How often have we heard that mankind’s contribution to global warming has been proven to be significant and dangerous, the debate’s over, and the dissent is a minority comprised of Flat-Earthers, oil-company stooges and clueless twits? Well, as is so often the case when dealing with liberals, the truth happens to be another story.
–
Enter the Oregon Institute of Science & Medicine’s Petition Project. (Big thanks to Matt, who called attention to the petition in this debate.) Their position is as follows:
–
We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
–
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
–
So how many signatures do they have? Any lefties in the audience may wanna sit down (all emphasis mine):
–
During the past several years, more than 17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees, have signed the Global Warming Petition.
–
Signers of this petition so far include 2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and environmental scientists (select this link for a listing of these individuals) who are especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide on the Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
–
Signers of this petition also include 5,017 scientists whose fields of specialization in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and other life sciences (select this link for a listing of these individuals) make them especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide upon the Earth’s plant and animal life.
–
Nearly all of the initial 17,100 scientist signers have technical training suitable for the evaluation of the relevant research data, and many are trained in related fields. In addition to these 17,100, approximately 2,400 individuals have signed the petition who are trained in fields other than science or whose field of specialization was not specified on their returned petition.
–
Of the 19,700 signatures that the project has received in total so far, 17,800 have been independently verified and the other 1,900 have not yet been independently verified. Of those signers holding the degree of PhD, 95% have now been independently verified. One name that was sent in by enviro pranksters, Geri Halliwell, PhD, has been eliminated. Several names, such as Perry Mason and Robert Byrd are still on the list even though enviro press reports have ridiculed their identity with the names of famous personalities. They are actual signers. Perry Mason, for example, is a PhD Chemist.
–
The costs of this petition project have been paid entirely by private donations. No industrial funding or money from sources within the coal, oil, natural gas or related industries has been utilized. The petition’s organizers, who include some faculty members and staff of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, do not otherwise receive funds from such sources. The Institute itself has no such funding. Also, no funds of tax-exempt organizations have been used for this project.
–
Also, here is another partial list of scientific dissenters and their comments (I know I’ve blasted reliance on Wikipedia in the past, but in this case the reliability of what you see on the website is not an issue, because each entry is an external link to the actual story or article).
–
So what does this prove? “All these people reject man-made global warming; therefore, it’s false?” That’s not what I’m trying to say at all. The point is that the dissent is substantial enough that simply adding up the players on each side and throwing in with the supposedly-bigger team isn’t a reliable or conclusive enough method to reach a conclusion. You’d think liberals, what with their high-minded talk about logical thought and questioning authority, could appreciate such an idea. But you’d apparently be wrong.
–
Enter the Oregon Institute of Science & Medicine’s Petition Project. (Big thanks to Matt, who called attention to the petition in this debate.) Their position is as follows:
–
We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
–
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
–
So how many signatures do they have? Any lefties in the audience may wanna sit down (all emphasis mine):
–
During the past several years, more than 17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees, have signed the Global Warming Petition.
–
Signers of this petition so far include 2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and environmental scientists (select this link for a listing of these individuals) who are especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide on the Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
–
Signers of this petition also include 5,017 scientists whose fields of specialization in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and other life sciences (select this link for a listing of these individuals) make them especially well qualified to evaluate the effects of carbon dioxide upon the Earth’s plant and animal life.
–
Nearly all of the initial 17,100 scientist signers have technical training suitable for the evaluation of the relevant research data, and many are trained in related fields. In addition to these 17,100, approximately 2,400 individuals have signed the petition who are trained in fields other than science or whose field of specialization was not specified on their returned petition.
–
Of the 19,700 signatures that the project has received in total so far, 17,800 have been independently verified and the other 1,900 have not yet been independently verified. Of those signers holding the degree of PhD, 95% have now been independently verified. One name that was sent in by enviro pranksters, Geri Halliwell, PhD, has been eliminated. Several names, such as Perry Mason and Robert Byrd are still on the list even though enviro press reports have ridiculed their identity with the names of famous personalities. They are actual signers. Perry Mason, for example, is a PhD Chemist.
–
The costs of this petition project have been paid entirely by private donations. No industrial funding or money from sources within the coal, oil, natural gas or related industries has been utilized. The petition’s organizers, who include some faculty members and staff of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, do not otherwise receive funds from such sources. The Institute itself has no such funding. Also, no funds of tax-exempt organizations have been used for this project.
–
Also, here is another partial list of scientific dissenters and their comments (I know I’ve blasted reliance on Wikipedia in the past, but in this case the reliability of what you see on the website is not an issue, because each entry is an external link to the actual story or article).
–
So what does this prove? “All these people reject man-made global warming; therefore, it’s false?” That’s not what I’m trying to say at all. The point is that the dissent is substantial enough that simply adding up the players on each side and throwing in with the supposedly-bigger team isn’t a reliable or conclusive enough method to reach a conclusion. You’d think liberals, what with their high-minded talk about logical thought and questioning authority, could appreciate such an idea. But you’d apparently be wrong.
Conservative Standards 