Maybe Our Senators Should Read This
Written by YellowJacket on May 28th, 2008I’m sure y’all have heard of the global warming skeptic petition that has garnered 31,000 signatures from the scientific community.
That’s a whole lot more than the 2,500-member UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which claims there is a “consensus” on man-made global warming.
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This is one PhD that has signed this petition.
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“Now his list includes nearly 32,000 American man-made warming skeptics with science qualifications.”
What the hell is a science qualification? And less than 1/3 hold PhDs? And how many among that 1/3 actually have any knowledge of climatology? Regardless of what you think of climate change, this is just silly.
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A BS in a science is more than Al Gore has. Or Nancy Pelosi. Or McCain. Or any other idiot lawmaker. Even though I am not a climatologist, when I watched “An Inconvenient Truth”, tons of questions ran through my mind derived from basic scientific reasoning.
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Barbara, couldn’t the same be said of so many of the experts who sign those oft-trumpeted statements parroting the Gore line?
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Dave/Alan:
While an avid environmentalist, Gore is not considered a scientific expert and is not a member of IPCC. The comparison drawn in the original post was of the petition signers to the 2500 members of the IPCC. It seems fallacious to compare a group of self-appointed skeptic activists to an invited panel of established international scientists. That was my only point.
I am a science librarian by profession but do not consider myself qualified to weigh the relative merits of the arguments of the IPCC and the counterarguments of skeptics such as Robinson and Segalstad.
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Ok Barbara, I’ll bite.
ChemistryDave is spot on, having some educational background in science says a lot more than a huge amount of global warming alarmists.
But, I’ll see your point for the sake of argument. Let’s say you only want to consider the “truly qualified” in your eyes, the PhD’s. There are over 9.000 of them that signed this Oregon petition.
9000 > 2500 still
….and that’s assuming that the IPCC was all PhD’s, of which I’m not sure.
So no matter how you slice this, the point remains that this is a significant petition, and you can’t spin it not to be. Regardless of where you fall on the position of man-made global warming and the degree of measures that need to be taken, the “consensus” so often claimed is bunk.
If someone has to attempt to make his case by saying, “the argument is over,” then it’s usually a hint that the argument isn’t really over. Ever wonder why Al Gore won’t debate anyone in a public forum over this?
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I didn’t say Gore was counted as one of the experts on his side of the issue; I asked you a question about the scientists who say what he’s saying–how many of them lack the qualifications that you say many on the other side of the issue lack?
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Alan, I wasn’t talking about the environmentalists in general, I was specifically speaking of the comparison between the IPCC and the petition signers. I checked the IPCC rosters before I posted the first time, and except for the administrative assistants, they have impressive credentials, positions at prestigious universities, and publications in peer-reviewed publications. Does this make their argument any more valid than the argument of their detractors? Not necessarily, but that wasn’t my point. I simply thought the phrase “that’s a whole lot more” was awfully misleading.
Langley, of course there’s no consensus. The fact that I said in my earlier post that both arguments merit consideration should indicate that I acknowledge that fact.
For your reference, there was a critical reply written to the UN regarding its findings, penned by dozens of authorities in climate-related fields. If you’re interested, you can read their letter here:
http://www.new-federalist.com/pr/2007/071217sci_ltr_to_un.html
I suppose it’s simply a matter of preference, but I find this smaller but well-identified group of detractors more convincing than the thousands of anonymous and self-appointed “scientists” who signed the aforementioned petition.