Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Global Skepticism

I want to do something about global warming if it exists. If it is a manmade phenomenon that we can fix, then lets do it. I want to know if it is true. I’ll be the first one in line to buy a new smart car if I can get some proof. But I get skeptical every time the climate is used as a political football.

I recall as a child that the big fear, other than global thermal nuclear war, was that we were going to run out of coal. Then we were going to run out of oil. When we didn’t run out of anything, pollution was going to kill us. Then it was AIDS. A Comet. The Ebola virus. The bird flu. Now it’s global warming. Even a category 3 hurricane from last season that hit a wholly unprepared sea-level city, has been cited as proof of global warming.

And here, with my simple mind, I keep thinking, it just doesn’t seem that much hotter now than when I was a kid. A friend of mine today actually blamed global warming for our current flood. How can one not be skeptical?

These catastrophic events are normally championed from left. I don’t begrudge them that, though I do find it funny that they resemble an apocalyptic religion. I hope they are wrong, but if they aren’t, I agree with them. We need to take action.

The following doesn’t help.

Climate experts: Gore's movie gets the science right

Robert Corell, chairman of the worldwide Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group of scientists, read the book and saw Gore give the slideshow presentation that is woven throughout the documentary.

"I sat there and I'm amazed at how thorough and accurate," Corell said. "After the presentation I said, 'Al, I'm absolutely blown away. There's a lot of details you could get wrong.' ... I could find no error."

Gore, in an interview with the AP, said he wasn't surprised "because I took a lot of care to try to make sure the science was right."

And then there is this (Via Drudge):

AP INCORRECTLY CLAIMS SCIENTISTS PRAISE GORE’S MOVIE

The AP article quotes Robert Correll, the chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group. It appears from the article that Correll has a personal relationship with Gore, having viewed the film at a private screening at the invitation of the former Vice President. In addition, Correll’s reported links as an “affiliate” of a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that provides “expert testimony” in trials and his reported sponsorship by the left-leaning Packard Foundation, were not disclosed by AP.

See http://www.junkscience.com/feb06.htm

Yeah, I know it's a Republican controlled committee. But unless Inhofe and Co. are lying (for which we might be able to impeach them), Gore and the AP have done nothing but make conservatives, who by the way they will need, more skeptical than they already were.
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