by Allen Williams

Dear Mayor Michael Copeland and Council members:

Bott Radio Network has recently brought to the public’s attention Olathe City Council’s intention to enact a non discrimination ordinance which translates to special protection for a minority group over and above what everyone else enjoys.  Council has passed this ordinance so far without punitive measures for others seeking to live their lives according to their faith and convictions. How long this will last is anyone’s guess because existing ordinances are easy to amend and unfortunately,you’ve opened the door for the LGBTQ agenda of forcing people to affirm their lifestyle.

I would caution this council to thoroughly educate themselves on the ramifications of further ‘enhancements’ to this ordinance drawing from the lessons of harassment of master cake baker Jack Phillips in many legal challenges including his unwillingness to celebrate transgender transformations which is nothing short of persecution. Then there is Baronelle Stuzman punished for failing to allow government to dictate her artistic endeavors in producing flower arrangements for a gay wedding and sweet shop owners Aaron and Melissa Klein fined $135,000 for failing to bake a cake affirming a gay wedding.  I would ask is ‘choice’  relegated to abortion only?

Often these ‘non discrimination’ ordinances are used as a springboard to punish people who live by a different system of values. The fact that someone declines to support a message that opposes their religious beliefs is not harmful discrimination any more than it is for someone to refuse to vote for the candidate of LGBTQ choice. After all, isn't that what the First Amendment was intended to do protect free religious exercise? 

I would  suggest that council tread lightly on this footpath of ‘equality’ as the LGBT agenda has demonstrated that much more than mere equality is desired.  Anise Parker, the former LGBTQ mayor of Houston, thought it necessary to subpoena the messages of local pastors to ensure that proper ‘thought content’ was being conveyed to parishioners. We are rapidly moving in the magnitude and direction of Orwell in defining ‘thought crimes’.

The LGBTQ message appears to be ‘their one size fits all’.  We hope Olathe government is capable of learning from the mistakes of others and will not traverse the same disastrous path that leads to affirmation of one class of citizen’s rights over and above everyone else’s.  Otherwise this mayor and city council will leave an untoward legacy that may never be overcome.

Rest assured, we’ll be watching.

In January 2005, NOAA began recording temperatures at its newly built U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN includes 114 pristinely maintained temperature stations spaced relatively uniformly across the lower 48 states. NOAA selected locations that were far away from urban and land-development impacts that might artificially taint temperature readings.

Prior to the USCRN going online, alarmists and skeptics sparred over the accuracy of reported temperature data. With most preexisting temperature stations located in or near urban settings that are subject to false temperature signals and create their own microclimates that change over time, government officials performed many often-controversial adjustments to the raw temperature data. Skeptics of an asserted climate crisis pointed out that most of the reported warming in the United States was non-existent in the raw temperature data, but was added to the record by government officials. 

The USCRN has eliminated the need to rely on, and adjust the data from, outdated temperature stations. Strikingly, as shown in the graph below, USCRN temperature stations show no warming since 2005 when the network went online. If anything, U.S. temperatures are now slightly cooler than they were 14 years ago.

Temperature readings from 2005 (far left) to the present (far right) show absolutely no warming.

Climate activists frequently visit or mention particular regions, states, or places in the United States and claim warming impacts are evident, accelerating, and unmistakable. Yet how can that be when there has been no warming in the United States since at least 2005?

Unfortunately, when politicians and climate activists claim they can see the impacts of climate change in a particular place, the media rarely question them on it and tend to accept the claims at face value. But the objective temperature data show no recent warming has occurred. 

There is also good reason to believe U.S. temperatures have not warmed at all since the 1930s. Raw temperature readings at the preexisting stations indicate temperatures are the same now as 80 years ago. All of the asserted U.S. warming since 1930 is the product of the controversial adjustments made to the raw data. Skeptics point out that as the American population has grown, so has the artificial warming signal generated by growing cities, more asphalt, more automobiles, and more machinery.

If anything, the raw temperature readings should be adjusted downward today relative to past temperatures (or past temperatures adjusted upward in comparison to present temperatures) rather than the other way around. If raw temperature readings are the same today as they were 80 years ago, when there were fewer artificial factors spuriously raising temperature readings, then U.S. temperatures today may actually be cooler than they were in the early 20th century.

The lack of warming in the United States during the past 14 years is not too different from satellite-measured global trends. Globally, satellite instruments report temperatures have risen merely 0.15 degrees Celsius since 2005, which is less than half the pace predicted by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate models.

Climate crisis advocates attempt to dismiss the minor satellite-measured warming by utilizing ground temperature stations around the globe, which tend to have even more corrupting biases and problems than the old U.S. stations. Of course, they adjust those readings, as well. Perhaps the time has come for American officials to direct some of the billions of dollars spent each year on climate-research and climate-change programs to building and maintaining a global Climate Reference Network.

Either way, it is becoming increasingly difficult for American politicians and climate activists to say they can see the effects of warming temperatures in the United States. For at least the past 14 years, there have been no such warming temperatures.