We have an entire industry, spending billions of dollars and euros, devoted to finding global warming. And when you spend that kind of money you are going to find something. The problem with how this is conducted is that if a scientist is not dedicated to promoting the concept that man is behind global warming they aren't likely to get their research funded or the results published. There is much to be skeptical about the state of global warming research. For starters, there is a commonly held notion that carbon dioxide is a positive feedback system. That is to say as more CO2 is generated, more CO2 will be created, causing global warming runaway. This motivates many scientists to say that we have a crisis which must be addressed immediately, or the future of the Earth will be at stake. The problem is there is absolutely no scientific basis for this. CO2 is, in reality, a result of warming, not its cause. All living organisms generate CO2; when the Earth warms, more CO2 generating organisms are created. The data supports this.
Another fallacy is the pronouncement that we are experiencing the warmest temperatures is the recorded history of the Earth (Mann et.al. 1998). You see their famous "hockey stick" temperature graph published over and over again. But a critical review by McIntyre and McKitrick (tinyurl/manndata) of their methods reveals "collation errors, unjustifiable truncation or extrapolation of source data, obsolete data, geographical location errors, incorrect calculation of principal components and other quality control defects," and the hockey stick graph "is primarily an artifact of poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components."
Worse still, the remedies proffered by global warming alarmists, such as a "carbon tax," are unworkable and well as unjustified. I have listened to them say the answer was $4 gas. That, obviously, was a few years ago. Now they are saying $8. Obama is saying climate change is his top priority: Hold on tight to your wallets!
-- TOM SEIM, Richland
