The AP is at it again
Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press published an article under the headline, “Scientists OK Gore’s movie for accuracy.”
One problem, the headline is PAINFULLY vague and it’s supposed to be that way. The AP wants you to brush by the headline and see “ALL scientists agree with Gore!”, instead of what it’s supposed to say, “19 Scientist agree with the information presented”.
According to the article, “more than 100 top climate researchers†were contacted about their opinions yet the AP won’t let anyone know WHO these 100 top researchers are. Nor do they name the 19 that gave “An Inconvenient Truth” 5 Stars for accuracy. They also ignore information from scientists who have put up any form of skepticism and publish ONLY information from those who put Gore’s film in a positive light.
Gore’s film relies HEAVILY on the “hockey stick” graph that shows stable temperatures for the last 900 years only to spike during the 20th century. This graph has been widely discredited by the scientific community.
I leave you with quotes the AP WON’T print.
Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT:
“A general characteristic of Mr. Gore’s approach is to assiduously ignore the fact that the earth and its climate are dynamic; they are always changing even without any external forcing. To treat all change as something to fear is bad enough; to do so in order to exploit that fear is much worse.â€
Former University of Winnipeg climatology professor Dr. Tim Ball:
“The survey that Gore cites was a single transect across one part of the Arctic basin in the month of October during the 1960s when we were in the middle of the cooling period. The 1990 runs were done in the warmer month of September, using a wholly different technology,†–Tim Ball said, according to the Canadian Free Press.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the Mann “hockey stick” graph and the recent NAS Report:
“Today’s NAS report reaffirms what I have been saying all along, that Mann’s ‘hockey stick’ is broken. Today’s report refutes Mann’s prior assertions that there was no Medieval Warm Period or Little Ice Age.â€
“Trying to prove man-made global warming by comparing the well-known fact that today’s temperatures are warmer than during the Little Ice Age is akin to comparing summer to winter to show a catastrophic temperature trend.â€
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Comments
A friend of mine who works at NCAR (national center for atmospheric research) here in Boulder told me over a few beers that the bottom line is this: there is debate over how fast global warming is happening and what the causes are. There is no scientific debate — only a political one — as to whether global warming trends today are partially caused by human activity. None.
It’s a bit like two computer programmers debating whether Java or C# is preferable. One says to the other, “J2EE is too complex to be practical for smaller projects” and a Senator Inholf says, “See? computer programming doesn’t work!”
You do realize that scientists don’t point out the climate change as being the worst thing don’t you? It is the rate of change that is the problem. According to records from Antarctic Ice caps and elsewhere, this is massively accelerated warming. Absolutely in the past there were warming periods, even where average temps were much higher than today, but it happened at a slow rate and without humans around. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people that they can’t just accept the fact that this is a bad thing? CO2 is indeed a greenhouse gas, and you can specifically measure what _X concentration will produce in terms of changing albedo over certain surfaces. The models are quite good, the science is sound. This is what I studied in school, and it is clear cut to anyone not biased. After all, why is it a bad thing to force electric utilities to modernize thier equipment? You could get rid of the extra costs on your end by practicing smart electricity consumption and taking steps like replacing the lightbulbs in your house with energy efficient ones. In the end this is about greed, arrogance, and a denial of the fact that melting ice caps are a damn bad thing for everyone involved. Be it the species who subsist on specific, stable climatic conditions, or the residents of coastal cities such as New York.