This Was A Historic Day At Philadelphia’s City Hall

In 2006, South Park aired an episode called “ManBearPig.”

They explain it as such: “Former Vice-President, Al Gore, speaks to the students of South Park Elementary about a serious threat to the planet; Manbearpig. Gore enlists the boy’s help to search for the elusive creature and gets them all trapped in a cave-in.”

The parallel? Global warming. All a bunch of hype. Or character Gore is a flipped around condemnation of global-warming deniers. Etc.

Anyway, regular Philadelphia City Council meeting commenter Robert Taylor, identified via business card as president of the Transport Workers Union of America AFL-CIO, was on hand, like he is every week. This time, he was talking about a resolution to support “the reduction of Greenhouse Gas Pollution under the Clean Air Act and urging the Environmental Protection Agency to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act.”

The problem with that, Taylor maintained, was that global warming is a farce. An Al Gore fable. Polar icecaps aren’t melting. Oceans aren’t rising. And that there’s no such thing as ManBearPig.

YES, MANBEARPIG IS OFFICIALLY ON THE PUBLIC RECORD OF THE CITY IN WHICH OUR NATION WAS BORN!!!

I asked Taylor about his inspiration for putting “ManBearPig” on the public record after the meeting.

“I’d seen that episode a couple of times. Just thought I’d throw it out there,” Taylor explained. “Global warming has been oversold. We’re not experiencing global warming, and many scientists, climatologists agree with me. I wanted to bring that to light.”

I sought comment from resolution co-sponsor James Kenney via Twitter — specifically, if he thought ManBearPig’s nonexistence refutes the need for that measure — but have not yet gotten a response. This makes me worry that ManBearPig got to him,