ABC's Global Warming Hit Piece "Welcome to 'The Denial Machine'"

It is obvious the skeptics are having an impact! The alarmists are getting scared to resort to such low brow tactics!

Climate alarmism reached a new low Sunday as ABC's "World News" featured a hit piece on Dr. S. Fred Singer, the esteemed Professor Emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia. In a segment disgracefully entitled "Welcome to 'The Denial Machine,'" anchor Dan Harris disparaged Singer at every turn. With a picture of Singer behind his right shoulder, under which was displayed the words "THE SKEPTIC," Harris began:

One of the most influential scientists in what's been called "The Denial Machine," for decades, Fred Singer has argued loudly that global warming is not dangerous despite the vast majority of scientists who agree it is. His critics say Dr. Singer has helped create the mirage of a scientific debate which has preventing the American public and American politicians from taking action.

With a smile on his face, Harris asked Singer, "How would you describe yourself, as a skeptic, a denier, a doubter?" Nice way to treat a distinguished member of the scientific community on Easter Sunday, wouldn't you agree? Alas, that was only the beginning of the insults:

This 84-year-old Princeton-trained physicist is the grandfather of a movement that rails against the broad, scientific understanding that global warming is real, manmade, and potentially catastrophic. [...]

Singer seems to enjoy being provocative, for example, about polar bears being threatened by melting ice. [...]

There are so many scientists that disagree with what your saying. The IPCC, NASA, NOAA, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society. We're talking about scientists all over the globe. [...]

Kert Davies, an environmental activist, says Singer is connected to a whole web of organizations, many funded by oil and coal companies that have spent millions trying to convince the public there's a real scientific debate about global warming slowing down government action on a phenomenon that could lead to storms, droughts, famines, massive refugee movements, and even wars.

KERT DAVIES, GREENPEACE: That will be how people remember Fred Singer, as someone who tried to slow down the reaction to global warming and in fact, in the end, that is going to cost lives, and cause us lost species, and cost major economic damage around the world.

How nice. On Easter Sunday, ABC News implied that an 84-year-old Ph.D. is thwarting science in a fashion that will cost lives. Astounding, wouldn't you agree? Sadly, there was more:

In this new report, he argues global warming is just part of a natural cycle, and that our carbon emissions are not dangerous. We ran Singer's data by climate scientists from Stanford, Princeton, and NASA who dismissed it with words like "fraudulent nonsense." This is not, by the way, the first time Singer has set himself against mainstream scientific opinion. He also argued against the dangers of second-hand smoke, toxic waste, and nuclear winter. [...]

We asked Dr. Singer if he ever took money from energy companies. At first he denied it, and then he said yes he had received one unsolicited check from Exxon for $10,000.

Wow. A whole $10,000? And how many millions of ad dollars does Exxon give to ABC and ABC News on a yearly basis, Dan? I wonder if Dan knows that in 2006, Exxon contributed almost $140 million to various entities around the world. Are all these recipients similarly corrupted as Singer?

*****Update: Article about this interview posted at ABCNews.com entitled, "Global Warming Denier: Fraud or 'Realist'?":
His fellow scientists call him a fraud, a charlatan and a showman, but Fred Singer calls himself "a realist." Do these people have any shame?

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Further thoughts on the above:

How could ABC News say 'fabricated nonsense" and have it attributed to anonymous scientists? This is a violation of basic journalistic standards. ABC News owes it to the public to name the critics from NASA, Stanford and Princeton. (Although it is obvious that it is the likely alarmist trio of James Hansen, Michael Oppenhiemer and Stephen Schneider). Come on ABC, name the scientists!

Using Greenpeace as the only on-record counter was ridiculous even for ABC News standards.

Also, listing the science institutions that supposedly support the 'consensus' is silly. We all now know that no more than two dozen governing board members approved those 'consensus statements' of NAS, AMS, AGU. The IPCC only had 52 scientists endorse it.

What ABC News did with this segment may be a new all time low in journalism and that is saying something! The alarmist are really feeling the pressure as more and more scientists speak out and the evidence continues to mount against rising CO2 fears.






Anthropogenic Global Warming Alarmism: A Corruption of Science --- An Open Letter to Members of the American Physical Society/NewEnglandSection

An email from Prof. Laurence I. Gould., Physics Department, UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD, CT [LGOULD@HARTFORD.EDU]

A 12-page MS Word document, mentioned in the heading line above, can be accessed by clicking on my website link. Here are the main topics discussed:

* BRIEF COMMENTS ABOUT POPULAR PERCEPTIONS

* ABOUT THE SCIENCE

* ABOUT THE POLITICS

* ABOUT DANGERS TO THE ECONOMY FROM CO2 CUTBACKS

* ABOUT DANGERS TO SCIENCE

* REFERENCES (details and augmented list)

It can also be obtained from the Spring 2008 Newsletter that is posted on the New England Section of the American Physical Society website --- accessed through the following link. The document is on pp. 10 - 21. It follows issues about "global warming" discussed earlier in Letters to the Editor(s) along with my replies (pp. 5 - 9).






Britain: Coldest Easter for a decade



A bank holiday weekend that is seen as heralding the arrival of spring produced a "white Easter" thought to have been the coldest for a decade. Any hope of the glorious sunshine of last Easter, when temperatures reached 21C (71F), disappeared yesterday in snow, sleet and strong winds. Snowball fights replaced Easter-egg hunts and trips to the garden centre as snow settled over many parts of northern England and Scotland. Temperatures were between 4C and 7C yesterday, compared with the seasonal average of 7C to 11C. At Carterhouse, in the Scottish Borders, 3cm of snow was recorded. Gusts of 60mph (97kmh) hit the south Devon coast over the weekend, with winds reaching 40-50mph more generally across Britain.

The weather is forecast to warm up from today with sunny spells predicted - just as much of the country prepares to return to work. However, cloudy and damp conditions will persist while further sleet and snow showers are expected for some regions. Forecasters have said that the potential remains today for heavy snowfalls in Scotland and eastern England. Wintry showers began to spread southwards from Scotland and northeastern England in the early hours of yesterday morning. By 5am, snow was falling across northeast England, Yorkshire and Manchester, and had made its way down through the Midlands and East Anglia. Light snow was also seen in London and parts of the South East.

Motorists struggled with the frosty conditions over the weekend, with a number of road accidents reported. North Yorkshire Police described the driving conditions yesterday as "horrendous", and Durham Police said that the A66 trans-Pennine route was closed for the second night running because of heavy snow. The misery was compounded on the railways, as Network Rail planned 30 engineering projects over the four-day break, leading to cancellations and delays. More than two million passengers face problems as they try to get home today. This year's early Easter has meant that many children will return to school tomorrow. The RAC said that the knock-on effect for road users would be vast numbers of families clogging the busiest routes today for their journey home.

The record books show that a white Easter is more likely than a white Christmas. Over the past 50 years, snow has fallen on a dozen Easters, most recently in 1998, when much of North Wales was brought to a standstill by more than a foot of snow. At this time of year the seas are close to their coldest, after losing their heat over the winter. This Easter, air from deep inside the Arctic Circle swept down over hundreds of miles of cold seas, keeping the winds biting cold and full of moisture, before bursting into heavy snow showers. One saving grace is that the lengthening days and strengthening sunlight mean that the land is warming up, and snow tends to melt quickly.

March is notorious for wild mood swings. The end of the month is when cold outbreaks are feared most and folklore tells the story of the borrowed days, when March took its last three days from stormy April: "The first is frost, the second snow, and the third is cold as it can blow". This was also called blackthorn winter, when blackthorn bushes came into blossom during a warm spell mid-month only to be dashed by a cold, frosty spell later.

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Climate-change policies come with a price tag

A study projects jobs losses, lower incomes and higher basic costs. This should be part of the discussion

As Congress considers far-reaching federal climate-change legislation, there has been far too little discussion on the economic costs such policies would impose at the state, local and household levels. Make no mistake: From a financial standpoint, the burdens for Minnesotans would be substantial. Add to this that Minnesota is considering state-specific and regional-climate change proposals, and it is clear that it is time to have an honest discussion on the potential economic impact such policies would have on families, businesses and governments.

The primary federal legislation set for debate in Congress, the Climate Security Act of 2007 -- sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and John Warner, a Republican from Virginia -- would establish a cap on the emission of greenhouse gases resulting from economic activities. The federal cap seeks to stabilize the concentration of these gases, with the goal of reducing 2005 emission levels 63 percent by 2050.

Efforts at both the federal and state levels are undoubtedly motivated by sincere desires to pass on a cleaner environment to future generations. Yet, these efforts overlook critical economic realities that are likely to undermine an already weakened economy and reduce living standards for decades. The question for lawmakers is whether they believe the anticipated benefits can be achieved and at what economic costs.

The Lieberman-Warner legislation would involve dramatically curtailing the burning of fossil fuels, which are used in 86 percent of primary energy production nationally. Thus the effect of such caps would be to raise the price of energy, thereby discouraging its use. In that sense, the cap on emissions serves as a sizable tax on energy use.

Let's consider the costs to the state economy should the federal bill alone become law. A recent American Council for Capital Formation and National Association of Manufacturers study conducted by the independent Science Applications International Corporation assessed the national and state economic impacts of Lieberman-Warner. Estimates for Minnesota include:

* Gross state product losses of up to $4 billion in 2020 and up to $12.6 billion per year in 2030.

* Employment losses of up to 33,735 jobs in 2020 and up to 74,569 jobs in 2030.

* Household income losses of up to $3,455 per year in 2020 and up to $8,201 per year in 2030.

* Electricity price increases of up to 39 percent by 2020 and up to 153 percent by 2030.

* Gasoline price increases (per gallon) of up to 67 percent by 2020 and up to 140 percent by 2030.

* Natural-gas price increases of up to 38 percent by 2020 and up to 153 percent by 2030.

Moreover, the federal legislation places a disproportionate burden on low-income earners and fixed-income earners such as seniors. These groups spend a greater percentage of their personal budgets meeting basic needs, including home heating, cooling and transportation needs, all of which are energy-intensive. By 2020, the higher energy prices resulting from new federal regulations and taxes will mean that low-income families in Minnesota will be spending 16 to 18 percent of their incomes on energy costs alone.

We must also consider what's in store for state and municipal governments and for those who rely on their services. Basic energy costs are a significant chunk of state and local budgets. Consider that municipalities must use electricity to light Minnesota's 3,454 schools and universities, as well as some 147 hospitals. Electricity price increases of more than 150 percent by 2030 translates into a sizable rise in operating costs for state and local governments -- a rise that will have to be paid for through higher taxes or reductions in spending and services.

And remember that local governments fill the fuel tanks of their police cars, garbage trucks and fire trucks with carbon-emitting fuels. Under these new emissions caps, per gallon gas prices will climb even more rapidly than today, further straining operating budgets.

What's more, by raising the costs of a key input into local economies -- energy use -- the federal legislation will stifle employment and overall job creation. A serious ripple effect will likely result: Less employment will mean a smaller tax base, which in turn will affect state budgets and local economies. And by expanding the unemployment and welfare rolls, these increased financial burdens will ultimately drive up state assistance and welfare costs.

What is most worrisome about proposed policies now being considered at both the federal and state level is not just the costs, but that the benefits are unknown. Keep in mind that China recently surpassed the United States as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. But China is not engaged in emission-reduction efforts, nor is India, or other fast-growing developing economies. The net effect is that any sacrifice made by Americans will be overwhelmed by emissions increases in other countries.

So as lawmakers ponder whether to support federal and state climate-change policies, they need to decide whether the benefits of such measures are worthwhile given the high costs they would impose.

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More trouble for the global warming movement



When I was in sixth grade, I specifically remember reading in my science book about global cooling and the coming Ice Age. Some things change and some others never do. One thing that changes on a regular basis is science. When I started medical school, I was told that more than half of what I was taught during medical school would be proved incorrect by the end of my career. This is not an anomaly for just medicine. You see it throughout all fields of study when you are dealing with inexact sciences. The study of weather is certainly not exempt from this. If you think the people that study weather really have a firm grasp on what is going on, just watch the weather report on the local news for a few weeks and you'll change your mind.

One thing that never changes is the desire by some to control the masses through environmental nonsense. In our current day and age, one of the ways this is manifested in the hysteria of man-made global warming. We are told that we must cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by cutting energy consumption presumptively by eliminating fossil fuel use. We are told that we must embrace "green technology" and buy hybrid cars to save the earth. This global warming hysteria continues to reach magnitude proportions in our government and has already manifested itself in a bill that permanently bans the incandescent light bulb a few years from now (sorry Edison!). Congress is pondering passing a law mandating fuel emissions to reach somewhere around 50 miles per gallon on all cars manufactured in this country. If that isn't the quickest way to destroy the auto industry in this country, I don't know what is.

Global warming, or global "climate change" as some like to call it is actually far from a scientific consensus. Scientists that do not prescribe to global warming are ridiculed, ostracized, and silenced. The Weather Channel founder, John Coleman, called man-made global warming the greatest scam in history. Proponents of this global warming hysteria have a specific goal of politicizing the weather, because if you can politicize the weather, you can control everyone. There's a tornado-it must be OUR fault for global warming. There's a tsunami-global warming. There are wildfires across California-global warming. Hurricane-global warming.

In what must be discouraging news for the man-made global warming crowd, Michigan had the snowiest winter EVER this year, or at least since they started recording snowfall in 1880. Milwaukee had 95.4 inches of snow this year, the second highest amount on record. In even worse news for Al Gore and company, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has reported that all of the allegedly "lost" ice has now returned to the polar ice caps. Is it just an anomaly that we are experiencing one of the coldest winters on record in the last century?

While I'm not saying our earth hasn't warmed a degree or two overall in the last hundred years or so, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, and Pluto have also been warming. So are we to assume that our greenhouse gases are affecting other planets or just our own? I guess the possibility of our own sun causing the earth to become warmer or cooler is just too obvious. Of course, if the sun were causing it, there wouldn't be a thing we could do about it and there wouldn't be any money or political power to be gained over the illusion that we are at fault for it. If the sun is going to get infinitely hotter, then we're screwed no matter what we do.

Please follow along closely through this presidential campaign to the promises made by the candidates to stop man-made global warming. This is actually code language for more government regulation on businesses and private citizens leading to a worse economy than we are already in. All the candidates are guilty of it-McCain, Clinton, and Obama. They've already taken away the incandescent light bulb because of what is likely junk science-don't let them take away our SUV's. They've already mandated that we use ethanol, despite studies showing that it actually puts out more greenhouse gases into the environment than just regular gas. What is next? The government controlling the air conditioner in our home?

In twenty years we are going to look back and this and laugh when we realize that science changed it's mind again and there was no global warming crisis after all.unless of course we've completely changed our lives and our lifestyles over a manufactured crisis. Then instead of laughing, we might be crying.

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It's About Freedom, Not Climatology

When Vaclav Klaus, who has just won reelection as President of the Czech Republic, states that he has comparative advantage over other speakers on the issue of Climate Change, he is trenchantly correct. Klaus lived under the last large central planning scheme - communism. He rejects the offer to live under the even more draconian central plan of our time - climate alarmism and environmentalism.

Klaus explained his d‚j… vu vantage point to over five hundred participants at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change assembled at Times Square New York City on March 2-4. Stressing his personally acquired wisdom, Klaus said, "Future dangers will not come from the same source [communism]. The ideology will be different. Its essence [environmentalism and climate alarmism] will, nevertheless, be identical - the attractive, pathetic, at first sight noble idea that transcends the individual in the name of common good, and the enormous self-confidence on the side of its proponents about their right to sacrifice the man and his freedom in order to make this idea a reality."

"What I see in Europe and the U.S.," Klaus cautioned, "is a powerful combination of irresponsibility, of wishful thinking, of implicit believing in some form of Malthusianism, of a cynical approach of those who are themselves sufficiently well-off, together with the strong belief in the possibility of changing the economic nature of things through a radical political project."

Klaus focused on facts that showed that decreases in CO2 emissions in the EU have come about because manufacturing radically disappeared when the communist economy collapsed. Future decreases appear to rely on miracles or the deliberate pushing of the EU countries back into the Dark Ages. Carbon dioxide decreases are not normal for growing and prospering civilizations, given current technology. Most of those assembled would not consider such decreases to be either needed or desirable.

Klaus brought to our attention that the thinking of the climate alarmist is the same as Hayek's portrayal of central planners in The Fatal Conceit. He boldly challenged the large assembly, "We have to restart the discussion about the very nature of government and about the relationship between the individual and society. [Freedom] should be the main message of our conference."

The aim and objective of this stimulating gathering was to collapse the fake "consensus" on human-induced catastrophic global warming. Achieving this is a necessary step toward turning climate alarmism into climate realism. The step was taken. "Consensus" collapsed. Over one hundred scientists were provocative proof of the absence of "consensus" that has been touted by alarmists.

These scientists presented, exchanged and debated research showing global warming to be mostly natural, definitely moderate and realistically unstoppable. They held no consensus in their approaches or their results. Enter the dawn of climate realism.

The New York Times on Tuesday, March 4, ran an article by Andrew C. Revkin titled "Cool View of Science at Meeting on Warming." Written as a criticism, Revkin wrote that "the group.displayed a dizzying range of ideas on what was, or was not, influencing climate." That was the very point of the conference.

No "consensus" can be touted when, in fact, so many scientists do indeed dispute what data are meaningful and causative of the highly complex dynamics of climate change. Several, like Dr. Willie Soon, astrophysicist and geoscientist, displayed data showing the sun to be the more likely driver of temperature variations, as compared to carbon dioxide radiative forcings.

Howard Hayden, physics professor, concluded that astronomical phenomena cause about seventy-five percent of the fluctuations in Earth's temperature. The combined effects of all greenhouse gases, changes in surface reflectivity of the sun's radiation, and other Earthly changes account for no more than about three degrees Celsius of the changes during transitions between ice ages and interglacials. Hayden provided a repeatable sound bite when asked about computer models that are the basis for alarmist views. He simply said, "Garbage in; gospel out."

Dr. William M. Gray, meteorological researcher for more than forty years, contributed that the deep oceans, not carbon dioxide, are driving climate. Rather than global warming, Gray believes a recent up-tick in strong hurricanes is part of a multi-decade trend of alternating busy and slow periods related to ocean circulation patterns. Contrary to mainstream thinking, Gray believes ocean temperatures are going to drop in the next five to 10 years.

Dr. Vincent Gray, knows water vapor to be the principle greenhouse gas as others do. However, Gray emphasizes that climate models fail to reflect the fact that water vapor is extremely variable. Gray's work finds that the global warming claim fails on two fundamental facts: 1.) No average temperature of any part of the earth's surface, over any period, has ever been made. 2.) The sample is grossly unrepresentative of the earth's surface, mostly near to towns. No statistician could accept an "average" based on such a poor sample. It cannot possibly be "corrected." Dr. Vincent Gray, a member of the UN IPCC Expert Reviewers Panel since its inception, has written to Professor David Henderson, to support the latter's call for a review of the IPCC and its procedures. Gray's call for such a review ends with these harsh words, "The disappearance of the IPCC in disgrace is not only desirable but inevitable. The reason is that the world will slowly realize that the "predictions" emanating from the IPCC will not happen. The absence of any "global warming" for the past eight years is just the beginning. Sooner or later all of us will come to realize that this organization and the thinking behind it is phony. Unfortunately severe economic damage is likely to be done by its influence before that happens."

Dr Roy Spencer, NASA senior scientist, produced recent evidence for reduced climate sensitivity. Background "noise" in climate systems creates temperature variations that are not random. This "noise" exceeds all of the warming that has been thought to have been made by humans. Climate models don't handle clouds and convection in the tropics well. Precipitation systems interactively regulate the climate system. Computer models predicting climate change are necessarily flawed. Spencer releases his new book March 27, 2008: Climate Confusion - How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor.

Dr. Robert Balling, professor of climatology, questioned what the increase in global temperature does and does not tell us. Water vapor and non-solar control seem dominant. The theory, measurements, and understanding of the greenhouse effect are advancing rapidly, and drastically changing the original predictions from only a few decades ago. Measured warming has been nowhere near the earlier predictions, and the mathematical models are being constantly revised. Both Balling and Dr. Ross McKitrick highlighted failings in data collection. Many temperature stations have been discontinued. Technology for recording temperatures has changed. Urban heat-island effects continue. Data adjustments made by alarmists appear biased.

Dennis T. Avery, and co-author S. Fred Singer, wrote Unstoppable Global Warming - Every 1,500 Years They presented their findings and stressed, "Most of our modern warming occurred before 1940, before much human-emitted CO2. The net warming since 1940 is a minuscule 0.2 degree C - with no warming at all in the last nine years. The Greenhouse Theory can't explain these realities, but the 1,500-year cycle does." The cycle is solar induced. Ice cores show sun, not humans, controlling Earth's climate.

So, no consensuses surfaced. None need exist when the subjects are scientific. Hypotheses and theories should continue to be tested. By different skeptical approaches each scientist at this gathering proved he was courageous. Why courageous? Because, to be a climate change skeptic is political-funding suicide. Few feel they can step forward before they retire. Many, even when gathered together and taking courage from the presence of so many others, felt they had to step away from being in group pictures. Those are choices. They are respected.

Debunking the false "consensus" position of climate alarmists didn't end with the mere conclusion of the conference. Several synchronous efforts include: A Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change. It was endorsed by scientists and researchers. The document stated clearly that "Global warming" is not a global crisis. This tangible product with many signatories declared among other points: That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate; the furtherance of the nascent International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) publication of a current and future Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change report (NIPCC) a new journal on climate science; making video presentations from the conference online; making audio CDs of either a session or the complete conference available; enlistment of interested parties into a speakers bureau; and a 2009 London conference being planned.

This agenda is aggressive, necessary, and appreciated. Hopefully there will be many others who step up, especially in response to Vaclav Klaus' plea that we recognize that the issue has never been global climate cooling or global climate warming. It has always and ever been about political power and control of earth's population.

For over seventeen years I have witnessed at United Nations international gatherings so much ego, money and meeting time being poured into this global central plan to ration energy - to control carbon dioxide by controlling people. To control people by controlling carbon dioxide. To brand the stuff of life - carbon - a deadly pollutant. Political, activist and business careers, especially legal careers, now depend upon creating this new bureaucratic global layer of rules and regulations. The new-age rulers want the wealth and power that will accrue to them as they impose their centralized, consummate plans upon us.

The Czech Republic's President stands firm, honoring the lives and liberties of his citizenry against this particular brand of fresh oppression. Would that these United States had such a courageous leader.

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