Bringing down the fever

A Best of the Web reader makes mincemeat of Bore’s fever analogy (“the earth has a fever” and it’s going to die unless everyone but Al gives up fuel consumption):

Reader Scott Jacobson questions Gore’s premise:

Some great news for Daddy Gore: Little baby Earth does not have a fever. It’s been awhile since Daddy Gore had a little bundle at home so maybe he has just forgotten that an infant is not considered to have a fever until her body temperature is at or above 100.4 degrees, or 1.8 degrees above normal. In the last century, little baby Earth’s temperature has only gone up “almost one degree.”

Overreacting is common among parents. I remember one morning when my first child was still an infant. Imagine my horror when I discovered that her temperature had risen to 99.5 degrees, almost a whole degree in just under 12 hours. Naturally, I immediately sat down and built a computer model, which clearly projected that by age 30, her temperature was going to be a staggering 19,710 degrees!

Thankfully, with the help of a patient wife and an impatient pediatrician, I came to realize that these fluctuations were normal, and that my baby daughter would not be going supernova by the time she reached her golden years.