In 1992 he said, "Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled." So for about 15 years the former vice president has essentially been calling for people to shut up and tow the line when it comes to anthropogenic global warming.
Around this time last year, March 4, I wrote about a number of "significant" skeptics to the global warming phenomenon. I began with how, in about 30 years, climate hysteria has gone from the threat of a pending ice age to the belief that human beings are causing a devastating heating of the Earth.
Well, in spite of the ridicule of Gore and his kind, it seems the number of "significant" skeptics is growing significantly, and more and more they're letting their voices be heard.
Perhaps the most prominent "denier" is John Coleman, co-founder of The Weather Channel. Not only has he called global warming a "nonevent, a manufactured crisis and a total scam" (he even refers to it as "the greatest scam in history"), he advocates suing Gore and anyone else selling carbon credits, so as to "finally put some light on the fraud of global warming."
Coleman was a featured speaker at the International Conference on Climate Change, sponsored by the Heartland Institute, held March 2-4 in New York. The conference had nearly 100 speakers and 400 participants. The theme of the conference was, "there is no scientific consensus on the causes or likely consequences of global warming."
Joseph L. Bast, the conference host and president of The Heartland Institute, reported that present at the ICCC, along with Coleman, were "more than 200 scientists and other experts on climate change, from Australia, Canada, England, France, Hungary, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Sweden and of course the United States," coming from the "Universities of Alabama, Arizona State, Florida State, Mississippi, Ohio State, Oregon State, and Virginia; from George Mason, Harvard, The Institute Pasteur in Paris, Johns Hopkins, and the London School of Economics," and many more.
Around 2« months prior to the ICCC, the U.S. Senate released a report that contained the objections of more than 400 scientists to "major aspects of the so-called ‘consensus' on man-made global warming."
The report noted that, "These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore."
The report also said, "The distinguished scientists featured in this new report are experts in diverse fields, including: climatology; geology; biology; glaciology; biogeography; meteorology; oceanography; economics; chemistry; mathematics; environmental sciences; engineering; physics and paleoclimatology. Some of those profiled have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contribution to their field of expertise and many shared a portion of the UN IPCC Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Gore."
Some brief highlights from the report include:
Dr. Nathan Paldor, professor of dynamical meteorology and physical oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated that, "First, temperature changes, as well as rates of temperature changes (both increase and decrease) of magnitudes similar to that reported by IPCC to have occurred since the industrial revolution (about 0.8 degrees Celsius in 150 years or even 0.4 C in the last 35 years) have occurred in Earth's climatic history. There's nothing special about the recent rise!"
Russian scientist Dr. Oleg Sorochtin of the Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Sciences said, "Even if the concentration of ‘greenhouse gases' double, man would not perceive the temperature impact."
Lastly, chief meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart of the MetSul Meteorologia Weather Center in Sao Leopoldo-Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, added, "The media is promoting an unprecedented hyping related to global warming. The media and many scientists are ignoring very important facts that point to a natural variation in the climate system as the cause of the recent global warming." (A link to the Senate report, as well as other global warming information, is on my Web site, www.trevorgrantthomas.com.)
In spite of the anthropogenic global warming doomsayers' statements to the contrary, it seems that this debate is far from over. Exclaiming last year that, "Global warming is not a crisis," Lord Christopher Monckton, a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher, challenged Al Gore to a public debate on the matter. He ended his challenge with, "May the truth win!"
Wouldn't that be "convenient"?
Trevor Thomas is a Gainesville resident and frequent columnist.