The Global Warming Debate: As Skeptics Score Points, the Climate Starts to Change-- The Rational Argumentator

With great fanfare, in March, Al Gore took Capital Hill like a conquering hero as he testified on Global Warming before both houses of Congress. Fresh from conquests at the Academy Awards, where his adoring Hollywood elites showered him with coveted golden statues for spreading their favorite propaganda, Gore was determined to turn his personal conquest into draconian federal law and ultimate human misery.

Gore's words to Congress were predictable. The earth is warming. The polar ice caps are melting. Polar bears are on the run. And it's man's fault. Solution? Ban or control human activities. The mantra of the religion of Global Warming is getting a little boring. It's quite possible, however, that Gore's appearance on the Hill actually represents the beginning of the end of his influence on climate policy rather than the start of a legislative tsunami.

Why? Because even after the Global Warming storm troopers, armed with billions of dollars, the backing of the Hollywood elite, the news media, and most of academia have done everything possible to threaten, bully, and force their one-sided propaganda on us, the so-called global warming skeptics seem to be coming out of their hiding places in ever greater numbers. The debate is now taking a dramatic change. As the skeptic side is heard, more Americans are beginning to understand that there are legitimate reasons for skepticism. Here are just a few of the latest developments.

Item: Just days before Gore's charge up Capitol Hill, a high-profile climate debate between prominent scientists ended with global warming skeptics being voted the clear winner. Before the start of the debate, held in New York City, the audience polled 57.3% to 29.9% in favor of believing that Global Warming was a crisis. But following the debate, the numbers completely flipped to 46.2% to 42.2% in favor of the skeptical point of view. Conclusion - when people hear both sides, they can easily judge for themselves what is truth.

Item: On March 13, The New York Times, one of the most adamant promoters of the Global Warming gospel, published a landmark article, stating, "scientists argue that some of (former Vice President Al) Gore 's central points are exaggerated and erroneous."

Item: French scientist Claude Allègre, a prominent French Socialist and supporter of Global Warming dogma, recanted his belief in man-made catastrophic global warming and now says promotion of the idea is motivated by money.

Item: One of Israel's top young scientists, Nir Shaviv, recently reversed his opinion, declaring that the link between emissions and climate variability has nothing more than "circumstantial evidence."

Item: The United Kingdom's famed environmental activist David Bellamy also recently converted to skepticism, as did Meteorologist Reid Bryson, who has switched from the 1970's global cooling scare to a global warming skeptic.

Item: A report by the Heartland Institute, entitled, "What Climate Scientists Really Say About Global Warming," exposes the weakness of the "consensus" claims of Global Warming shock troops. To reach its findings, the report examined two surveys conducted among climate scientists: the first in 1996, and the second in 2003. Both surveys confirm scientists are divided on the issue. Says the report -

More climate scientists "strongly disagree" than "strongly agree" with the notion that climate change is caused by humans.
Most climate scientists do not believe "the current state of knowledge is able to provide reasonable predictions of climate variability" over 100-year periods.
Only 2 percent of climate scientists surveyed "strongly agree" that modeling programs designed to predict climate changes are accurate, and
Almost all climate scientists agree that climate change could have "positive effects for some societies."

Item: After Global Warming propagandists rushed to declare that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report proved conclusively that Global Warming was caused by human action, (a report, by the way, that won't be released until May), the just released summary predicts less global warming than was forecast by previous IPCC reports.

Item: New research by international scientists is revealing that the sun has been a major driver of climate variability. Solar specialist Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center explained, "We have the highest solar activity we have had in at least 1,000 years."

As Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) sums it up, "The usual suspects will still insist that there is a 'consensus' of scientists who agree with Gore. And yes, many governing boards and spokesmen of science institutions must toe the politically correct line of Gore-inspired science, but rank-and-file scientists are now openly rebelling."

As real debate finally forces fact over headline-making one-liners, the truth will become ever more inconvenient to Al Gore and his Global Warming zealots.

Tom DeWeese is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, property rights and back-to-basics education. For over thirty years he has fought against government oppression.

In 1988 Tom established the American Policy Center (APC), an activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. In 1992 Tom DeWeese became passionately involved in the fight for the preservation of American private property rights and against intrusive environmental regulations. He is also a recognized leader in the fight to preserve American national sovereignty from intrusive United Nations policies on global governance. APC has also joined the fight to rescue American education from federal intrusion and the fight for American privacy rights against intrusive government data banks, and a national identification card.

Mr. DeWeese makes regular appearances on radio and television talk shows and has articles published in several national publications.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report You may contact Mr. DeWeese here.

This TRA feature has been edited in accordance with TRA’s Statement of Policy.

Click here to return to TRA's Issue XCVIII Index.

Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here.

Read Mr. Stolyarov's new comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, at http://www.geocities.com/rational_argumentator/rc.html.