This is your standard right wing brain getting fried when the topic of global warming comes up:
The latest addition to the “Politically Incorrect Guide” series put out by Regnery Publishing (a HUMAN EVENTS sister company) addresses global warming, and it may be the most appropriate and timely one yet….[T]the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism,” Christopher Horner, provides ample ammunition for those who wish to oppose grandiose new federal and international measures that could do considerably more harm than good. […]
… Horner concedes … that there is some scientific validity to the theory of man-made global warming. The release of carbon dioxide, a natural constituent of the atmosphere but also the byproduct of all fossil fuel combustion, has a warming effect on the planet. But Horner asserts that such man-made warming is far from catastrophic. […]
Beyond the question about whether warming is natural or man-made, Horner also demonstrates that the consequences will likely be modest. Virtually all of the truly terrifying claims linked to global warming — massive sea-level rise, epidemics of malaria and other tropical diseases, and greatly increased hurricanes — are not true and lie outside any scientific consensus. They get far more play in Al Gore’s documentary and book, An Inconvenient Truth, than they do among scientists. Horner’s extensive scientific footnotes on this point show that there is considerable support for his assertions.
Considerable support that the consequences of global warming will be modest? Hmmm. Might want to consult with NASA about that:
NASA scientists may have discovered how a warmer climate in the future could increase droughts in certain parts of the world, including the southwest United States.
…They found that a warmer future climate likely will produce droughts in the same areas as those observed in ancient times, but potentially with greater severity.
“These findings strongly suggest that greenhouse gases and long-term changes in solar activity both can have major influences on climate via similar processes,” said Drew Shindell, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York. Shindell is lead author of a paper that appeared in the Dec. 27, 2006, issue of the American Geophysical Union’s “Geophysical Research Letters.”
“There is some evidence that rainfall patterns already may be changing,” Shindell added. “Much of the Mediterranean area, North Africa and the Middle East rapidly are becoming drier. If the trend continues as expected, the consequences may be severe in only a couple of decades. These changes could pose significant water resource challenges to large segments of the population.”
Or, how about checking the recent “Summary for Policymakers” report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), authored by a large number of climate change researchers, and representing the overwhelming consensus view of climate change scientists regarding the very likely (90% + confidence interval) consequences of man-made global warming:
(cont.)
It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent. […]
Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the timescales
associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be
stabilized. […]Both past and future anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will continue to contribute to warming and
sea level rise for more than a millennium, due to the timescales required for removal of this gas from the
atmosphere.
Warming trends and sea levels will continue to rise for a millenium? I’m sure that’s a word even the Genesis based scholars of the Christian Right understand. I guess when Jesus returns he won’t need as much landmass for the saved to live upon. However, having to deal with all those droughts, heat waves and more violent storms might put a damper on even the cheeriest Rapturee.
Seriously, these predictions by NASA and by the IPCC don’t seem like modest changes to me. I’d think any sane person would support whatever we need to do to cut our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Indeed, that’s what many people support, even the editorial boards of most major and minor American newspapers. Here’s a representative sample from The Kansas City Star (reproduced in the Fort Wayne Sentinel):
Getting everyone on the same page as to the cause of global warming – or even its existence – is no small feat. The latest report by scientists involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could move much of the world closer to consensus. […]
President Bush and others oppose strong regulations on the basis of exaggerated claims that they would send the country’s economy tumbling, to the benefit of other, lesser users of energy.
Without U.S. involvement in a solution, not much will get done. Solutions exist that the president and others are reluctant to recognize. Serious development of solar, wind, certain biofuels and other sources of energy would reduce greenhouse gases and American dependency on foreign oil. Decreased energy consumption and higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars eventually would help.
In Washington, the Democrats have signaled that they would be more interested in global warming than the administration and the previous Congress. That is good, but political game playing will not be a solution. Real action is needed.
(emphasis mine)
Of course, Regnery author and self proclaimed global warming expert, Christopher Horner doesn’t see it that way. Indeed, he thinks actually addressing the global warming will only make matters worse:
Consider the one big success story prior to Katrina — the million or more people who got into the family car and drove out of harm’s way in the days before the storm hit. If Kyoto-style energy restrictions made automobile ownership and use prohibitively expensive, many more would have been stranded in New Orleans and other coastal cities.
“The important thing to remember is that hurricanes — like malaria, floods and the entire global-warming parade of horribles — happen with or without global warming as posited, and the cure of policies imposing suppressed energy use, such as the Kyoto Protocol, make no one any safer, but only poorer and less able to deal with these ever-present threats,” Horner concludes.
Indeed, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism” makes a strong case that there are issues where the proposed solutions are more dangerous than the problem.
Yes, solutions to try to head off an extensive rise in sea levels, catastrophic droughts, increased and more intense storms, species extinction and the spread of disease vectors will be much so much worse than doing nothing, nothing at all to deal with global warming. This sort of nonsense reminds me of College Basketball coach (and mysogynist) Bobby Knight’s advice to rape victims: “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
Just out of curiousity, I googled Mr. Christopher Hoerner to see what his credentials are with respect to the issue of Global Warming in particular, and climate science, in general. Imagine my surprise when I discovered he’s a Senior Fellow for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the “think tank” that is heavily funded by Exxon Mobil and the oil and gas industry, and which ran a number of scurrilous ads last year attempting to smear Al Gore and his documentary, An inconvenient Truth, one of which used the slogan “We call it life” when referring to the benefits of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
So how does the CEI’s own website describe Mr Hoerner’s qualifications as an expert on global warming and climate science? Take a look:
Christopher C. Horner serves as a Senior Fellow at CEI, in which capacity he oversees petitions and litigation on topics including data access and quality laws, the Freedom of Information Act, and government science and agency statutory compliance, and other legal matters involving environment and energy issues, international environmental treaties, and climate policy …
A practicing attorney in Washington, D.C., Mr. Horner works on a legal and policy level with numerous think tanks and policy organizations throughout the world. He frequently speaks before industry and academic audiences, and has written on numerous topics in publications ranging from law reviews to legal and industrial trade journals to print and online opinion pages. […]
Mr. Horner has provided legal, policy and political commentary several hundred times each on both television and radio, in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, including scores of visits each on the Fox News Channel, Court TV, MSNBC with repeat visits on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, BBC, CNN, CNN International, ITN, CBC, Bloomberg and Reuters Television
Well, I can certainly see that his experience as a lawyer and spokesperson for industry trade groups and conservative causes eminently qualifies him to write a book disparaging the research and conclusions of thousands of climate scientists who contend that global warming is real, is being driven by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and is likely to have devastating consequences for our planet and our civilization in the decades and centuries to come.
Hell, I’m a lawyer, or was before I retired. I’ll just bet I could call myself an expert on climate change and global warming, too. I could, that is, if I was willing to become a shill for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and it’s Big Oil financiers. However, having carefully considered the opportunity to lay claim to such expertise, I think I’ll continue to let real scientists and their research results inform my opinions about global climate change, rather than take blood money out of Exxon Mobil’s greasy palms.
Competitive Enterprise Institute
