Nathaniel

Shockey

Read Nathaniel's bio and previous columns here

July 8, 2009

Does Anyone Still Believe This Climate-Change ‘Consensus’ Nonsense?

A few years ago, I watched Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and was stirred by his argument. Whether or not I was stirred by the nature montages, the dew dripping off leaves, the simple piano melodies in the background, or his portrayal of himself as a lonely messenger, traveling from place to place warning the world about global catastrophe is a bit harder to tell. But regardless of his presentation, the data effectively gave me concerns about climate change. In subsequent years, my concern has seriously diminished.

Looking back at Gore’s film, it appears to me that the one statement that all but disproves his theory is the assessment that there is a consensus on the topic, that “out of 900 scientists, all agree” that humans are contributing to global warming with carbon emissions. That should have been the red flag we all recognized – his phony idea of consensus. Or there was Roger Ebert’s stirring review, which stated that in all his years, he’s never uttered the following phrase, “You owe it to yourself to see this film.” I am an avid reader and enjoyer of Ebert’s movie reviews, but it’s quite possible that the Pulitzer-winning film critic is not nearly as reliable an authority on climate change. Anyone with an ounce of sense ought to realize that these unabashed and unqualified assertions from non-scientists are highly reminiscent of the six-year-old who comes home from school and decides the rest of his life will be spent trying to save the manatee. (I was that kid, in case you’re curious.)

While Ebert, Gore and everyone else are fully entitled to brazenly insist upon their rightness, what we ought to be troubled by is who these utterly convinced, non-scientists were able to convince.

Aside from the 211 Democrats and eight Republicans who passed the recent cap-and-trade bill, President Obama is also thoroughly convinced of “the carbon pollution that threatens our planet” (taken from a June 23 press conference). This bill introduces billions in new taxes and inevitably sends jobs overseas, causing every American family anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars per year. There can be no debate that the initial impact of restricting manufacturers’ ability to manufacture will be a stifled economy. However, there is debate among scientists concerning climate change.

More than 31,000 scientists, including over 9,100 with PhDs, have signed a petition that urges the rejection of the alleged consensus on global warming, and asserts:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate.

There is also the recent letter signed and sent to Congress by seven scientific scholars, including science professors from Princeton and MIT, which states:

The sky is not falling; the Earth has been cooling for 10 years, without help. The present cooling was NOT predicted by the alarmists' computer models, and has come as an embarrassment to them.

The finest meteorologists in the world cannot predict the weather two weeks in advance, let alone the climate for the rest of the century. We are flooded with claims that the evidence is clear, that the debate is closed, that we must act immediately, etc, but in fact THERE IS NO SUCH EVIDENCE; IT DOESN'T EXIST.

Right now, the ratio of U.S. national debt to GDP, or as we would put it in our households, our ratio of debt to income, is nearly two to one. For an average American household, that would be around $100,000, which is a huge upward climb. For the United States, we’re talking tens of trillions of dollars that will take much more than a decade of tightening the proverbial belt. We have a lousy record of projecting income verses expenses.

And so I must ask, who in their right mind proposes, much less passes, a $1 billion bill based on bad science in an economy that is gasping for air? Answer: People who are either unintelligent, or are concerned with something that has nothing to do with the climate.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # NS177. Request permission to publish here.