At Governor Crist's Climate Change Conference.
Governor Charlie Crist of Florida called for a conference about global warming to be held at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami from July12 -13. I decided to attend. There were a number of categories I could attend as and I chose the one that represented me the best which was as a member of the media. After all, www.climatescam.com is part of the media even though I am the only correspondent.
I was able to attend the conference as a member of the media due to the website that I administer. Before the governor gave his keynote address, I sat with some other people at a table and we all introduced ourselves. When I mentioned climatescam.com a look of surprise came over some of the other attendee’s faces but they were friendly if not bemused. After all, how can someone deny what everyone knows to be true and that is global warming is occurring and that humans are responsible.
Not everyone, I explained that www.climatescam.com is devoted to posting articles by scientists and media organizations that dispute man-made global warming. I explained that while I accept that the planet seems to be warming it may be due to natural causes and that climate has never been static. This led to a lively discussion over the merits of the case for man-made global warming. I presented evidence to justify my skepticism and the reaction I heard surprised me. Every single person I spoke to whether it was an advocate, a politician, or a media member, and there were quite a few, felt that the debate is over and the science is settled. They used terms like consensus and I countered that science is not politics and consensus is normally not enough to prove something is absolutely true. I countered with the 1975 article from Newsweek that explained that the world was cooling and that there seemed to be a consensus that existed at that time which turned out to be wrong. I brought up some more contrary evidence along with opinions and research of eminent scientists in the field and the response was that even if we are wrong what harm could it do? After all, we will be conserving more and the air will be cleaner. When I pointed out to one highly placed official that changing the light bulbs to the fluorescent ones would produce more mercury that we would have to deal with he acknowledged that this could be a problem.
At first I considered the idea that maybe they are right. What is so wrong with conserving and developing new sources of energy? I mention in the mission statement of the website that so much of our fossil fuels come from regimes that hate everything the U.S. stands for and use the money we purchase their oil with to hurt our nation. What could be so wrong about using more solar energy especially in Florida?
Additionally, I believe that Governor Charlie Crist is generally an advocate for free market solutions. He also does not seek to burden Floridians with oppressive taxes. In the interest of full disclosure I have been a Charlie Crist supporter and have contributed financially to his campaigns.
However, the hysteria that is attached to this issue cannot be ignored, glossed over, or defended. People are being frightened with threats of catastrophic sea level rises and extreme weather conditions. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS NO MATTER HOW SEEMINGLY NOBLE THE END IS.
After Governor Crist delivered his keynote address he held a press conference. I waited for one of the reporters to ask Governor Crist a question concerning some of the skepticism surrounding this issue. The question never came. I decided to ask it. “Governor, Dr. Tim Ball, Dr. Tim Patterson, Dr. Roger Pielke, and Dr. Reid Bryson are all credentialed scientists who have disputed anthropogenic global warming. Which scientist or which academic paper have you read or consulted with that made you adopt this position.” Governor Crist pointed to Terry Tamminen. Terry has been the head of the California EPA but he is not a scientist and the governor should know this. Later I asked Terry what his credentials were specifically in the scientific arena and he does not have any. It was clear that at that moment, Governor Crist could not name a single scientist who has researched the issue and has probably not read a single academic paper concerning man-made global warming. Perhaps the Governor is allowing others, perhaps his staff, to be his filter on this issue. Considering the executive orders that he has issued, this is too important of an issue for unfamiliarity with the basics of climate change. Later on, I had a moment with the governor and I asked him if he would assemble a debate with scientists from both sides of the issue could present their findings and ideas. He said he would be interested in this idea. I certainly hope so.
There is a fundamental error in research that can be made and it is believeing that because two or more events are correlated, this proves causation. There are things that are correlated but this does necessarily mean that one causes the other. One example of this would be the absurd notion that because there is a correlation between the rooster crowing in the morning and the sun coming up that it was the rooster’s crowing that caused the sun to come up when in fact it is the opposite that occurs. It is possible that adding CO2 to the atmosphere is causing an increase in warming but there are many other possible explanations including solar activity and/or natural climate cycles.
The answer to "what harm would it do," is that if we base policy on false intellectual underpinnings that cannot withstand strict scientific scrutiny then it will be easier for those who believe in the extreme solutions to solve the "crisis" to incrementally prepare us for more stringent measures later. These will take the form of more command and control economic policies similar if not identical to what exists in Europe. Indeed Governor Crist introduced some of his allies in his quest and they are from countries that already have socialist based economies like Germany and Great Britain. In my opinion Governor Crist is being used by those who have a far more socialistic agenda than he realizes. One of the dignitaries at the conference was Matthias Machnig, Germany's State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservancy and Nuclear Safety and also is a socialist.