On his widely syndicated radio talk show Thursday, Rush referred to those who accept global warming as fact as, "environmentalist wackos." Sure Rush, the scientific community at large, as well as the Bush administration, are all environmentalist wackos. He then went on to address "some guy" aka John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, as well as the environmental movement as a whole, with the following: "you are all wrong, and whether you know it or not, you are lying to your audiences." In a further attempt to somehow make himself look even more ridiculous than he already does, Rush also claimed that the habitat of polar bears is not shrinking.

Polar bears can swim 100 miles. They aren't like us. We might be "stranded" on an ice floe if there's no land nearby, and we had no helicopter and no jet ski. We might be in trouble, but they're polar bears, and they can live in icy cold water by design. They love it. Have you ever been to the polar bear exhibit at the Central Park Zoo? I went to the polar bear exhibit, Central Park Zoo in June and it was scorching hot and one of the polar bears was nowhere to be seen. The other polar bear was outside and the zoo people had to come in with giant blocks of ice every hour or so for the polar bear to lay on. You talk about cruelty. Who's doing more to hurt polar bears: the Central Park Zoo putting them out there in June in 100 degree temperature needing blocks of ice, or where they're living, thriving naturally on these ice sculptures made by waves that had nothing to do with global warming or a melting glacier? It was so utterly false and propaganda -- and here's Sam Champion now on Good Morning America doing a story on how we're killing the polar bears.

CHAMPION: The polar bear for many has become a living symbol of the dangers of global warming. The powerful kings of the arctic are finding their habitat shrinking.

RUSH: They're not!

[...]

RUSH: The ozone is not being depleted. We're not cooking because of it. You’re freezing your tush out there in Hartford. Aren't you curious about how this is happening?

CALLER: No, I'm not looking at... I think the science has looked at centuries, not March 8. It is cold today.

RUSH: Records only go back 150 years in this temperature business. That's another thing that's fraudulent. Look, if you want to talk about the pollution coming from Ohio, please don't leave out the pollution coming your way from China.

CALLER: Oh, absolutely.

RUSH: Well, okay.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: China is not guilty of anything! They're not even subject to any restrictions based on the Kyoto treaty. This is all aimed at the United States, but the vast majority of CO2, which is the number one greenhouse effect gas, occurs naturally: water vapor and other natural sources. Automobiles, these smokestacks in Ohio? (I told you people that they hate you in Ohio in the Northeast.) Four percent of green house gas is manmade.

Unfortunately for Rush, the facts are on our side:

1) NASA photos and documentation showing a steady decline in polar sea ice since at least the 1970s.

2) The scientific community, as evidenced by the IPCC (pdf), has reached a consensus that it is "very likely" that global warming is caused by human emissions.

3) The National Snow and Ice Date Center: "If current rates of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be completely ice-free well before the end of this century." Click here to see a graph depicting this decline between 1978 and 2005.

You can take action on this now by contacting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall and informing him you are among the majority that supports the proposal to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service is only taking public comments on this until April 9th so it is essential that you make your voice heard immediately!

Please distribute this message broadly and freely. The best way to counteract the work of global warming deniers is to let the truth spread like wildfire.