Friday, June 26, 2009

Number of global warming 'skeptics' is growing

If you can, please read this Wall Street Journal article about the growing skepticism over human-caused global warming. (subscription may be required)

It starts with the story of Steve Fielding who recently asked the Obama administration to "reassure him" on the issue of global warming. When that didn't happen, he decided to vote against the pending legislation.

But he's an Australian senator and he's part of a growing group of individuals who are expressing their doubts about the so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program.

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)

The collapse of the "consensus" has been driven by reality.

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Waxman-Markey global warming bill today. If you haven't already done so, call your legislator and tell them to vote no. We cannot afford the huge increases in costs just to reduce the temperature a fraction of a degree - if that.

Americans for Prosperity has a nice web tool to enter your zip code and get your representative's contact information. They also have a listing of where various reps stand on the issue. Please call today.

4 comments:

Mad Jack said...

I'm here to tell you global warming is a reality. My proof is the temperatures over the past five days. 90 degrees or better, with the humidity as high as the temperature. All we need are the giant cockroaches and I'll believe I've been transported to a brand new hell: Southern Florida without the benefits of ocean, sailboats, girls in string bikinis, fruit drinks with umbrellas and lots of rum in them. You know, all the stuff!

Maggie said...

Now Mad Jack...

I know you don't believe that people are to blame for this recent couple of days of warmth...
You just wanted to think about girls in string bikinis and fruity-rum drinks with umbrellas.

LOL!

Cynical Counsel said...

And yet the "climate change" bill will be crammed down our throats without Congress even reading it.

The true agenda of the global warming movement (admitted in the discussion of Kyoto) is to control capitalism and usher in political change, not save the planet from forces we are powerless to influence.

TAHL

Timothy W Higgins said...

Maggie,

I can't help but feel that the only temperatures going up are those of the fevered brows of the President, some members of Congress, and the delusional left wing of the scientific community. Only a fever would explain their rantings and ravings in the face of the evidence before them.

Fevered also is the pace at which Congress is once again moving to pass legislation that they admit that they haven't read.

On the other hand, I'm with Mad Jack, bring on the string bikinis and paper umbrellas. If I have to live through such hell, at least let me enjoy the view.

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