Thursday, January 17, 2008
Global Warming: The Coming Skeptic’s Revival
Global Warming piece by
Miguel Guanipa
The recent U.S. Senate committee report listing 400 scientists who last year openly disputed Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming claims does indeed appear to yield a consensus.
But their consensus is not based in the dubious assertion that a plenary rise in the earth’s temperature described as Global Warming is a settled scientific theory. Neither is this consensus grounded in the bogus claim that the Polar Bear population is at risk and should be declared an endangered species due the threat posed by Global Warming; or the incorrect thesis that Hurricanes and Global Warming are indisputably linked.
It is also not based on the claim that due to Global Warming, the earth’s glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate, which - defying basic laws of chemistry and physics – will eventually cause a massive deluge of coastal sections of the United States, Canada and perhaps other countries, the likes of which have not been heard of since biblical times; or on the purported claim that the most advanced computer models, which are famously incapable of duplicating the legion of natural and artificial variables that regulate even local climate, are fully adequate to forecast the impending global doom so ominously predicted by Al Gore in his movie “An Inconvenient Truth”.
And most emphatically, this consensus is not rooted in the infuriating declaration that Global Warming skeptics comprise only a half a dozen or so misguided sell outs to the oil industry, barely outnumbering the few remaining members of the Flat Earth Society, as has been disdainfully stated by the guru of Global Warming hysterics himself.
According to the collective assessment of this eminent group of scientists, no such testimonials meet the most rudimentary standards of good scientific inquiry, or have any basis on fact; therefore no consensus is to be found among the 400 scientists that are listed on this report , other than the nearly unanimous agreement that the claim of Global Warming as a legitimate threat to humanity is more an ideological juggernaut than a proven scientific certainty, fueled predominantly by the politics of fear from the left, and amply lavished with the continued financial support from unwitting governments and moral support from the main stream media.
This diverse assembly of Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptics (or Holocaust deniers as Ellen Goodman from the Boston Globe would call them) include experts from the fields of paleontology, chemistry, Chemical engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Agriculture, Astrophysics, Oceanography, Atmospheric Science, Geology, Meteorology, and Economics, to name a few. Many of them are also recent converts who once called themselves staunch believers in A.G.W.
A good number of them are former draft reviewers of the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change report they have now happily disowned as dangerously speculative, as it portends to mandate drastic policy measures for signatories from world governments in order to stop the impending catastrophe presumably looming in the horizon.
Their collective body of work on the science of Global Climate consists of thousands of research studies and peer reviewed papers in myriad reputable scientific publications and academic institutions.
Their consensus is based in the scientifically verifiable notion that – stop the presses – periodic Hemispheric warming (and cooling) of the earth are natural cyclical phenomena, caused primarily by fluctuations in the sun’s electro-magnetic radiation, water vapor, and a host of other culprits meaner than the rise in carbon dioxide levels, which is actually an effect rather than a cause of warming. This natural cycle has taken place - and will continue to take place - over millennia. This means that the net impact that man - in all his industrial fury - has over any significant climate variations, is no more distinguishable – as a contributing former meteorologist puts it – than a “fart in a hurricane”.
The scientists have also expressed concern over how their voices are being suppressed, by a media that routinely ridicules them for having contrarian views. They also contend that stripped of its thin veneer of scientific legitimacy, the theory of A.G.W. is nothing more than an ideological doctrine, and a dangerous one at that, for it tries to set itself as authoritative, arbitrarily excluding other dissenting views, by questioning the motives and belittling the academic credentials of those who express any suspicion of its tenets, and generously rewarding those who espouse them, while healthy debate is summarily stifled on an issue that could have serious and lasting global economic and social repercussions.
Much to their regret, it appears that vast sums of money will continue to be misspent by ill-informed bureaucracies intent on funding quixotic attempts to solve a problem that never existed and alleviate an apocalyptic crisis that will never transpire, the prophetic summons of which - to their astonishment - earned Al Gore an appendix in the pages of history as a proud recipient of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
Additionally, these scientists affirm that most of their colleagues concur with them but will simply not speak out because they fear their livelihoods will be affected by the withdrawal of research grants, as it has already happened to some who have expressed skepticism on the issue.
But primarily, and justifiable so, these scientists are most concerned with the damage that is being done to the credibility and reputation of the scientific endeavor by many of their profit and public recognition driven colleagues and questionable sources of wisdom like Al Gore, who use their political platform, celebrity status, and the media to promote a theory which, curiously enough, is so fiercely guarded from exposure to legitimate scientific scrutiny.
Thus they hope that as the science of Global Climate evolves, and as the dire predictions of Global Warming alarmists fail to come to pass, perhaps they will again be granted a better forum, and healthy debate will resume – as it should in all the sciences.
As for Al Gore, other than taking the opportunity to admit he has some serious explaining to do to the scientific community, not to mention his adoring liberal fans and the rest of the world, he should probably return to doing whatever it is he does when he is not combing his hair or polishing his many ill-gotten accolades so decoratively arrayed on his fire place mantel.
HowardWasRight 
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