming and its proposed solutions.

"If your baby has a fever, first, you see if it's something that will pass naturally. Then, if it doesn't, you see the doctor. The doctor must accurately identify the reason for the fever. If the fever is caused by a brain tumor, then we should consider radiation treatment, something so dangerous it's only done when it's the only way to treat a life-threatening condition. If, however, the fever is a result of an incurable genetic condition, we should focus on making your baby comfortable. Doing the radiation treatment will only hurt your baby, and accomplish nothing."

Here, the baby is the planet, and the fever is global warming. Pass naturally is checking to see if the cause is temporary; just because one year is warm doesn't mean there's global warming. The brain tumor is anthropogenic warming, and radiation treatment is economy-destroying restrictions on energy. The genetic condition is warming not caused by humans, such as increased solar activity or long-term climate cycles. Making the baby comfortable is adapting to the warmer Earth.