The Perfect Storm

I wrote a brief response to my little sister after she sent the below article to my family. In my post below, I neglected to address the issue of global warming due to space. However, I did mention my skepticism to her. This elicited a friendly "I forgot that you are a global warming denier". I let it slide because I didn't care to get into it at that point. However, I am not a denier. My position is that there may be global warming, but I don't trust the science or the scientists on the causes. Since it is ridiculous to claim that our climate should be static over time, it must be assumed that our planet is constantly warming or cooling as it always had, even prior to human existence. That said, the certitude that global warming advocates have in their position is unwarranted in my eyes.

Part of the reason I don't trust the science is because just 30 years ago many scientists were talking about the coming ice age. It even made the cover of Newsweek. From what I can gather, scientists now believe the earth has warmed by a grand total of 1 degree over the past 100 years with most of that increase occurring the early part of the last century.

However, the principle reason I am skeptical is that global warming fits the agenda of too many activist groups. More to the point, the remedies they advocate fit their agenda. It is the perfect storm of left wing concerns. These groups include environmentalists, anti-capitalists, anti-Americans, anti-globalization, alternative energy advocates, anarchists, communists...It is also undeniable that these groups use the issue to obtain research grants from the government or contributions from individuals. Does this cause them to hype the problem in fund raising letters or cloud their research? After reading the Scientific American article below, it is safe to say that skeptics have more difficulty getting published.

There's a reason that the goals of Kyoto are always coached in terms of reduction of pollutants or greenhouse gases - not in actual demonstrable reduction in the earth's temperature. Trillions of dollars spent over decades in exchange for a potential 1 or two degrees decline in surface temperatures a hundred years in the future is not exactly an easy sell.