Global Warming Skeptics of the Scientific Kind

Every day I scan a variety of news sources to find news on global warming. Every day I find them, but virtually all of them discuss the impact to the environment from global warming, not the cause of global warming itself. That, they argue, is settled science. Since the scientific evidence that human activity (anthropogenic global warming, or AGW) is the cause of global warming is so weak, and the possible alternative causes are so many, those who are proponents of the idea that AGW causes global warming have little else to rest their argument on except to say that 'that is that' and the issue is settled. They want to quickly move on to how to the 'let's fix the problem' phase since their causation argument is so weak.

A recent post in the Canada Free Press by guest columnist Tom Harris provides further evidence that that AGW argument is weak. To wit:

'"While many are highly skilled researchers, they generally do not have special knowledge about the causes of global climate change," explains former University of Winnipeg climatology professor Dr. Tim Ball. "They usually can tell us only about the effects of changes in the local environment where they conduct their studies."

This is highly valuable knowledge, but doesn't make them climate change cause experts, only climate impact experts."

He goes on:

"Among experts who actually examine the causes of change on a global scale, many concentrate their research on designing and enhancing computer models of hypothetical futures. "These models have been consistently wrong in all their scenarios," asserts Ball. "Since modelers concede computer outputs are not "predictions" but are in fact merely scenarios, they are negligent in letting policy-makers and the public think they are actually making forecasts."

We should listen most to scientists who use real data to try to understand what nature is actually telling us about the causes and extent of global climate change. In this relatively small community, there is no consensus, despite what Gore and others would suggest."

The above refers the Al Gore's recent movie about global warming. One of the climate scientists quoted in Mr. Harris' article, Professor Bob Carter of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Australia, says of Gore:

"The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science."

I couldn't agree more.

Tags
global warming
Global Warming skeptic
Al Gore