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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Cal  Thomas :: Townhall.com Columnist
Consensus or Censorship?
by Cal Thomas
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The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted a "finding" to the White House Office of Management and Budget that will force the Obama administration to decide whether to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. If adopted, new laws and regulations will likely follow that have the potential to change our lifestyles and limit our freedoms. None of these laws and regulations will be preceded by debate, they will be imposed on us by fundamentalist politicians and scientists who have swallowed the Kool-Aid and declared global warming as fact; end of discussion.

On the Discovery Channel last week, Tom Brokaw hosted a special called "Global Warming: The New Challenge." While promoting the piece, Brokaw declared, "there is a growing consensus that global warming is real and getting worse." Actually, there is a growing body of opinion that global warming is a fraud perpetrated by liberal politicians and their scientific acolytes who want more control over our lives.

Whenever politicians declare a crisis, or an emergency, watch out. Chances are this means they want to impose something before the public discovers the truth.

One of the definitions of consensus is "general agreement or concord; harmony." Any honest assessment of scientific opinion leads to the conclusion that there is significant disagreement on global warming within the scientific community among those with expertise in climatology and related fields. Yet many politicians want us to believe all of science is on board with manmade global warming and that we must act now to save the planet and ourselves from catastrophe (catastrophe is another word politicians like to use when imposing their agendas).

You know something is up when prominent apostles of global warming, especially former vice president and Nobel Laureate, Al Gore, refuse to debate or discuss the issue with any scientist who takes a contrary view. Some religious fundamentalists impose various codes of behavior and dress on their adherents and threaten expulsion (if not death) for those who fail to acquiesce to their dictates. Is it not fundamentalist science to ignore any evidence that casts doubt on global warming? For a treasure trove of information that debunks the "science" of global warming visit www.globalwarminghoax.com.

For global warming fundamentalists, no amount of contradictory information will dilute their faith. Science makes mistakes, as did NASA when it published data on global warming trends in an effort to gauge the warmest years in U.S. history. Their temperature statistics were flawed. The year 1998 was not the hottest year on record, as NASA originally stated, it was 1934 -- the year Wiley Post discovered the jet stream. Continued...

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About The Author
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book, "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America".
 
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Camanatix
You may have some problems with your data and ideas. According to the 2007 IPCC TAR, CO2 and other GHGs is the main driver of global climate. Since 1990, CO2 cocentrations have climbed from 370ppm to 390ppm, with the majority of the increases since 2000. The IPCC went on to conclude that all major teleconnections and oscillations will be secondary to GHG increases, and oscillations like El Nino will be amplified (that is GHGs will cause more frequent and powerful El Nino events). Oscillations like the AMO, NAO, AO, and PDO were secondary, and the IPCC deemed them as unimportant.

Ironically, 2007 was the beginning of a rather strong La Nina episode, and in 2008 NOAA declared that the PDO went negative (ie cold). This was followed by the UK Met Offices rather infamous statement that AGW "will be on hiatus" at least until 2017. Later, several scientists including those at NOAA declared that AGW is still with us (despite falling global temps since 2007), but it is "hidden" -most probably in the deep oceans.

Of course, th deep oceans do not store heat energy. It is either radiated back into space, absorbed by greenhouse gases, or absorbed by the land or oceans. The oceans will either transport the heat poleward, interract with the boundry layer of the atmosphere (from which it will either be disapated through convection or through cloud formation and precipitation). ARGO data has proven these well known processes out.

As a matter of fact, the negative feedback of tropical cloud formations acts as a themostat against increased temperatures through increases in water vapor. Increased tropical cloudiness blocks incoming solar radiation, which in turn reduces the amount of heat available to the tropics. That is, the natural interactions of well known atmospheric teleconnections control our climate, and not GHGs.

Turophile, Reply #117
How does CO2 force the global cooling trend we've seen since 2001? Wouldn't the temperature continue to climb?
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First, while temperatures have remained relatively constant since 2001, they have not been cooling. Since solar intensity has been decreasing since 2001, it has been canceling out much of the effects from CO2, explaining the pause in warming. However, solar intensity will peak again in about 2013 and CO2 is still rising, so you can probably expect another sharp increase in global temperatures.

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How do you explain the correlation between solar activity (sunspots) and temperature? That correlation is far closer than CO2 vs. temperture.
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The correlation between solar activity and temperature only holds until about 1950. Since there has been no correlation since then, you must start looking at other sources. CO2 is the only forcing agent which has been increasing since 1950.

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How do you explain the 800 year delay between temperature rise and the following CO2 rise? Is that the effect of CO2 coming out of solution as the oceans warm?
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If humans were not pumping out 30 billion tons of CO2 every year, you probably would still see this lag. But like any other feedback system, just because one source has historically been the leader doesn't prohibit the other from doing the same.
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