Rocking Out to Global Warming

Eugene Robinson is trying too hard:

Since the sky seems too angry to have a civil conversation, let's seek answers in science and poetry. In two newly published studies, climatologists use graphs, formulas and carefully hedged sentences to explain how the interlocking phenomena that non-scientists call "global warming" may be turning little nuisance hurricanes into Katrina-style killers. And as for poetry, the party-hearty rapper Nelly (I use a broad definition of poetry) issued his warning years ago: "It's gettin' hot in heerrre. . ." Somehow I doubt there's a Nelly playlist on George W. Bush's iPod, so I'll stick to the science -- and hope some of this penetrates the president's adamantine resistance to inconvenient facts.

Look, I know climate science can be a bit boring, but that's no excuse for such a gratuitous and unnecessary Nelly reference. Hell, Nelly's no longer even popular; so far as I can tell, he long ago packed up his band-aid and went home. And even if he hadn't, we've got two gargantuan storms whirling their way across our coastline, crashing into populated cities and wrecking our most considered defenses -- this stuff's dramatic enough, reaching for a rapper's chorus just jars the flow. And insofar as you need to invoke artists to gain credibility, Nelly's much too toolish. Go with Architecture in Helsinki's "Do The Whirlwind" or, better yet, "In Case We Die".