Eco-doomsayers

Via ASI, the Gorse Fox came to a speech by Senator John Inhoffe to the US Senate on Environment and Public Works.
Please take the time to read this. It is an expose of the existing media hype regarding global warming, and to use phrase that relates to the subject, reveals some inconvenient truths.

As the senator says:

The more the eco-doomsayers’ predictions fail, the more the eco-doomsayers predict.

And interestingly:

The alarmists freely concede that the Kyoto Protocol, even if fully ratified and complied with, would not have any meaningful impact on global temperatures. And keep in mind that Kyoto is not even close to being complied with by many of the nations that ratified it, including 13 of the EU-15 nations that are not going to meet their emission reduction promises.

But tellingly,

French President Jacques Chirac provided the key clue as to why so many in the international community still revere the Kyoto Protocol, who in 2000 said Kyoto represents “the first component of an authentic global governance.”

Well Jacques, this wasn't the topic, but how well are you doing on the EU Constitution? Er, failed. Right, so let's start on the world instead.

And quoting from Richard Lindzen, a meteorologist from MIT, discussing Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth", points out:

• He promoted the now debunked “hockey stick” temperature chart in an attempt to prove man’s overwhelming impact on the climate
• He attempted to minimize the significance of Medieval Warm period and the Little Ice Age
• He insisted on a link between increased hurricane activity and global warming that most sciences believe does not exist.
• He asserted that today’s Arctic is experiencing unprecedented warmth while ignoring that temperatures in the 1930’s were as warm or warmer
• He claimed the Antarctic was warming and losing ice but failed to note, that is only true of a small region and the vast bulk has been cooling and gaining ice.
• He hyped unfounded fears that Greenland’s ice is in danger of disappearing
• He erroneously claimed that ice cap on Mt. Kilimanjaro is disappearing due to global warming, even while the region cools and researchers blame the ice loss on local land-use practices
• He made assertions of massive future sea level rise that is way out side of any supposed scientific “consensus” and is not supported in even the most alarmist literature.
• He incorrectly implied that a Peruvian glacier's retreat is due to global warming, while ignoring the fact that the region has been cooling since the 1930s and other glaciers in South America are advancing
• He blamed global warming for water loss in Africa's Lake Chad, despite NASA scientists concluding that local population and grazing factors are the more likely culprits
• He inaccurately claimed polar bears are drowning in significant numbers due to melting ice when in fact they are thriving
• He completely failed to inform viewers that the 48 scientists who accused President Bush of distorting science were part of a political advocacy group set up to support Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004

Excellent read. GF commends it. GF's view, based on the balance of probabilities and historical precedent:

• Is the climate changing? Of course it is. Its a dynamic system, and continually changes.
• Is mankind the cause - No.
• Should Mankind cut pollution? - Absolutely, that's good housekeeping.

Tags: Global Warming