2008 Woodie Awards
Global warming articles generate heated response
John E. Lindros
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: Letters to the editors
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I found your February 22, 2007 article on this current 'hot topic' of Global Warming [pun intended] interesting in its breathless tone and charming in its youthful naiveté. Shame on all of you for scaring poor little Megan!
In all of the literature on this subject, not one credible person or study anywhere suggests that any of the proposed 'solutions' or 'actions to be taken right now' such as the Kyoto Accords will produce any result of any sort whatsoever or have any effect on global climate.
The IPPC report cited in the article makes interesting reading to the discerning. You did actually read the report closely, didn't you? For example, in a table in the report on page 9 allegedly setting forth 'assessments of human influence and projections for extreme weather events' we are told that "Increased incidence of extreme high sea level is 'more likely than not' [meaning more than 50% likely] the result of a human contribution" to the perceived trend.
However, the footnote associated with the box in the table tells us that the "[m]agnitude of anthropogenic [i.e., human] contributions [were] not assessed. Attribution for these phenomena [is] based on expert judgement [sic] rather than formal attribution studies."
In other words, they have no data to support that conclusion, but you should trust their judgment [even if the word is misspelled in the footnote] because they are experts. The same footnote applies to most of the conclusions they are drawing about human causation in their tables.
It's amazing what you learn when you actually read some of this stuff. So, well-intentioned students eager to save the world, have fun changing your light bulbs if you want. As a shareholder of General Electric and Wal-Mart, I applaud the opportunity for increased sales. In 5 years, this current hysteria du jour will have gone where ever the panic over Y2K went. You do remember we were all going to die at the turn of the millennium, don't you? So, sweet little Megan, fret not. Like most things, this panic, too, shall pass as soon as the American public gets bored.
In all of the literature on this subject, not one credible person or study anywhere suggests that any of the proposed 'solutions' or 'actions to be taken right now' such as the Kyoto Accords will produce any result of any sort whatsoever or have any effect on global climate.
The IPPC report cited in the article makes interesting reading to the discerning. You did actually read the report closely, didn't you? For example, in a table in the report on page 9 allegedly setting forth 'assessments of human influence and projections for extreme weather events' we are told that "Increased incidence of extreme high sea level is 'more likely than not' [meaning more than 50% likely] the result of a human contribution" to the perceived trend.
However, the footnote associated with the box in the table tells us that the "[m]agnitude of anthropogenic [i.e., human] contributions [were] not assessed. Attribution for these phenomena [is] based on expert judgement [sic] rather than formal attribution studies."
In other words, they have no data to support that conclusion, but you should trust their judgment [even if the word is misspelled in the footnote] because they are experts. The same footnote applies to most of the conclusions they are drawing about human causation in their tables.
It's amazing what you learn when you actually read some of this stuff. So, well-intentioned students eager to save the world, have fun changing your light bulbs if you want. As a shareholder of General Electric and Wal-Mart, I applaud the opportunity for increased sales. In 5 years, this current hysteria du jour will have gone where ever the panic over Y2K went. You do remember we were all going to die at the turn of the millennium, don't you? So, sweet little Megan, fret not. Like most things, this panic, too, shall pass as soon as the American public gets bored.
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