Next ICCC Should Be Interesting

This just in from a mailer I got from the Americans For Limited Government. According to this guy, a number of scientists are going to show up at the International Conference on Climate Change next month and refute claims that humans are causing climate change. The conference will be held March 8 through 10 in New York. It will be interesting to see how the mainstream media covers this:

By Isaac MacMillen

Global Warming may well be one of the cruelest—and most costly—frauds perpetrated upon mankind in human history. But it is starting to unravel, thanks to some brave scientists—not the least of which is one of the men on the moon.

More than three dozen PhD scientists will join numerous public policy leaders in early March to address the issue of climate change and the alarmism that has come to be associated with it at the annual International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC). And now, it has just been reported that, in addition to highly respected world leaders such as former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Anzar and Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus, attendees will likely hear some unequivocated straight-talk from former Senator and Apollo 17 moonwalker Dr. Harrison Schmitt.

Dr. Schmitt, who received his PhD in geology from Harvard University, recently came out swinging against those who promote global warming as absolute truth. Schmitt denies that the “human effect is significant compared to the natural effect,” and states that political and financial pressure has caused scientists to endorse anthropogenic global warming or simply be silent. "They've seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven't gone along with the so-called political consensus that we're in a human-caused global warming," he said. “It's one of the few times you've seen a sizable portion of scientists who ought to be objective take a political position and it's coloring their objectivity."

The former astronaut recently withdrew his membership in The Planetary Society, a group dedicated to interplanetary travel, citing disagreements over Mars travel and various other society stances. One of them referenced “accelerating research into global climate change through more comprehensive Earth observations.” In his withdrawal letter, he took issue with that statement, saying:

“As a geologist, I love Earth observations. But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a "consensus" that humans are causing global warming in when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. "Consensus", as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the "global warming scare" is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society's activities.”

Dr. Schmitt is not alone in his wholesale rejection of the global warming mantra. Joining him on center stage will be Dr. Richard Lindzen, current MIT professor and former panel-member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's climate control advisory group. Dr. Lindzen has been outspoken in his skepticism of anthropogenic global warming, and has strongly resisted the concept of a “consensus,” calling it “shrill alarmism.”

Speaking of those who are unsure of the matter, he wrote that “their research is forced, whether the evidence supports it or not, into Mr. Gore's preferred global-warming template—namely, shrill alarmism.” Dr. Lindzen further stated that "given that the question of human attribution largely cannot be resolved, its use in promoting visions of disaster constitutes nothing so much as a bait-and-switch scam.” Strong words from a high-ranking scientist.

Another scientist sharing the stage, Dr. Willie Soon, had these words to say on the "pernicious" scientific consensus:

“Scientific agreement, though, differs distinctly from consensus wrought by social-political pressures. Efforts to force a consensus are pernicious to science. The body of evidence and facts on which scientists agree—as currently known—must always be challengeable by new information. That is the basis of the scientific method.”

Dr. Soon, a physicist at a division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, helped compile over 200 climate studies that, together, covered climate change over a millennium. The findings revealed that the temperature change experienced during the 20th century was not abnormal—in fact, the 20th century was cooler than the Medieval Warm Period, which covered 800-1300 A.D. Too bad that Al Gore decided to cut that fact from his movie.

Despite all the alarmist rhetoric on the fabricated “consequences” of global warming inaction...despite the claims of “consensus” and “settled debate” used to goad politicians into immediate action...despite the risk of being 'ostracized' by the political elite—several dozen scientists and policy experts stand ready to show the world that there is not consensus, and that scientists exist who are still willing to offer objective alternatives.

And they, together with the keynote speakers profiled above, will attack the global warming lie that has been perpetuated by those who wish to, in the words of Dr. Schmitt, use it “as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes, and decision-making.”

In short, the debate (at least) is heating up.

Isaac MacMillen is a contributing editor to ALG News Bureau.

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