With the release of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth,” a docu-edu-sci-fi-thriller movie, there is a bit more discussion of global warming. I’ve been skeptical of global warming claims and even more skeptical that human activity has anything to do with any current trend if such a trend exists. When science enters the political arena, often real scientific debate is the casualty. When is the last time you’ve read in the MSM about a view contrary to the conventional wisdom on global warming? I’ve been watching and really haven’t seen any. But there are a good number of legitimate scientific types who don’t buy into the current Al Gore hype. Take for example Colorado State University’s Bill Gray. Here’s an article where Grey, a legitimate climate scientist, differs from the mainstream press.
“They’ve been brainwashing us for 20 years,” Gray says. “Starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15-20 years, we’ll look back and see what a hoax this was.”
Here is a nice summary of the global warming debate. An excerpt reveals one of many instances where politics trumps science:
The present hysteria formally began in the summer of 1988, although preparations had been put in place at least three years earlier. That was an especially warm summer in some regions, particularly in the United States. The abrupt increase in temperature in the late 1970s was too abrupt to be associated with the smooth increase in carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in testimony before Sen. Al Gore’s Committee on Science, Technology and Space, said, in effect, that he was 99 percent certain that temperature had increased and that there was some greenhouse warming. He made no statement concerning the relation between the two.
If Al’s movie is to be at all helpful, perhaps it is to increase the level of true debate and bring other valid scientific information to discussion.
Global warming may or not be a problem. But before we dismantle our economy fixing something that cannot be fixed, let’s at least get information on all sides of the debate.
