Anti-Science Conservatives Must Be Stopped

by Joseph Romm - June 30th, 2008 - Salon.com

Conservatives put on a spectacular display of scientific ignorance this month in the U.S. Senate. During the debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would regulate carbon dioxide by setting a cap on emissions and allowing emitters to trade carbon allowances, most Republican senators questioned the reality of human-caused climate change or ignored the climate threat entirely and repeated the talking point that the bill would raise gasoline and electricity prices.

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None of their scientific or technological claims is true and most of the economic claims are a wild exaggeration based on studies funded by fossil fuel companies. This may be a defining moment for humanity according to the world's increasingly desperate climate scientists, but to many conservatives it's apparently just another moment to score political points at the expense of future generations.

This article from the liberal Salon.com web site is typical of the dialog about global warming. All they do is smear those who disagree with them.

First, please note the reference to fossil fuel. It has long been known that the myth of oil coming from fossils has been disproved. Yet the man causes global warming supporters still call it fossil fuel. This, at the very least, questions their credibility on the issue.

Second, the two signed petitions from the opposite sides indicate that significantly more scientists disagree with the premise that man is causing global warming. The petition touted by the global warming is caused by man crowd had only only about 300 climate scientists among the 2500 total signers, most of whom were government bureaucrats and not real scientists. These who doubt man is causing global warming got 30,000 signatures on their petition, with over 8,000 from PhDs who have studied climate. It would appear that based on number of scientists and their expertise, the man is causing global warming group is not justified in their claims.

Third, the enviro-extremists still ignore the warming on Mars and Jupiter, as well as indications the Sun is the major cause of warming here on Earth. You cannot ignore evidence that the entire solar system is heating up and still credibly argue that it is proven that man is causing the warming.

The tone of this article is the real problem. You cannot start arguing that anyone who disagrees with you is anti-science and expect that an intelligent dialog will result.

What is true?

There has been global warming for the last century, here on Earth, as well as Jupiter and Mars. There is nothing but a hypothesis that carbon based fuels are causing the warming on earth. There is considerable evidence, such as the warming on the other planets, that warming is not related to carbon fuel use. It is not only NOT settled science, the science is on the side of the doubters. There is no credible argument that the reason differs for each planet. If burning carbon based fuels is not causing the warming here on Earth, everything the enviro-extremists propose is counter productive. You have to question the sincerity of the enviro-extremists when they dismiss everything well intentioned opponents have to say, and can only hurl insults.

Mankind will need lots of cheap energy to handle either global warming or, the newest fear, global cooling. If we have enough cheap energy neither warming or cooling will be a serious problem. When the enviro-extremists reject nuclear as a viable option, you know that they have an agenda not based on what is best for mankind. So the question is, what is their agenda? My belief? It is political power. For this there is strong evidence. They are all socialists and liberals who love government control anyway. This uniform political belief calls into question anything they say about the science of global warming.