Twenty or so years ago, the hue and cry arose from the environmental community warning that the earth was doomed if immediate attention wasn't taken to stop global cooling. That's right, we were told that due to the use of chloroflourocarbins (CFC's) and other chemicals being released in aerosol form a hole in the ozone layer over the poles had been created and that the earth was headed for another ice age. Now we are being told by these same folks along with convert to the cause and leading spokesman Al Gore, that due to harmful human actions, we are heading for the apocalypse of global warming. Some in the "movement" are covering their bets through the use of the non-specific term global climate change. Recently, in response to a question, Al Gore stated that "The scientific question regarding global warming has been settled."
In the absence of any rebuttal in the mainstream media, this statement goes unchallenged. The questions that beg an answer are simple; is there a consensus in the scientific community that: A) Global warming is happening? and B) Is the cause of this climate change the result of human action?
The answer, it turns out is amazingly, not by a long shot. The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine has recently announced that 31,072 U.S. scientists have signed a petition stating that "...there is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will cause in the future, catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate..."
Esteemed scientist and Nobel Prize winner Freemon Dyson, professor of physics at Princeton and Cornell (ret.) has further challenged Gore's position that there is a consensus among scientists that global warming is real or that it is caused by human activity. The self-proclaimed science heretic states that, "There is no doubt that the world is getting warmer but the warming is not global...and all the fuss...is greatly exaggerated."
There is, of course the major discovery resulting in the 1996 Tyler Award (the environmental Nobel) being shared by Willi Dansgaard of Denmark, Hans Oeschger of Switzerland and Claude Lories of France. The award was in recognition of their discovery of the 1500 year cycle as the only explanation for the modern warming that is supported by physical evidence.
It seems that there is a large number of scientists, disciplined to rely on replicable studies and confirmable data to concur that current climate models simply cannot be verified as accurate predictors due to lack of sufficient time and reliability of the underlying data.
Through studies of polar ice cores which can illuminate climate conditions over thousands of years and can be accurately dated scientists have pointed to natural causes such as volcanic activity and massive fires as the cause of climate changes often lasting several decades. One vulcanologist has pointed out that a major eruption can emit more carbon into the atmosphere than all that has been released by humans since the dawning of the industrial revolution.
Does all of the above mean that those who favor the research, developement and implementation of so-called green technologies should abandon their efforts? Quite the contrary, there are any number of reasons to support alternatives to petroleum based energy sources. A strong and convincing case can be made on an economic as well as environmental reasons that the future needs to be green. But to use the scare tactics espoused by the global cooling, global warming climate change proponents is inapropriate and scientifically flawed.
The Edge
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