The Colorado Springs Gazette
June 26, 1998More scientists dispute the the global warming theory
than agree with it.by Mike Rosen
When Vice President Al Gore recently proclaimed, before a gathering of carefully selected, environmentallycorrect scientists at the White House, that 1997 was the warmest year on record, his remarks were heralded across the land in the mainstream print and broadcast media.
When a left-wing organization that calls itself the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) secured 1,558 signatures on a fairly tepid statement supporting the global warming theory (actually, just calling for more research on the issue), it was also a big news story.
On the other hand, how much have you heard about the Petition Project, spearheaded by Dr. Arthur Robinson, president and research professor at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of a science newsletter called "Access to Energy?" If your answer is "nothing," it should confirm your suspicions about the one-sided coverage in the mainstream media that panders to environmental activists and alarmists. As one such alarmist, Steven Schneider, Stanford Umversity atmospheric scientist, put it: "We have to offer up scary scenarios, make sirnplified, dramatic statements ... Each of us has to decide what is the right balance between being effective and being honest."
But back to Robinson's petition. This is how it reads: "We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
"There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."
That statement has so far been endorsed with the signatures of more than 16,000 American scientists, more than 16,000 American scientists, more than 10 times the UCS number, and the list is still growing. You'd think this would be worthy of more attention. As would the rebuttal to Al Gore's assertion that 1997 was the warmest year on record.
That claim has been echoed by Tom Karl of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who's not telling everything he knows. It's not flatly untrue, it's just cunningly misleading.
Dr. Fred Singer of the Science and Environmental Policy Project is a former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service. He notes that: "Temperature readings taken from U.S. weather satellites, the most reliable and only global temperature data available, put 1997 among the coolest years since satellite-based measurements began in 1979 ... the year ranked seven out of 19, with one being the coldest."
Singer explains that the discrepancy between ground-based temperature readings and atmospheric temperatures is largely attributable to the "urban heat-island" effect. This distorts the temperatures upwards and, in any event, is unrelated to the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is the central premise of global warming theorists. The short-term influence of El Nino, a windfall for enviro-alarmists who will stoop to exploiting anything in the name of their cause, also served to inflate ground temperatures upwards in 1997 and early 1998.
Listen, when Gaia is on your side, you simply can't allow yourself to be constrained by pesky explanations that undermine the urgency or blunt the dramatic effect of your dire warnings. Recall the Steven Schneider quote, above.
With considerable irony, one is tempted to paraphrase the late great Senator Barry Goldwater, the last person liberal greenies would ever want to be associated with. It seems their credo is: "Extremism in the defense of Earth's ecosystems is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of eco- justice is no virtue."
----------------- Rosen's radio talk show can be heard on 85-KOA radio in Denver, weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Write him in care of 1380 Lawrence St., Suite 1300, Denver 80204.
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