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Paralyzing Fog of Uncertainty on Climate
TownHall.com ^ | 8/11/07 | By Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 08/11/2007 12:25:22 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

Newsweek's global-warming cover story purports to reveal the "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry," which for the last two decades "has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." It's the same story run repeatedly in mainstream media: The overwhelming majority of scientists believe the debate on global warming is over -- but if there are any dissenting scientists left, they've been bought.

Here's the rub: If dissent is so rare, why do global-warming conformists feel the strong need to argue that minority views should be dismissed as nutty or venal? Why not posit that there is such a thing as honest disagreement on the science?

As for the overwhelming majority of scientists believing that man is behind global warming, former NASA scientist Roy Spencer, now at the University of Alabama, told me, "It's like an urban legend. There has never been any kind of vote on this issue." He referred me to a 2003 survey in which two German environmental scientists asked more than 530 climate scientists from 27 countries if they thought humans caused climate change: 56 percent answered yes, 30 percent said no.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 08/11/2007 12:25:22 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: sauropod

review


2 posted on 08/11/2007 12:26:39 AM PDT by sauropod (You can’t spell crap without the AP in it.)
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To: JohnHuang2
If dissent is so rare, why do global-warming conformists feel the strong need to argue that minority views should be dismissed as nutty or venal?

Global warming isn't science, its a religion. Dissenters are heretics.
3 posted on 08/11/2007 12:49:58 AM PDT by kb2614 (Hell hath no fury than a bureaucrat scorned)
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To: kb2614
Global warming isn't science, its a religion. Dissenters are heretics.

To the stakes. Burn them!..............Oh, wait, hmmm.......

BTW - lots of bad news for the alamists recently. NASA having to correct its temperature figures, an article in American Scientist (July/August) about why the snow melting on Kilimanjaro has very little to do with any AGW, "mainstream" atmospheric scientists questioning the the IPCC...... What is the world coming to?

4 posted on 08/11/2007 1:40:16 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: JohnHuang2

The man-made global warming position is unconvincing on scientific merit; so the proponents resort to the empty argumentum ad hominem. Rather than address the substance of the scientific facts; global warmers personally attack the critics of man-made global warming. Logical fallacy works in the public mind as the public is not educated in logic.


5 posted on 08/11/2007 2:28:12 AM PDT by ricks_place
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To: sauropod
..."has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." ...

Holy malaise Batman!

6 posted on 08/11/2007 3:03:36 AM PDT by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
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To: JohnHuang2
After all the Newsweek-like stories announcing the debate is over, it took one debate to flip the audience. No wonder they want to muzzle dissent.

That says it all.

7 posted on 08/11/2007 3:19:27 AM PDT by philman_36
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To: JohnHuang2

Paralyzing fog would be dangerous indeed.


8 posted on 08/11/2007 3:41:06 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: JohnHuang2

“Paralysis” is good in this situation. If we don’t change anything, the global climate will putter along in its usual, variable way, and we’ll all die, eventually, just as we would if we did Something Terribly Drastic about “climate change.”


9 posted on 08/11/2007 4:36:03 AM PDT by Tax-chick (All the main characters die, and then the Prince of Norway delivers the Epilogue.)
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To: JohnHuang2

reminds me of hillary’s “vast global right wing conspiracy”.

whatta joke.


10 posted on 08/11/2007 4:39:44 AM PDT by ken21 (28 yrs + 2 families = banana republic junta. si.)
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To: JohnHuang2
...has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change...

If that is true, then they haven't done a very good job........

11 posted on 08/11/2007 5:29:34 AM PDT by Red Badger (All I know about Minnesota, I learned from Garrison Keilor.............)
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To: Tax-chick

Paralysis on climate change, like gridlock, is a good thing.........

BTW, I once read that if the Earth was shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would be smoother than a billiard ball. Even the Grand Canyon and Pacific Basin and Himalayas wouldn’t be more than a scratch on its surface..............


12 posted on 08/11/2007 5:35:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (All I know about Minnesota, I learned from Garrison Keilor.............)
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To: Red Badger

Earth ball in the right pocket!


13 posted on 08/11/2007 5:51:57 AM PDT by Northern Yankee (Freedom Needs A Soldier)
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To: JohnHuang2

14 posted on 08/11/2007 6:15:41 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: JohnHuang2

The night before last there was a FROST WARNING for North-Central Alberta (west of Fort MacMurray). This is early AUGUST. Edmonton was the same temperature (55*) as Yellowknife NWT at 8 that night.

It’s been a quite cool summer here (Vancouver Island) as well. Only 3 or 4 days of real heat, and that was in JUNE!

Global warming my fat patoot!


15 posted on 08/11/2007 7:40:57 AM PDT by Don W (Still searching for another pithy yet erudite tagline.)
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To: JohnHuang2
If you go to the article on Townhall there is a Reuters photo of the world renown climate scientist and all around expert on environmental issues, Rob Lowe, with the following caption: “Actor Rob Lowe waves as he drives off in a A123Systems plug-in hybrid after testifying before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on Capitol Hill in Washington July 12, 2007. Seated next to Lowe is Representative Ed Markey (D-MA).”

I swear! Regardless of which side I held on the issue of global warming, I would be insulted as a congressman or senator if I had to sit and listen to ANY airhead actor pontificate his views on the issue. What is it with Congress that they are so willing to give credence to testimony by people who have no professional expertise in the topic on which they are testifying, simply because they come from Hollywood?

16 posted on 08/11/2007 8:03:27 AM PDT by Nevadan (nevadan)
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To: JohnHuang2

Don’t they call it weather because no one knows weather it will rain or not ?


17 posted on 08/11/2007 8:09:22 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. ©)
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