YOUR COMMENTS

What a sad and severely misinformed article. Particularly the notion of tying the fact of Global Warming to Gore. Do what I have done and visit the Ice caps and see the facts with your own eyes.
- Joe Witherspoon, San Mateo, CA

Komrade William onc again claiming that money taken from the private market place by force actually creates jobs. It has worked wonders in the former Soviet Union and Cuba.
- Brian Fellers, Grafton NH

If you are right that there is no global warming, we will have spent a bunch of money, created a bunch of jobs, lost some time, helped the environment out a bit. If you are wrong, there will be no earth for us to live on. Which kind of bet do you want to make? We just bet $700 billion that bankers were concerned citizens. How'd that work out for you?
- William, Deerfield

Kyle first of all Paul Ehrlich was not a global warming scientist. Secondly, your phrase about Mr. Ehrlich being a mentor and hero to Al Gore appears 11,600 times on a Google search so it appears you are parroting right wing talking points. Not to mention that I could not find any evidence that Ehrlich was a hero or mentor to Al Gore.

Finally, regarding the alleged 31,000 signatures, The term "scientists" is often used in describing signatories; however, many of them have degrees in engineering or medicine. The distribution of petitions was uncontrolled: those receiving the petition could check a line that said "send more petition cards for me to distribute". That Petition has been used by climate change deniers as proof that there is no scientific consensus, however they fail to note the controversy surrounding the petition itself. Some of the signatories were "Drs. 'Frank Burns' 'Honeycutt' and 'Pierce' from the hit-show M*A*S*H and Spice Girls, a.k.a. Geraldine Halliwell, who was on the petition as 'Dr. Geri Halliwel' and again as simply 'Dr. Halliwell.' " Of the fake names, Robinson is quoted as saying: "When we're getting thousands of signatures there's no way of filtering out a fake." Enough said.
- Mike Lane, Manchester

Mike,

Bias does matter and there are two sides to every coin.

Al Gore joined venture capital group Kliener Perkins Caufield & Byers last Sept. and on May 1st 2008, they announced a $500 million dollar investment in green technologies called the Green Growth Fund. The group announced $700 million more to be invested over the next 3 yrs. Subsequently, Gore launched a $300 million dollar ad campaign to convince us all about global warming. No bias there Mike.

I forgot to mention the 31,072 American scientists signed a petition rejecting claims that humans are causing global warming. 9,021 have doctorates. You may have missed that one Mike.

Lets look at previous claims from so called Global Warming experts. Paul Ehrlich, Gore hero and mentor predicted in 1968 that the US would face major food shortages in the 70's and "hundreds of millions of people are going to starve." He also stated, "If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the yr 2000."

In 1975, the Environmental Fund took out full page ads warning, "The World as we know it will likely be ruined by the year 2000."

Harvard Biologist, George Wald in 1970, "Civilization will end within 15-30 yrs unless immediate action is taken."

Global warming is a thriving growth business with billions at stake. Scientists are keenly aware of how government grants work and the more sensationalism and headlines they get, the better the odds of a fat "taxpayer" grant they get. No bias there Mike.

What irritates me the most are the weekend environmentalists who sign petitions they don't even read, drive cars twice the size of mine, live in McMansions, don't recycle and are all in favor of economic stifling policies that do nothing to benefit the environment and only consolidate even more power within the vacum of Washington and other bureacratic agencies. But hey the science is settled. Where do I sign up?
- Kyle, Bedford

Kyle, bias matters. The audacity of Inhofe's and Morano's dishonesty is breathtaking. Joe Romm at Climate Progress yesterday published a piece with one quoted scientist saying the Inhofe/Morano monstrocity not only misquoted her work, but represented it exactly opposite of its actual conclusions. Of the 650 so called scientists:

84 have either taken money from, or are connected to, fossil fuel industries, or think tanks started by those industries.
49 are retired
44 are television weathermen
20 are economists
70 have no apparent expertise in climate science

Another scientist, Meteorologist George Waldenberger, claims he was duped into signing the list and regrets it. George sent an email to Inhofe’s staffers that began: "Take me off your list of (Prominent) Scientists that dispute Man-Made Global warming claims. I’ve never made any claims that debunk the Consensus." Guess what? He's still on the list.
- Mike Lane, Manchester

Mike,

Just google 650 scientists against global warming. There are plenty of sites/sources that report this. Don't dispute the information because you don't like one source reporting the news that the lamestream media should be doing.

Did you even look at the names of the scientists and their statements? These are not fringe scientists in the back pocket of big oil. Some are nobel prize winners (Ivar Giaever) and highly decorated scientists (Dr. Joanne Simpson) who are willing to put their careers on the line to dispute this so called "settled science".

Obviously your sold on the topic, just like the millions who were sold on global cooling in the 1970's. That's fine. If it brings comfort and meaning to your life than that is your perogative. But to believe the government can prevent what has proven to be occuring on this Earth for billions of years, you are fooling yourself. Stooping to Karl Rove tactics to delegitimize the critics is beneath you.
- Kyle, Bedford

Mike

So now that the climate models you and the rest of the Church of Global Warming the Gorites were spewing 3+ years ago are wrong you have modified them saying well global warming is actually causing this. Like after two relatively mild hurricane seasons suddenly global warming is the cause of less hurricanes. Even the name has changed. Before it was Global Warming now it is Climate Change. So I guess that would make it the Church of Global Climate Change reformed.
- Brian, Wakefield

Kyle when I say "sources" I mean credible sources. Not links to politically motivated minority reports posted by a man, Marc Morano, who from 1992-96 was employed as a reporter and producer for Rush Limbaugh's television show. His political bona fides include inventing the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth when he was working the hill for Rush Limbaugh, he also penned an article questioning the Purple Heart medals of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a leading critic of Bush's Iraq policy. Now he produces "minority report." Limbaugh used to refer to him as "our man in Washington." Let's get real.
- Mike Lane, Manchester

I heard the other day that the cold spell we are experiencing is a result of the melting ice caps. Everybody knows that it takes a lot of energy to melt ice and so all this energy is being sucked out of the rest of Earth's atmosphere which causes the rest of the Earth to cool. Yep, sounds like Gore has been attempting to be a science teacher again.
- Lynn, Orlando, FL

With the reduction of emissions this year, why doesn't anyone see what could be the obvious... I hear the term "parallel" and this is exactly what the reduction of auto emissions would be to global cooling.

It really doesn't take much and really is the closest common denominator. I'd like to hear precisely what the consumption was in comparison, broken down into precise sectors by efficiency.
- Richard Townsend, Barrington

Hey Mike, You ask for sources in previous post. Here are just a few that you may have overlooked. You would probably hear more from the dissenters if it didn't mean ostracism and career suicide for most scientists. Although that tide may be reversing...

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6
- Kyle, Bedford

A common misconception regarding Global warming is that it means temperatures will get hotter everywhere all at once. Global Warming models actually predict that normal weather patterns will become extreme and and unpredictable. Expect unusual weather patterns more frequently including cold where there usually isn't and rain or drought where there usually aren't.

Also, projections show every area of the globe will see increasing volatility in the form of storms, hurricanes, and/or coastal flooding. Scientists say the models predict stronger and more severe storms for the U.S., particularly in the central and eastern regions of the country where warming will likely intensify the strong updrafts and horizontal winds characteristic to the areas. Models from Purdue University suggest the East Coast will likely experience storms of increasing severity during its typical storm season because of the impact of rising humidity.
- Mike Lane, Manchester