When an ice cube melts in Greenland, it’s the lead story on the evening news because it was caused by human-induced global warming. When a polar bear hibernates 50 yards farther north than last year, we’re told by news commentators it is because not enough people have purchased hybrid vehicles.
When a tornado hits the deep south in February, certain scientists tell us on cable tv it is because the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But when a large group of internationally acclaimed scientists get together to discuss the shortcomings of the IPCC’s report on climate change, they are absolutely ignored by the national media.
I’ve been listening to conservative commentator Glenn Beck for several years now. Not because I necessarily agree with everything he says, but because he’s entertaining. And, because his talk show was on right after my talk show on the local talk-radio station. This week, Glenn spent time talking about the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change(ICCC) being held in New York City. It’s important not to confuse this conference with the International PANEL on Climate Change (IPCC) which is the group which was awarded the Nobel Prize for their work (along with Al Gore) on global warming. The ICCC is sponsored by the Heartland Institute which has long been critical of the entire human-induced global warming theory and the climate control policies which they say hurt consumers. The Heartland Institute receives funding from, among others, the Exxon-Mobile Corporation although Exxon-Mobile did not sponsor the ICCC. A large number of scientists from all over the world gathered in New York City with the main purpose being to debunk many of the “myths” surrounding global warming.
Here’s a partial list of the speakers for this event and their presentation topics:
Patrick J. Michaels, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia, U.S.
Global Warming: Some Convenient Facts
Gerd-Rainer Weber, Ph.D.
Consulting MeteorologistEssen,
Germany
Inconsistencies in IPCC Predictions
Robert Balling, Ph.D.
Professor of Climatology
Arizona State University, U.S.
The Increase in Global Temperature: What it Does and Does Not Tell Us
Fred Goldberg
Associate Professor
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
The Natural Source History of Atmospheric CO2 Fluctuations
Yuri Izrael
Vice Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Science Advisor President Vladimir Putin, Russia
Future Climate Is No Reason for Alarm
Joseph D’Aleo
Meteorologist and Climatologist
Executive Director, Icecap
Solar Irradiance and Oceans are the True Drivers of Climate Change
William M. Gray, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Oceans, Not Carbon Dioxide, Are Driving Climate
The list goes on and on and on. The last name on the list, Dr. William Gray, is featured in an earlier article in TheFunTimesGuide to Weather. He’s the scientist who pioneered seasonal hurricane forecasting and predicted the upswing in hurricane activity which began in 1995…based on cycles, not increases in carbon dioxide.
If you do a google search on articles related to the International Conference on Climate Change, you’ll get links to the Heartland Institute’s website, and to a handfull of other thinktanks. But in my search, I found not one single link to an article by any of the major news organizations. Did nobody cover this? Granted, it was going on at the same time as the March 4th Super Tuesday primary elections, but not a single article. On the other hand, if I do a search on simply Global Warming, today I find a New York Times article stating “the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900.”
Wait, this just in!! The Global Warming search turned up this article by the Wall Street Journal about, guess what, the ICCC! You must read this article -and the comments posted at the bottom of the page. The article pretty much says the scientists at the ICCC are a bunch of big-business sponsored whackos.
Ultimately, the debate is really whether the debate is over. The IPCC and its proponents want us to believe climate change is happening and it’s caused by you and me. End of story. Close the book. Stop researching. The ICCC, on the other hand, understands the climate is changing, but they believe the climate has always been changing and always will be changing, with or without you and me. And, they believe the story is not over – the book is still open – scientists should continue to study and be skeptical of everything they see. That’s what scientists do. When you close the book, you close your mind.
Let’s keep the books open.
I’m a TV weatherman in south Texas. I get blamed for the bad weather, but I also get credit for the beautiful days. I absolutely love my job!
