You don't have to be religious to qualify as a fundamentalist. You can be Al
Gore, the messiah figure for the global warming cult, whose followers truly
believe their gospel of imminent extermination in a Noah-like flood, if we
don't immediately change our carbon polluting ways.
One of the traits of a cult is its refusal to consider any evidence that
might disprove the faith. And so it is doubtful the global warming cultists
will be moved by 400 scientists, many of whom, according to the Washington
Times, "are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore
for publicizing a climate crisis." In a report by Republican staff of the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, these scientists cast doubt
on a "scientific consensus" that global warming caused by humans endangers
the planet.
Like most cultists, the true believers struck back, not by debating science,
but by charging that a small number of the scientists mentioned in the
report have taken money from the petroleum industry. A spokeswoman for Al
Gore said 25 or 30 of the scientists may have received funding from Exxon
Mobile Corp. Exxon Mobile spokesman Gantt H. Walton dismissed the
accusation, saying, "the company is concerned about climate-change issues
and does not pay scientists to bash global-warming theories."
The pro-global warming cultists enjoy a huge money advantage. Paleoclimate
scientist Bob Carter, who has testified before the Senate Environment and
Public Works committee, noted in an EPW report how much money has been spent
researching and promoting climate fears and so-called solutions: "In one of
the more expensive ironies of history, the expenditure of more than $50
billion (US) on research into global warming since 1990 has failed to
demonstrate any human-caused climate trend, let alone a dangerous one," he
wrote on June 18, 2007. The $19 million spent on research that debunks the
global warming faith pales in comparison.
Also included in the Republican report are comments by Dutch atmospheric
scientist Hendrik Tennekes: "I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting
- a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the IPCC number - entirely without
merit. I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home
heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat: just turn the dial,
and the desired temperature will soon be reached."