How many timeas have you heard that "an overwhelming majority of climate scientists... or scientists... etc. support anthropogenic global warming" as an excuse to drop a GDP tax and regulation bomb on us all. That's a lot bigger than an H bomb.
Here are the real numbers. In 1992, in the book that may win Al Gore a Nobel Peace Prize, believe it or not, the emminent Mr. Gore states that "Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled."
A Gallup Poll in 1992 showed that 53% of scientists actively involved in Global Warming research did not believe it was occuring, 30% were unsure, and 17% believed it had begun. A Greenpeace poll in the mid 1990's showed 47% of climatologists thaought that an event was imminent, 36% thought it possible at all, and 13% thought it probable.
More recently, the IPCC claims that 2,000 of 2,500 of the World's Top Scientists endorse the IPCC position of Kyoto like remedies, although the IPCC will not release the names, only promising that they will be put online "hopefully by late 2007". By the way, those defined as Top Scientists were those handpicked to review the IPCC results.
Between 1999 and 2000, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine organized a petition signed by 17,800 scientists in opposition to Kyoto Protocol.
A November 2006 poll of the 12,000 strong National Registry of Environmental Professionals found that 59% of its members think human activities are largely responsible for the warming that has occured, and only 39% think controlling carbon emmissions should be a priority.
If this is what comprises "consensus" among scientists, then it should be good enough for us. Anything with a low 50% support should be acted upon immediately. Bummer for advocates of capital punishment, abortion on demand, welfare...
A good in depth review of this is at:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=c47c1209-233b-412c-b6d1-5c755457a8af
21st century, Christian, conservative oil “fellows” (Oil Men are a thing of the past, in my opinion) find it harder and harder to justify their existence. Back in the 70’s producing more oil seemed to be the patriotic thing to do. We were doing the right thing for America. At that time there were 3 billion people on the Pacific rim consuming about .5 bbl of oil per person per year. Conservatives preached buy American. Remember the Wal Mart buy American TV ads? Now conservatives and some liberals have bought into globalism and neo conservatism. They tell us we must buy the cheapest product. They have exported our industrial base to Asia, and fueled an unquenchable demand for oil throughout the Pacific rim. Christian conservatives controlled all three branches of government for six years and only made the problem worse. Now, in a “Wal Mart” like flip flop, oil companies don’t even suggest producing more oil is socially redeeming (see BP and Shell TV ads). It is now all about the money. We don’t deny this, and the oil business has attracted the “all about money” crowd. So keep pumping out the feel good that global warming is fake and producing more oil is good, because we are not sleeping well.
Posted by: scott | June 10, 2007 at 07:23 PM
Scott, you're nuts. Your mom called and said she's worried about you again. She wanted me to make sure your taking your meds.
OC, re: the IPCC report. Those scientists only signed off on the small portion of the report they were allowed to see. None of them were given any more of the report to read. The UN has completely misrepresented what the scientists agreed to and they're pissed. A couple hundred have asked that their names be removed from the list after reading the whole report and a few have actually sued in court to force the UN to remove their names. The UN has so far refused to remove their names and refused to release the list because then people could actually interview them.
Love your blog.
Posted by: The Apologist | July 07, 2007 at 10:55 AM