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Ex-Astronaut: Global Warming Is Bunk
Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. — Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.
“I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect,” said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.
Schmitt contends that scientists “are being intimidated” if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels.
“They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming,” Schmitt said.
Dan Williams, publisher with the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which is hosting the climate change conference, said he invited Schmitt after reading about his resignation from The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.
Schmitt resigned after the group blamed global warming on human activity. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the “global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making.”
Williams said Heartland is skeptical about the crisis that people are proclaiming in global warming.
“Not that the planet hasn’t warmed. We know it has or we’d all still be in the Ice Age,” he said. “But it has not reached a crisis proportion and, even among us skeptics, there’s disagreement about how much man has been responsible for that warming.”
Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise.
Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses — for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.
Schmitt, who grew up in Silver City and now lives in Albuquerque, has a science degree from the California Institute of Technology. He also studied geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and took a doctorate in geology from Harvard University in 1964.
In 1972, he was one of the last men to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission.
Schmitt said he’s heartened that the upcoming conference is made up of scientists who haven’t been manipulated by politics.
Of the global warming debate, he said: “It’s one of the few times you’ve seen a sizable portion of scientists who ought to be objective take a political position and it’s coloring their objectivity.”
February 16th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Thank God for people like Sen. Scmitt. It is great to hear voices of reason in this age of environmental terorism
February 16th, 2009 at 11:24 am
He is right. Follow the money!!!
February 16th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
How could anyone disagree with the great Nobel Peace Prize winning Goracle?? Easy. Just use your head and speak only the truth!!
February 16th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I totally agree with David S. and
Joseph Humphreys, Jr. This is a political
ploy of the greatest magnitude, where political
and personal agendas, as well as monetary motives
are exploited, at the expense of the hard-working
taxpayers! These people should be tried in a court of taxpayers, and see who is found wanting!
And it’s making logical thinkers SUPER ANGRY
the way politicians like Al Gore and other
elitest hypocrites live, while spouting rhetoric
that we need to change our lifestyles, but they don’t!
So, in this sense, global warming is a little man-made, because all of that anger toward the hypocrites is causing a rise in temperatures!
February 16th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Kudos to Sen. Schmitt for not giving in to the wacko green !!!!!!
February 16th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
He is right on all counts. I only hope that
more so called experts get on his side.
It is frightening to see so many people
being duped into this B.S.. Anybody with
a basic knowledge of earth’s history knows
that everything goes in cycles. It has
happened before and it will happen again.
Our earth is in a constant state of evolution.
Its a no brainer…Jim Whitman
February 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Nice to know that there are people in this world that have a mind of their own instead of constantly following what every one else says. The “Cirque de la politique (Circus of Politics)” just can’t stop making people think that its humanity’s fault, and wants us to pay in more money to “Go Green”. Church and State are to be separate, and so should Science and State.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Al Gore needs to study geology and astronomy. The earth has cycles like every living entity on the earth. I do agree about the government control. For the past 50 years or so the agenda appears to be ” Dont worry, the government will take care of the hard issues. You do not have to concern yourselves with real issues. Be oblivious to the world around you.” We need to read our constitution, bill of rights and the articles of confederation. Let’s take back our government from the politicians and put it with the people where it was intened to be.
February 16th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Sen Schmitt’s comment that a rise in temperature will increase the CO2 in the atmosphere is supported by a hysical Chemical model. The earth’s surface is 70% ocean. Water has a substantial solubility for CO2 which decreases exponntially with increased temperature. Taking into account the volume of water, the solubility effect of CO2 (probably in the range of PPM), and the fact that the ocean is probably close to equilibrium in CO2 content with the atmosphere, leads to a model. The model will explain the fact that huge amounts of CO2 may be dissolved in the ocean with little if any impact from the burning of carbon fuels. But small changes in ocean temperature will indeed increase the CO2 in the atmosphere substantially.
February 16th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
We use track records to help us make decisions. We do this in every country and every aspect of our lives. From hiring someone, getting a promotion, picking stocks, buying a car, and debating issues.
This article is a great example of us using track records to make decisions. We are using one person’s track record with other track records, such as, politicians will be politicians and companies will be companies.
I do not question the track records stated in the is article we will use them in our own ways and add our own history of facts to form our opinion on this issue.
Because of this I would like to add one other track record to the list of track records in this article. As you probably know, to date we have been through 3 different society changes (http://www.amazon.com/Third-Wave-Alvin-Toffler/dp/0553246984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234811617&sr=1-1). We’ve moved from the agriculture society to the industry society and we are moving into the information society now. With each of these transitions there are always major conflicts that are address by the people, the government and religion. News laws are created, family dynamics change, and even new forms of religion are created. Most of the conflicts from one transition to another, come from how difficult it is for some to make the transition and how easy it is to take advantage of governments, people and religion during the transition. These conflicts are usually resolved over decades and are never black and white issues.
Every major conflict that we’ve come across during our transition to the industry society around environmental issues has ended thus far. Expect the Global Warming issue. Using the track records of past environment issues caused during our transition we can see that when decision of the majority of scientist have been right. Some track records of this include:
1. Regular Leaded Gasoline, which hurt plans, humans and animals, and polluted our water system if spills were not treated properly.
2. Carbon Dioxide from Factories, in the late 50’s factories were polluting our cities at an alarming rate, they would smells a lot like the way China smells now.
3. The slow break down of the Ozone layer was debated for years and years until the day it was concluded that there was a hole in the Ozone layer, which slowly reduced the debate and today we do not have a hole.
Using the track record that scientists have not been wrong on a single major issue environmental issue, is something to keep in mind when forming an opinion. Because with every transition there are always conflicts and those conflicts always have political and monetary underpinnings no matter what the conflict is. This new conflict that we call Global Warming is not the exception but an example of that.
Fortunately for us we have better track records to use when forming our opinion of this issue. We also have the fact that issues of this magnitude take decades to resolve and we’ve only really begun to deal with this issue in way we have never dealt with it before.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
There’s a great book about this titled Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum. It’s a great debunker of the human element….Buy American and drive an SUV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 16th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Because something is deemed politically correct, doesn’t make it right or factual.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Hold up all. This is one astronaut out how many who contends global warming is a hoax? Who is the author of this particular article. It just lists “associated press.” Global warming is no longer a debate. The debate is, how do we address this problem? Also, for Mr/Misses AP, check your facts on the “rising levels of the Great Lakes.” You will note Lake Superior, Michigan, Ontario, are all at record low levels.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
As I remember, the Ice Age was upon us in the 70’s. Oddly, the same socio-political diatribes were espoused then as now. The educational systems have their resultant pop culture 40 something’s going on 18 drinking this Cool Aid in record quantities as their Ipods blast away Mozart, Wagner, and Scriabin. The electorate is ripe with useful idiots as demonstrated during the U.S. election. Some of these intellectual giants actually believe the current President will pay for their food and rent.
Make no mistake about this fear mongering. Chips garnered from the educational and pop media culture establishments are now being cashed in for the betterment of society. All one needs to do is create quickly edited videos with killer low frequency audio tracks, and misleading pictures of Polar Bears sitting on floating ice chunks. Those adult children will view in rapt attention with their mouths open. They look like giant endangered white Teddy Bears to these intellectual giants especially with a good audio track.
A few years ago, our local fast food restaurant had a television suspended from the ceiling just over one of the tables. Our morning breakfast group used to sit at this table so we could watch the adult children watch the thing with their heads up and mouths open. The restaurant would play CNN or Fox News on alternate days and we noticed something very interesting. Older people would watch Fox News with their mouths closed and the adult children largely ignored this fare unless a high powered commercial was playing, usually some sports car commercial. When CNN was playing, the 40’s something children would watch in rapt attention while raising their food and chewing, many of them with their mouths open.
I believe the present generation is completely lost within their virtual private realities and are incapable of reasoned thought on any plane above the most basic.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Environmentalist would actually convince more people to conserve and to care for nature if they would stop being alarmists and extremists!! The fact they politicize the environment and demonize those who would dare question them to gain global power reveals their true intent! Furthermore, they emit more carbon emissions campaigning to promote themselves and the global warming hoax than our SUVs ever could!
February 16th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Sounds like he left his brain on the moon.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Anthony, obviously you’re in denial — there would be no article here if global warming were not debatable! Also, everyone posting a comment would agree with you… and they do not! Science changes faster than Obama’s political promises and nature is more complex than a liberal “global warming” fad — no one should even try to politicize science — they ultimately make fools of themselves and suckers out of well-meaning believers who blindly follow every trend liberals set! How can anyone trust them when they use unforgivable tactics such as forcing environmental policies into the recent spendulus bill to rob tax-payers for their own gain? All I hear is “BLAH BLAH BLAH!” when Al Gore rants. All I hear is “I intend to force environmental and social policies down your throat!” when I hear Obama speak. All I hear is “We won, so shut up and ride a bike to save the fuel for my jet!” when I hear Nancy Pelosi speak! The three stooges!!!
February 16th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
For those who believe in Global warming, I asked just one question. Where did the glacier go that covered the northern hemisphere before Henry Ford made one car. Just a thought.
February 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
in 1972 the “club of rome”(you can google that) declared that we would be out of gas/oil in twenty years (1992). had some MIT dude perform 100K calculations (that’s their credibility statement)and sold 30 million books by generating mass hysteria. Scared world leaders, including our beloved, “wear a cardigan for mother earth” Carter. AND, if you disagreed with their findings, you were considered intellectually inferior. it was at its time, considered fact and therefore beyond debate.
Amazing how history repeats. A silver-spoon brat(s) creates mass panic to make millions of $’s. And if you disagree with what they are selling, your opinion is not considered relevant.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
To Anthony A-
I beg to differ. Global warming is CERTAINLY still a debate. Just because proponents of the global warming bunk are controlling the country doesn’t mean the “crisis” is a crisis at all. Check YOUR facts. IF what you say is true about the Great Lakes, there is no evidence to suggest that it is caused by humans.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:37 am
OK, all of you that inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide who want to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas CO, stop breathing.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:43 am
#13 Anthony A- yes, there is active debate among very qualified scientists in the field. Many if not most that I have heard supposedly back Al Gore, when asked specifically, state something along the lines that humans probably contribute insignificantly to the global warming problem, if it actually exists, and will acknowledge the fact that this sort of thing has run in cycles historically. One qualified scientist who disagrees with others in his field is all it should take to keep the debate going- not a self serving crusade from one ethically challenged politician.
In this and other areas scientists and non-scientists jump to conclusions, assuming causal relationships and failing to explore other possibilities. Furthermore, dissent has been actively punished, even within institutions such as NASA.
An example of faulty reasoning is your mentioning one out of how many astronauts hold this opinion. How many have studied the topic and have expressed an opinion that man is the primary cause of an extant global warming problem? Probably intentionally you misled using statistics. Others do so quite intentionally in many scientific and political fields.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Sorry, Anthony A- I meant to say you probably unintentionally misled. I also forgot to mention that the Great Lakes issue is thousands of years old, and, although poorly worded and possibly misunderstood, the point was valid.
February 17th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Al gore is conveniently ignoring the principal influence on our weather, the oceans and their currents. El nino, La nina?? Do they ring a bell. Do a web search (Ocean currents)and see what other scientists say about what is causing our weather. The oceans are our weather machines.
Man has influenced our weather,floods and ecology, but not as you think. Man has depleted over 90% of the world’s trees and forests. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, control water run off and soil erosion that clog our rivers hindering their run off and contributing to flooding. Trees ameliorate the extremes in weather, wind and temperature. We need to re-forest and plant trees in water run off areas and in wind rows. Growing populations in the world is our biggest problem. We are keeping up with the need for food, but we have fallen far behind in handling human waste and our depletion of natural resources.. Put a microbe in a limited environment with plenty of food and it will eat and multiply till it all dies from the the waste it produces. Man is a microbe. Earth is a closed environment.
February 17th, 2009 at 5:21 am
More power and boldness to Sen. Schmitt and 69 other sensible people of integrity who are willing to take a stand in the face of “poly-tick-sions”. I will be praying for them.
February 17th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I live in England and we are being taxed to stop
Global Warming and its great to see someone speaking the truth
February 17th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Anthony, I’ve heard many times that we’re past the debate. The odd thing is that statement only comes from one side of the debate. Those who once were willing to argue that humans are causing global warming are running out of believable arguments, so they want to call the debate over and declare themselves winners. Those of us who know the truth, such as Senator Schmitt, are more than willing to continue the debate until you come to submission.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Okay. Global Warming (or rather, climate change) is a phenomenon that has occurred many times in the past, and is occurring today. The cause of this reality can be debated endlessly, as there is evidence to support both sides of the argument. But I think in exploring this, we are missing the bigger picture. *If* climate change is purely a natural phenomenon with no human contribution (or at least not initiated by people), CO2 from fossil fuel emissions is a known greenhouse gas, and the greenhouse effect is irrefutable. In other words, just because humans may not have started climate change does not mean everyone is given the go-ahead to drive the biggest gas-guzzling vehicles that our out there. Our actions, as the most dominant species on the planet, have a big impact. We still live on a finite planet, with limited fossil fuels (key word “fossils”- created millions of years ago), depleting sources of water and increased unsustainable food dependence. Not to mention a booming human population.
At least with the view of climate change being human created, it encourages people to reduce their ecological footprint on the Earth, and gives our species, and every other organism on the planet, a more hopeful future.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Finally! We have a real scientist who is not afraid to tell the truth. I am so tire of hearing Hollywood tell us “uninformed” people that we are hurting the environment. This is crazy! If we do what they say we should do, we will be back in the dark ages and the life expectancy of humans will be about 40 years. We will die of disease, hunger, and cold. Because they somehow think that when we use cleaning products to kill germs that is bad. We can’t hunt for food, and we can’t cut a tree down for fire wood. I am so amazed that a group of people who make their living pretending to be someone else, thinks that they know more about science than REAL scientists.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Not even Schmitt questions whether the globe is warming – he just argues about how much of it is caused by humans.
He also does not say that global warming isn’t harmful – obviously it is.
The more important issue is “How much can we do to limit the damage done by global warming?”
The answer is “We can do a lot” – but only if we focus on solutions rather than wasting our efforts on PR stunts like this “conference”.
Our planet is stressed to the breaking point and the human race is suffering as a result. I don’t care who or what is to blame. If they are so smart, these people’s time would be better spent looking for ways to improve the conditions on Earth.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Apparently “Anthony A” misunderstood the reference to “the Great Lakes are rising”. They are not talking about the water levels in the lakes…The author was saying the Great Lakes are, as a whole, rising, i.e.) is now farther from the center of the earth than it used to be, “…because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.” Anthony also enjoins us to “Check your facts”. There is nothing wrong with the facts, or the way they were reported. The challenge becomes one of educating those who lack the ability to comprehend the facts, and choose to be ruled instead by emotion. The dabate is far from over, regardless of how much the environmentalists wish it were. The true danger comes from those who would silence all debate on such important issues, and declare themselves winners by sheer force of public opinion, regardless of the bad science behind the debate.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
The trouble with the “earth moves in cycles” argument is that the temperature rise is occurring faster than almost any other time on record (ice cores, geological records — this of course neglects singular events like potential asteroid impacts or large volcanic eruptions) and it appears to be accelerating. Increases in solar radiation — the main driver of natural cycles –can only account for a small percentage of the overall warming.
Ocean acidity (due to CO2 absorption) has actually been increasing along with atmospheric CO2 content, so we are, in fact, adding CO2 to the oceans, not releasing it.
I welcome an open, complete discussion of the issue, but decrying a huge and growing body of scientific evidence that points to humans as a major contributor to warming as contrived and tainted by political influence is as ignorant as blind acceptance of that information. Though it may simply be that the article omits it, Sen. Schmitt is not offering any scientific evidence to contradict human-influenced global warming. Rather, he is grumbling about the politics of it.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Al gores global warming scheme, is to tax the people to a world bank for the new world order, a new carbon tax, tax on everything you eat and consume, to flushing your toilet, to enslave us all.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I totally agree John. My mother used to call TV “chewing gum for the mind”. This was usually when she was trying to get me off my butt in front of it and outside into a beautiful day.
Most people are literally wasting their lives in front of the idiot box. Mind-wave activity while watching TV is barely above sleep levels.
And unfortunately, this is the source of information for most people in our culture. They blindly accept the left-leaning, enviro-wacko drivel produced by the MSM without critical analysis. Consequently these same non-thinkers vote for “green” candidates and issues because as Anthony pointed out “Global warming is no longer a debate”.
I’m all for conservation, energy independence and taking care of the environment so future generations can enjoy it. But we don’t need to sacrifice our economy and way of life to do it.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I am continuously amazed by people who insist that the threat to the enviornment is a hoax. It is completely beyond me why you all just absolutely have to disagree with something we can all see happening before our eyes. Wake up. Humans have only been burning massive amounts of fossil fuel for the past hundred years or so, which is why there is no historical record to compare this warming to. Humans are doing something to the planet that has never been done before.
The way I see it is this: If we do everything we can to limit global warming, and it turns out it was not in fact related to humans, at least we have made the world a cleaner, more healthy place for our children. No harm done.
If we do nothing to stop global warming and all you nay-sayers are wrong, we are ALL in a huge amount of trouble. Why take the risk? Why not accept that none of us know for sure what is happening or why, but let’s at least agree that the risk of doing nothing is FAR greater than the risk or cost associated with taking action.
And to those who insist that global warming is some kind of hoax put on by the global liberal elite, who is the fear monger now? There is no conspiracy folks. Just a whole bunch of people that are trying to prevent a true catastrophy. And you are doing everything you can to stop them. Why exactly are you doing that? What is it about dumping pollutants into our air and water that you are so in love with?
February 17th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
When a scientist allows his personal political view to influence his impartiality, he or she loses all credibility as a professional. The same is true for journalists.
February 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
This is news how? I’ve no doubt the gentleman was an excellent astronaut, but when exactly did they add climate and meteorological expertise to the astronaut training program? I suspect he no more knows what he’s talking about than the other commentators on this article.
February 17th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Several years ago, when the concept of global warming was brought up, there was a huge debate about it. A good portion of scientists kept saying that the evidence is there that it’s happening and there will be a climate change. The skeptics kept saying that the research is flawed and that global warming was bunk and that it was just the talk of “eco-terrorists” and it’s stupid for people to worry about something that didn’t exist and that there’s no reason for us to make any changes in how we live or manufacture.
Sound familiar?
Now the skeptics have conceded “yeah, there’s some warming”, but still insist man has had no effect. These people couldn’t be convinced before that it existed. Now, in the face of overwhelming evidence, they back down and agree it does. But they still pull up every argument they used in the past to say that mankind has no impact.
The scientists were right the first time when they were warning us it was happening, I don’t see any reason to disbelieve them when they say that our own actions could be an influence. The skeptics are still the same ones that argued against its existence in the past, and they continue to argue against anything that may possibly force them to make a change in their lives.
February 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
he is an astronaut. he is not qualified for anything more than a beer distributorship. he knows NOTHING! just another flunky for fox.
February 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Too many things are still being held out as gospel that are based on bad science. Its funny that even in the 21st century still have a Flat Earth Society. On youtube just the other day I saw a video from an “Intelligent Design” proponent demanding that science prove ID isn’t correct. Amazingly bad science is easy to defend if you ignore the rules I guess. Using bad science to drum out your field rivals however is very, very bad.
February 17th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
A fellow by the name of Jim Jones was able to convince his followers to drink purple koolaid laced with cyanide. They did not question him at all. Now comwes a fellow named Al Gore who wants us to drink green koolaid. the results will be the same. We will all die when we starve the plants of CO2 and they stop making O2, which we need to live.
February 17th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I have yet to hear one “scientist” include the effects of hydrogen bonds forming and releasing in the atmosphere as a response to temperature changes. When water (in all forms) is exposed to warmer temperature the hydrogen bonds separate (evaporation) and absorb energy. When exposed to colder temperature hydrogen bonds form (condensation) and release energy. This amazing property of water responds to higher and lower temperatures and tempers our climate. This phenomenon is also responsible for the water cycle and makes life on this planet possible.
We are 93 million miles from the sun. If the planet was just 2000 miles closer or 2000 miles farther, life would not be possible. Sun spots and solar flares do much more to our climate than carbon dioxide. A single eruption from Mt. Pinatubo released more carbon gasses into the atmosphere than all the people and machines of industry throughout history. The net result was global cooling.
The arrogance of man to think that we can have a devastating and lasting impact on this planet by driving our cars, and lighting our homes. Sure we can poison the water and air with harmful chemicals but let lawmakers regulate and control those who do. We can wipe out cities and even countries with weapons of mass destruction but, so far, only governments have the power to do that.
If you follow the money and power trail, the global warming hysteria has been stirred up by those who want to have more control over our lives and behavior. It is the blame America first crowd who have no sense of history.
Every green freak who thinks that those of us who speak out against global warming somehow favor a dirty planet. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m all about alternative energies, being free of foreign oil, and a clean environment.
Grow up.
All we ask is that you don’t try to make us buy a bunch of crap by pushing unfounded fears on us under the guise that the sky is falling or that the likes of global warming going unattended will amount to that of a nuclear holocaust.
If you want to buy into all this crap you go right ahead.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
John,
You sir, are a pure genius.
- Greg
February 17th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
God bless Harrison Schmitt! He is a true believer and a real patriot. It takes a special kind of courage for patriotic men of faith to challenge the false and diabolical doctrines like global warming, the theories of evolution and gravity and the laws of thermodynamics that Satan and his secular humanist helpers in the scientific community have using to lead us astray and away from the only source of Truth, Knowledge and Power in the entire Universe: the King James version of the Bible.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Hopefully someone will be able to convince Gore and company that the world is really round, honest.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Thank you Mr. Schmitt for standing up against the tyranny of global warming alarmists.
February 18th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I’d vote for John. (”John, Feb. 16, 7:21 pm”)
February 18th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Anthony A–Mr Schmitt is addressing the problem. And that problem is the lie that has been sold to the American public. For a man questioning “sources” you should check yours before engaging in a solution for a non-problem.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:30 am
At last I am beginning to see some sanity return to the masses. Man-made gloabl warming is bunk. For years I felt I was the only one saying this. It’s a conspiracy to create a new basis of taxation (so called green-taxes) at the expense of our freedoms and economic growth. Already, there are legal firms that specialize in “green suits”. Sadly, the blame lies with our education system, which for 30 years has been focused on liberal indoctrination instead of education. No way will they teach critical thinking.
February 18th, 2009 at 10:06 am
The world has been in global cycles for thousands of years, around 1500 AD they were raising corn north of the Artic circle in Finland, I can not remember the last time the I heard about corn being raised there. How warm did it have to be to enable the Finns to raise corn north of the Artic Circle, gee it must have cooled down some.
Donm
February 18th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Too bad we won’t be reading about this on the front page of any big-city newspaper or watching an expose of this on 60-Minutes. The media will do everyting they can to bury this story. Long live FOX news!
February 18th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Jason–I don’t agree that “science” is always right, good science is nearly always right. The problem, as pointed out in the article, is that scientists with political agenda have manipulated the data to fit the conclusion that they want to make. There are far more scientist that disagree with man made global warming than agree with it. True the earth warmed since the last ice age as a whole. Scientific data derived from ice core samples show that as temp rises, C02 levels increase. Note that temp rise comes first then C02 increase not the other way around. With respect to some of your examples such as the hole in the ozone layer. As I recall, the hole was over the south pole…there is not much of a population in that area so how did anything man made create the hole over the south pole and why wasn’t (isn’t there) a hole over the north pole? As a matter of fact the hole in the ozone layer is not really a hole but rather varying concentrations of ozone in the Antartic spring July – December and is at its peak concentration about 400 Dobson units at the end of Dec–look at NASA Ozone Hole web site for more information and you will see that the “hole” has almost always “closed” by the end of the Antartic spring.
Surely we all can agree that humans need to take care of the world we live in but that is a far cry from what the alarmist tell us we need to do.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Anthony A – speaking of checking your facts you might want to check the Army Corp of Engineers website. Lake Superior Historical data -
http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/_plugins/Programs/HistoricGreatLakesLevels/pages.cfm?page=table&LakeID=1&YearID=19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108&MonthID=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12&Max=1&Min=1&Mean=1&CFID=3459046&CFTOKEN=22045503
Todays Data
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/superior.gif
Seems to me we’re still well within the norm.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I too have seen this type of “blinders on” science propogated by the NASA PR machine. I consulted to Goddard Space Flight on their storage of earth weather observations. After two months of speaking with the scientists I was convinced that a no spin study with open and transparent methodology would reveal that carbon dioxide has risen in the last thrity years but the temperatures have not. If anything the coorelation of Solar Winds and temperature is far more compelling. As my father used to say (he has a PHD in statistical mathematics) you can make any statstic conclude what you want it to. It is the methodology of the statistical study that makes it a valid conclusion.
Longmont CO
February 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Amazing, almost every comment agrees with a guy who’s only credentials are that he’s a former republican senator, an Apollo 17 astronaut, with a doctorate in geology? Has he done actual climate research himself? Such a lack of critical thinking and gullibility is shameful.
“Buy American and drive an SUV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Sounds like “drill, baby, drill.” Grow up and stop looking for justifications for an irresponsible lifestyle.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Jason,
Scientists obviously are not wrong all the time, but they are not right all the time either. When I was in high school, humans were supposedly causing the next ice age, so it’s a little difficult for me to fly into a panic about global warming–especially when we’ve had the coldest winter in about ten years. Even scientists around our area are beginning to say that we’re causing climate change and are dropping the global warming, the sky is falling, mantra.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
“Using the track record that scientists have not been wrong on a single major issue environmental issue, is something to keep in mind when forming an opinion.”
Yep, like the ice age of the 70’s. I’m glad we covered the ice caps with black soot to bring the temperature back up like the scientists told us to do back then.
Now I’m going to have some steak and eggs, a beer, and anything else I might happen have in the fridge that ’scientists’ told us was bad for us before they told us they were good for us to celebrate the infallibility of ’science.’
February 18th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Whoops, I overlooked an interesting comment here:
“This is one astronaut out how many who contends global warming is a hoax? ”
Yep, Harrison Schmitt is just one scientist.
Oh, and Christopher Landsea is just one scientist.
Oops, John Coleman is just one scientist, too…
February 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Yeah, listen to some famous guy with no climate science expertise whatsoever, and with big oil connections: he’s the former chairman and president of the “Annapolis Center For Science-Based Public Policy” — one of the many very disingenuously named anti-global warming organizations receiving funding from ExxonMobil. He’s also has affiliations with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (Fellow)and The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (Honorary Member) — more organizations with no interest in anything that says bad things about oil or coal use.
February 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Anthony A – please re-read the part of the article regarding “rising levels of The Great Lakes”. You may have mis-interpreted this part.
“Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses — for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.”
The author is not referring to the level of the _waters_ of the Great Lakes, but to the land mass of that area. This is known as “Post-Glacial Rebound”. See the Wikipedia article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound
February 18th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Reply to John A – John John, John there are literally THOUSANDS of reputable MMGW skeptic scientists in ADDITION to Sen. Schmitt who have already logged their objections to political interference in what should be a purely scientific discussion. The late Dr. Micheal Crichton is among the most prominent in the pop culture. Read his “State of Fear” for a balanced, scientfic exploration of the cogent issues of MMGW. That is, if you are REALLY interested in the whole truth…which I doubt…
February 18th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I remember a long time ago, 45 or so years ago, I was sitting in science class and we were discussing ice ages and glaciers. Someone asked what happened to dry land after the ice age ended and all the ice melted. Did it flood? The teacher took a large beaker, heaped it full of ice, then filled it to the brim with water. Well students, what happened?
February 18th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
If global warming is being increased, blame the catalytic converter on automobiles.
February 18th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Oops. I meant to answer Anthony A.’s comments, not John’s. Sorry John!
February 19th, 2009 at 12:38 am
I only have one thing to say to those who buy into this Manmade Golbal Warming: “Go ahead and drink your kool-aid and lay down over there with the others.”
How many remember the last great climate threat celeb? El Nino got the blame for everything from hurricanes to increased acne in 15 to 18 year olds. Turns out cyclic events that have hispanic names are eventually recognized as cyclic events. That gives me an idea, how do you say Manmade Global Warming in spanish?
February 19th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Bunch of conseritives all. Wake up and smell the ozone!!!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:16 am
This is a good article, but doesn’t go far enough in providing some of the supporting data Dr. Schmitt uses to support his position.
The FACT is a rise in global temperature IS responsible for the rise in global CO2 concentrations, not human activities. In fact, the very cycle Al Gore has used to “support” his contention that rising global temperatures were the result of rising CO2 emissions shows that rising temperatures precede rising CO2 levels by 200-800 years in every cyclical temperature rise… including this one. Al Gore used classic pseudo-science, clever scaling and exaggerated scale manipulation in regards to ice core CO2 measurements to falsify results to support his position. It’s pathetic how the egg-head crowd is willing to accept this B.S. and the drastic decline in scientific free-thought. American freedoms are dissolving as Political Correctiveness and manipulative junk science take over. Pathetic.
Thank you Dr. Schmitt for your scientific integrity and for bringing to light the truth about the global warming myth.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I do agree with Sen Schmitt. The earth has always gone through cycles of warming and cooling. We just happen to be in one of those warming cycles. We (human beings) do not have that much of a significant effect on the entire world’s environment. And because this view doesn’t fit with today’s socio-political views, many scientists are indeed losing those much needed grants. Goes to show, how many of those that say they believe this THEORY, are just going along with the masses to obtain their funding? the government gives the masses the needed disaster, to keep them believing what they want them to.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:43 am
you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time … the earth is warming … the consequences are upon us … head in the sand holdouts not withstanding … so drive those SUVs and buy American … I’ll move away from the flood plains and fault lines and pray …
February 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
seriously??? a global warming hoax??? you all probobly believe the hollocost is a hoax too!!! sad little minds
February 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
word
February 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
John,
You are dead wrong about an impending ice age being called for during the 70’s. This “theory” had no scientific support at the time, but it did make for some exciting reading in Newsweek. For some reason, climate skeptics love to cite this without bothering to actually research it for themselves. The same can probably be said for their understanding of global warming today.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
If you want to see government in action taking control under the disguise of cleaning up the environment, come out to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Small companies are literally being forced out of business because the ports are playing favoritism to large carriers in the form of subsidies on so-called clean trucks.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
There are over 650 scientists who have signed a petition against AGW listed on the following website: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=84e9e44a-802a-23ad-493a-b35d0842fed8
The UN IPCC reportedly was written by approximately 50 politically driven “scientists”, many of whom are actually economists, politicians and others who call themselves scientists.
Go to the above website and read the statements from the real scientists who value science over politics. The oceans are not rising, in fact the sea level has remained nearly constant for the last year. The hottest year on record was 1934 not 1998, and only two years since 1998 make it into the top 10 hottest years: 2006 and 1999. http://www.norcalblogs.com/watts/2007/08/1998_no_longer_the_hottest_yea.html
Please go to http://www.wattsupwiththat.com to read the real scientific facts on global warming without the political bias the media throws in.
Get the true facts before everyone is forced to pay millions of dollars for “solving” a problem that doesn’t exist. This is a political ploy to give the government increased power over your life and greatly increased taxes to spend as they wish.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I believe both man and evolution are at play here. Yes, we have used and abused the privilege of life on Earth, also, centuries and centuries show the evolvement of the life cycle of our planet and it’s inhabitants. Therefore, the spelunkers code: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints”…we do borrow from the future when we waste what we have today.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
There is strong evidence that the world is warming after a long cool period but no evidence it is due to us. Look at the claims that supposedly “prove” global warming and you will see that they are actually about proving warming only, not man’s part in it. There is a theory, but so far, the observations do not agree with the theory. In other sciences, that would be enough to discard the theory but not in this case…
February 19th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Have we all become a society of fools, or control freaks? We had to save the trees, then owls, then whales, then seals, then . . . oops, ran out of stuff to control the natural destiny of. OH, the planet! Yeah, let’s all run and save the planet!
Indeed, the debate isn’t over, Anthony A. Just because a specific party of politicians claim it to be, or claim the hoax to be true, or claim the so-called danger to be immediate does not make it so.
There’s a word I’m looking for . . .when you run down and nail sandals on the natives’ feet, or when you frame a hoax and then tell me it’s true because you say so and then actually demand me to believe it . . .oh yeah, it’s ‘insulting’.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
It all about the money. Where I sit right now there was a glacier 13,000 years ago. Did the native americans cause it to disappear?
If you like scientists opinion here are 31,000 who call global warming bunk.
http://www.oism.org/pproject/
February 19th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
May I say to you all – wonderful, stimulating, engaging comments! It’s so refreshing to read something online with actual thought attached to it! Just to add my ‘two cents’ – silly, vain humanity to think that we could single-handedly bring down the great big earth. According to most, it’s been around a lot longer than we have…
February 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Global warming is either man made or natural. The great majority of scientists believe it is man made, as science has shown that tobacco was not good for your lungs or heart, or alcohol in heavy doses can trash your liver or unprotected sex coull lead to a sexually transmitted disease. If you you believe in science you would be open to the idea that maybe the scientists have really studied this issue and the man-made origin is a possibility. Alternatively if you emotionally hate political correctness you will decide these scientists are wrong because you emotionally need to see this issue as more big government from the liberals. Heck the next thing you know these scientists will be taking away your right to hunt or fish or drive your SUV’s. These scientists are liberals and many people in this comment thread just hate the uppity liberals condescending intellectual scientists. But here is the rub folks…they might be arrogant, they might be politically correct, they might be super serious and not much fun, they might be people we would not enjoy spending time with…but they might be right. GET YOUR FALSE RUSH LIMBAUGH SUPERIORITY THING OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM AND BE MORE OPEN MINDED. They might be right or wrong on this manmade global warming thing but your emotions of mixing the “liberals” who are taking your rights away with these scientists tells us more about you then about the issue!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Prior to 1029 A.D., Greenland was green, the northern European cities had manor houses with one fire to warm the whole house. Then, with the sweep of one event (Volcano, global cooling, who knows, it got cold. Really Cold, so cold that Greenland was no longer green. Europe had to contend with a colder climate. And Now, almost 1000 years later, we’re wondering if we caused this warming trend? Are you kidding me!
I agree with John, and I’m a 40 something, ‘present generation is completely lost within their virtual private realities and are incapable of reasoned thought on any plane above the most basic.’
February 19th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
“He is right. Follow the money!!!”
Yes, let’s follow the money. Let’s see, which is more likely:
A) A worldwide conspiracy by some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world, such as Exxon, BP, etc, who have a massive, massive vested interest to try to debunk global warming, or:
B) A worldwide conspiracy by a few tens of thousands of university professors and researchers, most of whom probably make $100,000 a year or less.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
[...] too many places at once? Harrison Schmitt agrees and he resigned from the Planetary Society. News story __________________ (By the way, I hate it that so many papers in the areas of planetary science [...]
February 19th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Too much information and too little analysis & comprehension. Let’s not say (yet) there is no “warming” caused by human intervention or that it’s a Federal intervention invention. The debate is on (so is the hunt for more data and consensus) and we will probably all change our initial opinions when more “intelligent” data is out. My point is – keep an open mind on the subject of “Global Warming”.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Shut up slave and pay your carbon taxes to the new global banker government.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Wing nuts.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Hey Anthony A. I think it is you who need to learn to read closer. The article wasn’t talking about the water levels of the Great Lakes rising,. It was saying the whole land mass under the lakes is rising.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:27 am
what a bunch of idiots
February 20th, 2009 at 12:42 am
It is quite amusing to go on this website and read a different perspective which I may or may not agree with. I only know that it’s always good to look at problem from outside the box and get different perspectives. I am young, I am the future, I am and an educated professional in the science and engineering field. I disagree with quite a bit of the dialogue discussed here, and I know too that just because one person said it, doesn’t mean its the final word. We should always question what we read/what we are told (as in this article) And as for the naysayers…Only time will tell, and by then it’ll be my problem, my kids problem,and your kids problem. I guess then we have all you bright scholarly individuals who thought it was all a hoax/propaganda to thank!
February 20th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Whether global warming is largely human-caused or not, and whether it is a catastrophe waiting to happen or not, does not change the fact that we MUST push hard toward conservation and toward alternative sources of energy. Fossil fuels may be able to power our world and our economies for another 200 years, or they may become scarce in 20; But they WILL become scarce and we must be ready for that time.
Instead of wasting our breath on the global warming crisis, let’s all work together on the very real energy crisis.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Anthony makes an excellent point. One old astronaut, trained in GEOLOGY, speaks out against environmental science and because his statement menshes with what conservatives WANT to beleive they freely ignore any and all evidence to the contrary. Yes, the earth’s climate changes with cycles. Environmental scientists recognize this fact. Yes, there are natural factors contributing to global warming. Again, meteorologists recognize and accept this fact. There is another niggling fact those with a political ax they wish to grind also conveniently ignore, and that is the measured consumption of fossil fuel. Much of this carbon has been sequestered since the permian, 300 million years ago. How many billion tons of CO2 are humans releasing into the atmosphere each year? Funny thing–it just happens to match the billions of tons of oil sold on the open market. We can calculate how much CO2 is being released, and we can measure the ratio of anthropogenic CO2 in relation to natural CO2 because the anthropogenic CO2 is C14 depleted. The CO2 rise will cause some problems. Perhaps not as drastic as some insist, but certainly more than nothing. Acidification of the oceans, rises in ocean levels, and so on. Al Gore was right in that it truly is remarkably difficult to get someone to understand some simple fact when their income relies on their failure to understand it.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Regardless of the fact or fiction, it can’t hurt to go green. renewable energy simply makes sense, whether it is now or in 1000 years, when we’ve polluted the world, it’s my children’s children’s children’s children I am worried about.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Eco-fascism is on the move with the thought police. Al Gore is the idiot leader. He failed natural history and science classes in school and is taking his revenge.
Here’s some facts:
Based on ice core and ocean core drillings, over the last 300 million years of Earths’ history, current average temperatures and C02 levels are both near all time historic lows — 54.5 F and 584 ppb.
We’re in an interglacial warming period of the late Pleisticine ice age — but still an ice age.
The last 6000 yr warming allowed civilization to proceed.
C02 levels have averaged 600% higher than current levels and average temperatures average 6 degrees F warmer. Dinosaurs did not drive SUVs and humans are not causing global warming either.
Doomsday is called off. The only thing green about
the eco-fascists is their teeth from spreading the lies.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:36 am
What always gets me about the nature of these ‘you go!’ comments whenever there’s an article claiming global warming isn’t real is how hilariously hypocritical they end up being.
In these attempts to decry the politics of climate change, most commenters have politicized the matter further (as has the ex-astronaut in question) instead of attempting to secularize what is inherently a scientific, and if accurate, social, problem: big government? Control? ‘The President will pay for your food’?
Hold on a second. The only way a so-called ‘climate change catastrophe’ could be averted would be for the individual to take responsibility for his own energy use, and attempt to conserve instead of wantonly and gluttonously consuming. Americans talk about how their country is the best, but as we continuously believe how great we are, we have ceased to take responsibility for our actions; being among the most poorly educated and unhealthy countries in the free world, letting the government (that’s right) handle the dirty work so we can keep on consuming without needing to toss a second thought to what’s actually going on in the world.
Who’s really being kept ignorant?
Climate change real or no, considering that the way which is most frequently cited as the means to stop it is individual responsibility and contribution, an independent and free-willed assessment of what oneself adds to a composite degradation of the planet, I fail to see how it’s just another government scam to get more control over people.
I would think keeping them ignorant and fat would be a much more effective strategy. Read your Plato, Machiavelli and Lao Zi.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Maybe you all should move to australia. And take FOX with you!
February 20th, 2009 at 3:19 am
I CALL FOUL!
The headline Fox gave this story implys that Dr. Schmitt denies global warming.
He does not.
He questions how much of a roll humans have had in the overall warming and suggests that we are nearly powerless to change the trend in much the same way that we are powerless to head off hurricanes or tornadoes.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Scientists have not been wrong about an environmental issue? Let’s see. I remember in the 80’s when Acid Rain was going to kill us all — only to find out that no, it’s not a very big threat at all. The Ozone Hole they were convinced was the result of CFC’s turned out to be a cyclical, natural phenomenon. And of course, scientists were convinced in the mid-1970’s, after 30 years of cooling of the earth (during which time CO2 concentrations were rising) that we were headed for a new ice age. There are plenty of other examples, but those are the most memorable, obvious, and recent.
Scientists have been wrong many, many times. That’s part of what science is — making a guess and testing it to see if you’re right or wrong. Scientific consensus has also been wrong — plenty of times that something new came out (N-rays, for example, or cold fusion) and everybody was sure it was right — and then suddenly, it’s discovered to be wrong. The idea is that evidence accumulates and science learns. However, when some scientists jump the gun and report their theories as facts for political reasons, the scientific process is short-circuited and replaced with a political one that produces not science but propaganda.
The problem isn’t science. It’s scientists making pronouncements before they’re sure. The problem is, with global warming, the science just isn’t there yet. Anybody who says they’re 100 percent sure either way is either not aware of the issues or is being dishonest. We’re talking about a change of roughly 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century (0.7 degrees centigrade). Average. Across the planet. That’s a tiny, tiny effect — and hard to measure with the seasonal variations. The climate is very complex, with lots of variables affecting it of which humans are only one.
Anyone who claims ‘the debate is over’ is just trying to shut up their opponents without taking the time to debate. I can say ‘The sun rises in the west — the debate is over!’ but that doesn’t make me correct. When plenty of prominent scientists (many of the climatologists) disagree with a theory, I would say the debate is very much /not/ over, at least to honest scientists.
Also, it should be noted that global temperatures seem to have fallen since 1998. While the decline is mild, this is during a period where atmospheric CO2 has /increased/. This is not a long enough trend to disprove the global warming theory, but it definitely is some degree of contradictory evidence. This is not due to ‘cutting back’ on emissions — China and India continue to emit ever more, and surpassed the US in CO2 output in 2008. However, it /does/ track the solar sunspot cycles very well, which is an interesting correlation.
As someone who has studied the science on both sides, I have reached the conclusion that we simply don’t know if long-term global warming is occurring, if it’s human-caused, if the consequences will be more negative than positive, or what we can do about it short of crippling our economies. No non-fossil energy source can currently supply more than 50 percent of our energy requirements other than nuclear power, until fusion comes along. More research is needed on all fronts, and rushing to political decisions based on questionable science does not benefit society as a whole.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:31 am
How many campfires did it take to melt the glaciers?
Could it have been that great big campfire in the sky we call the sun?
Could it have been a few extra solar flares?
February 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
wow.. what ignorance
what this astronaut says has to be true, because it fits your needs and justifies not having to even start to think about how your lifestyle might be impacting our climate.. is that the thinking?
such lack of responsibility from you people is very sad
February 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am
So we should keep on keepin on? Encourage China and India to buy cars, trucks and SUVs? Burn those fossil fuels? I don’t think so. Any way you look at it, we humans will benefit from transitioning to a greener lifestyle.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It is great to hear unbiased opinions on Global Warming.
I love how the global warming nuts use computer models to support their suppositions. When in fact these models do not take into account the variability of the energy derived from the sun nor the saturation effect of CO2. Nor can they predict past measured climate using their adjustable parameters.
I saw an article where the authors’ analyze the degree of IR absorption and conclude that the all of the IR energy is already being absorbed by the current level of CO2. Increasing the CO2 concentration does NOT increase the amount of infrared energy absorbed.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Not agreeing or disagreeing… So his degrees are in “science” and geology? Where are his Climate credentials? What research has he done? When was the last time he was published for something climate related that I can look up as a reference? The other 74 that lost funding… What were their credentials/research? Sorry, but right now I need to know more facts about the “scientist” on both sides of the issues so I can make an informed decision. I hope everyone else can read this and ask the same questions…. Next, man-made or not, what are we going to do about it? Die and allow billions to die, or do something to survive?
February 20th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I think that BOTH sides who are adamant that they are right, and the opposition is wrong, are deluded. Global processes are inherently difficult to measure, and quantify.
Yes, our planet has undergone cyclic change over the eons. Yes, our planet has seemingly sped up these changes recently…but to definitively blame just global warming at the expense of nature (or vice-versa) is incredibly short-sighted. Intellectually speaking, it is a combination of these factors affecting our planet today.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
This reminds me of “thank you for smoking”! Create so much confusion about a topic that you distort the picture. Although these comments WERE made by a learned scientist who put forward the facts and… oh wait a second it’s an old astronaut who ISN’T a scientist AND is spouting rhetoric out of is hat.
Let me put it simply: what’s wrong in not wasting a finite resource and what is wrong in not polluting the crap out of the world? It is science and modern science deals in the facts. Politics deals in distortion
February 20th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
To Jim Whitman, yes it is a no-brainer, unfortunately for us, some people have no brain. Or at least they choose not to use it…
February 20th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
About time the hoax (Global Warming) is exposed.
I question why the U.S. is being blamed for the biggest part of polution when other countries i.e
Mexico,China,India and some of the central American countries are bigger polluters. Maybe it’s because we are the Richest?
February 20th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
It’s interesting to see conservative followers of FoxNews just go along and agree with the old bat. Having an Astronomy PhD myself, I am ashamed by Schmitt. FoxNews is the most biased piece of crap in the media now a days.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
As a middle school science teacher, I teach the students about the water cycle, the rock cycle, the weather cycle, the carbon cycle , the nitrogen cycle, and any number of other natural cyclic phenonema… it would be ignorant and obtusive to ignore the global warming cycle as anything other than a demonstrated natural cyclic occurance.
Long ago, I was taught that sneaky manipulative Vikings “fooled” people into a real estate rush of Greenland through their clever misrepresentation of the facts… (Iceland was really the “green” land) Now I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t exactly as represented…
February 20th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I’m not sure Schmitt’s comment about the Great Lakes was a comment about the water level in the Lakes but rather a comment about the land level of the area. The land level would respond to the absence of the glaciers but the water level would be a local response to current weather. We need to check the context of the comment.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Remember that al gore couldn’t even carry his home state.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
The real issue is that, reagardless of what the global impact of human’s reckless use of technology is, it’s long past time that we move away from neandrathal combustion and towards technologies that embrace our responsibility to ours and our childrens’ health, as well as the health of our charges (AKA flora and fauna).
February 20th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Anthony A, just because you choose to believe all who appose your beliefs are wrong, does not make the debate go away. You say, “check your facts” without providing any backup for YOUR supposed facts. Your declaring something to be a fact does not make it so.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
If you thought this question was settled and you really want to know more about the details – try the CCnet archives, moderated by Dr. Peiser of Cambridge.
If that’s a bit much, then consider this tiny point – both Mars and Jupiter are experiencing global warming right now and have been for years. If you can propose a mechanism for Earth’s greenhouse gases being the culprit, please let me know…
February 20th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Anthony A, please note that truth is not determined by the majority. Nor is it logically sound to say that “Global warming is no longer a debate.” Obviously there is still a debate. In fact, the Catholic Church said almost exactly what you are saying to Galileo in 1632. He was the only one espousing a crazy/dangerous belief that the earth was not the center of the universe.
Also, your data on the Great Lakes is inaccurate. For those interested please go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website at:
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/now/wlevels/levels.html
There you will see that current levels exceed last years. In some cases the current levels are larger than the mean, but what would I know? I am just an unscientific lunatic.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Does anyone remember back in 1991 when Mount Pinatubo exploded in the Philippines? That single eruption changed the Earth’s temperature for years. This showed how we “silly humans” think we can actually affect the earth on a grand scale.
The following was copied from Wikipedia
This very large stratospheric injection resulted in a reduction in the normal amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface by roughly 10%. This led to a decrease in northern hemisphere average temperatures of 0.5–0.6 °C (0.9–1.1 °F), and a global fall of about 0.4 °C (0.7 °F). At the same time, the temperature in the stratosphere rose to several degrees higher than normal, due to absorption of radiation by the aerosols. The stratospheric cloud from the eruption persisted in the atmosphere for three years after the eruption.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:20 am
There is more to the problem of burning fossil fuels than the possibility of global warming, and that is the increase in the burden of CO2 in the oceans and the resultant acidification. It does not take a very large increase in acidity to upset the ability of carbonate animals such as diatoms, corals and crustaceans, to maintain their hard exoskeletons. The ability of the oceans to buffer the increase in CO2 is reaching a limit and has been exceeded in some areas. This is just plain science and not related to liberals and democrats, FOX news or CNN. The right wing is often guilty of making snap decisions against anything that a tree hugger would like, and I am sure some liberals believe in global warming just because they have been told to. Stick to the science and drop the childish name calling. Lets discuss the facts not the prejudices. And it is a fact that increased production of CO2 is becoming a major problem for many reasons besides warming.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:11 am
Thank you Mr. Schmitt,
I beleive in the middle ages people were told to beleive that the world was flat and the scientist that argued against it were locked up in the top of church’s to silence them. We need more Mr. Schmitts who have an open mind to research what is true and what isn’t.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:15 am
So a long retired astronaut say that Global Warming is not happening and he must be right!!!! I’ll trust a guy like David Suzuki and many others way before him. I am sure that if you talk to George Bush (either one ) and Dick Cheney, they’ll also tell you that there is no such a thing as Global Warming, but then everybody believe them when they made many gullible people believe that Iraq had WMD. These guys would not lie to you about something that may affect their friend’s wallet…would they now!!! They’ll show you the same concern as they did when Katrina hit New Orleans.
It easier to do nothing than looking at the strong possibility that we are accelarating whatever cycle the Earth is in. We can certainly adjust in a thousands year, I am not sure we can in a Century, if we have that long. Place your bet ladies and gentlemen.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:49 am
When I took an English class on environmental issues, we looked at the charts and graphs that supposedly ‘proved’ rising CO2 levels and global warming.
Looking back on it, I realized that all the graphs I viewed were manipulated in some fashion to show massive increases in CO2 or temperature which weren’t really there.
For example, Lester Brown’s charts on CO2 levels are always stretched out in the time domain so you see a large discontinuity in the current levels. The chart I’m referring to mixes ice core sample data with present-day CO2 data.
As an engineering student who has worked as a summer research intern for a major electronics company, I can tell you that this is always bad practice. The methods Lester Brown cites for measuring CO2 levels 100,000 years ago are very different from those methods used to measure it only 50 years ago.
Without zooming on the portion of the graph near the HUGE discontinuity in the present era, it is impossible to decide whether the data is genuine or simply an apparition (which would make the data at the discontinuity useless).
I think it is very interesting that Brown “neglected” to include a zoomed chart, which tells me he doesn’t have alot of data points and possibly doubts the data himself. I mean, why not include the chart? Engineers always document problems with as much information as they have available.
If the ice core CO2 data perfectly matched up with air sample data from the 50’s, wouldn’t that be powerful evidence in favor of the ice core method’s integrity? I think this all is really fishy.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:54 am
To think that Humans can affect the weather or change the climate (i.e change the temp.) is absurd. If we could, shouldn’t we also be able to affect the rainfall in drought areas, control hurricanes and tornadoes, and stop the eruption of volcanoes.
The theory of global warming was thought up by Al Gore, Who by the way also invented the internet.
Maybe if all the people who think they can affect the weather got together at one of the wind mill farms and all blew at the same time, they could increase the wind speed.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:19 am
The Global Warming Theory is an economic fraud designed to destroy individual wealth in America. It’s proponents want to drive up energy costs to make the American economy uncompetitive on the world markets. The goal is to get government officials to pass massive tax increases and punitive economic penalties on fossil fuels because they are the most efficient fuels in existance.
Alternatives such as wind or solar are 20 times more expensive and will never be economically competitive with oil. Government spending on alternatives will bankrupt America.
In order to create these taxes the politicians have invented nonsense science to create the impression that Carbon Dioxide is dangerous or toixc. It is neither. Carbon Dioxide is the clean air of the Clean Air Acts. Life cannot exist withour it. The entire planet is layer upon layer of carbon. We are carbon based life.
Thank you Mr. Schmitt for standing up and fighting for the American people. The economic devastation of the Global Warming fraud must stop and the corrupt politicians who have tried to tax us for the temperature of the planet 1000 years from now must be removed from office and held accountable for their falsehoods.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:32 am
There is more pack ice today than there was in 2006. Chicago just had it’s 10th coldest January in 140 years of recordkeeping. Al Gore says it’s just a “glitch” in the continuing rise of temperatures. Is “glitch” a scientific term? I don’t remember studying that term in my atmospheric classed in college.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:46 am
Jason; it was just a few years ago we were told by the Scientific Community that we were going to have new Ice Age because of massive Global Cooling… Look back at headlines from the NYT and other publications in the Teens Twentys and Thirties and Fourties Fiftys and so on…and you will see the “Never” wrong Scientific Community has been wrong ALOT!!! They have bounced back and fourth on warming and cooling for about a hundred years….Not to mention the Scientific seems to be ignoring 3 consecutive years of a cooling trend…
Warming and cooling trends are simply a cycle of nature…Nature is much more powerful a force than man will ever be…Foe example more polution went into the atmosphere whne Mt.St.Helens erupted than man had produced in over 200 years…
Think of the size of this planet… Now remember it is covered by 70+ percent water… Now the remaining land mass is only 40 percent is conducive to haqbitation of which only 20 percent is actually inhabited…. its like saying that a few flies in your home affect the temperature in your home because of the flapping of their wings….all of the High Profile Warming Alarmists Like AL Gore would seriously alter their life styles and habits if they really believed it but they are the ones who are raking in billions of dollars in subsidies because too many people are buying into the lies and myth of human caused global warming…
February 21st, 2009 at 9:11 am
It appears Anthony A. drank the KoolAid. Proves the point that if a LIE is repeated enough, it becomes FACT…..
February 21st, 2009 at 9:35 am
For Anthony A.
It’s so typical of climate change alarmists to constantly state the “debate is over” and then bleat that we need to take action. The contention of the realists is that any change in the earth’s historical average temperature is a result of natural cycles that have been occuring for millions of years. Any anthropogenic contribution of CO2 is but a small fraction of what nature pumps into the atmosphere on it’s own every year.
Oh and by the way, I think the point about the Great Lakes is that the land mass is rising not the level of the water in the lakes themselves.
February 21st, 2009 at 10:25 am
Ah, Jason … Close; but, … CO2 wasn’t what caused the problems. SO2, O3, and CO1 were among the pollutants that were involved.
Scientists have NOT been right on every issue.
They were wrong on Global Cooling, they were wrong on the Earth being flat.
They were wrong when they said that the Sun and planets revolved around the Earth and not the other way around. And, they were wrong they said the opposite was true.
In fact science is littered with mistakes.
Until the 1990s Bucky balls were believed not to exist in nature. Now a whole new world of technology has opened up; because, a soot chemist found some; and, Carbon based Nanotechnology was born.
CO2 is largely harmless, unless released in sufficiently huge quantities.
Currently, the only thing able to release enough CO2 outdoors to do any harm in the surrounding area is a volcano.
Indoors CO2 levels can be an issue if a source of CO2 is allowed to build up. Anything over 4% would be very uncomfortable. OSHA rules address that.
Acid rain (H2SO4), Smog (NOx,O3,SO2,SO4) and orange lightning(dust in air) have nothing to do with CO2.
CO2 has no noticeable odor.
As for the Ozone layer, guess what, the jury is still out on that one. The size of the ozone hole over Antarctica continues to fluctuate, even decades after the CFC bans went into effect.
Increases in CMEs (sunspots) correlate to reductions in the size of the hole; otherwise, it tends to grow (slowly). It seems that it goes up and down within a normal range, that has not been significantly effected by CFC levels. Chemically it would take significantly more CFCs than mankind was (or even now is) able to produce.
As recently as 600 years ago, scientists around the known world agreed that the earth was flat.
Science is not static; and, scientists are human. The make mistakes. Sometimes, very large numbers of the agree to those mistakes – at least publicly.
In the 70s they were worried about global cooling.
The problems with leaded gas was obvious to everyone, not just scientists. Same with smog, and Ozone alerts. People didn’t need PHDs, to tell them that regularly being exposed to lead was bad. They needed the PHDs to come up with the alternative. They didn’t need scientists to tell them smog was bad, they needed scientists to come up with a way to prevent it.
A new pollution problem is now looming and it’s not CO2. It’s mercury. Compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs) all have mercury in them. There is currently no recycling program for them. Also, there is no way to ensure they wont crack open at some point and spill it out; or, release it into the air if plugged in.
Some scientists have described this as a ticking time bomb; and, are advocating (at least) that a recycling program be put in place for them.
One of the CO2 sequestration techniques bandied about for a while has been to pump CO2 under ground. If done in a location with an an aquifer, it would kill the living things in that aquifer, by converting the water at that location to soda.
In safe quantities (anything under 2%) CO2 is good for the environment. Plants and trees need it to grow. We need it to keep O2 levels balanced. The oceans need it. In fact, there could be almost no life on this planet without it. The only exceptions would by the sulfur based life forms they found near some deep undersea volcanic vents; and, they can’t exist without volcanic activity.
Far too many scientists suffer from the same greed and fear as everyone else. They say what it takes to get the grant money to do the research they want to do. They care more about there own research, and getting it funded/published, than they do the social implications going along with the incorrect and discredited CO2 AGW bunk. :/
February 21st, 2009 at 10:51 am
I used to wonder why there seemed to be a dumbing down of America. Phonics {If someone tells you this doesn’t work, it has been my finding that they never understood or were taught the complete 70 different sounds,combination of sounds, and phonic rules. I have taught many children to read including an abused emotionally retarded boy, and sever dyslexic. Much easier than memorising 70,000 or more words. Sorry just had to get that off my chest!}, basic chemistry, which taught you that carbon dioxide’s atomic weight is heavier (about 2x) than the other atmosphere gases, so gravity keeps it close to the earth’s surface where all the plants live that need carbon dioxide to live,which in turn make us food and OXYGEN(!!!!) which we cannot live without! HEY IT WORKS FOR ME!
Anyway back to my original theory, it has been said by some of the greatest conquers and dictators that it is hard to subvert, control, and manipulate an educated people. Especially one that is able to let the real facts of science speak for themselves and where ever that leads us, instead of the whim of a few others, that can only have a hidden agenda (not so hidded if you ask me…power, money) as their motive. History has taught us this can only lead to BAD consequences!
A Canada climatologist (working out of Holland I think it was), studying the suns solar flares and how it affects communication systems. The graphs from from his 40 years of data conclusively indicate that rise in temperature directly precede the rise in carbon dioxide and not the other way around! Besides the way they talk about carbon dioxide it seems they have it confused with carbon monoxide.
February 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
O btw, almost forgot to point out, that for the last decade the Earth as been cooling, not warming.
Looked at over a time span of hundreds of years or longer, warming has been occurring; and, we are still warmer now than it was at the end of the little ice age.
In shorter terms though, we are colder now than we were 30 years ago, and dropping.
By the time this world cold snap is over, we may well reach the coldest levels in over 100 years.
Also, CO2 has now been well established as a trailing – not a leading – indicator.
It’s never been proven as a cause; despite, claims to the contrary.
All the fear and overreaction has been based on unproven hypothetical rhetoric backed up by fancy graphs based on incomplete and/or faulty data and lots of predictions that have failed the test of time.
Based on prior predictions, the Arctic should be all but gone by now – not larger than it’s been in at any time in the last 30 years or more – and Antarctica should be shrinking rapidly – not growing. Based on predictions made by J Hanson to congress, the warmest temperatures on record should be happening around the world right now, including here in the US – not the coldest in the last 30 years. Some locations are matching their all time lows. All of this was NOT preceded by a drop in CO2.
If CO2 was the cause, then the drop in temps should have been preceded by a drop in CO2.
The truth is:
The Earth gets it heat from two primary sources, the Sun, and the Atmosphere.
The Atmosphere gets most of it’s heat from the Sun.
The Atmosphere is much bigger than the Earth; so, it receives more direct sunlight.
When the sun emits more UV and CMEs (usually at the same time, refereed to as being more active) specific layers in the Atmosphere react. The Ozone layer converts more air into ozone, while releasing side effect gases that recombine and give off heat.
The ozone itself gives of heat when it breaks down.
There is always some UV hitting this layer; and, it is always converting UV into heat in this way.
The Ozone layer simply becomes more active when the Sun does – converting increased UV into increased heat.
The ionosphere converts CMEs into electricity, light and heat. Auroras are the most visible result.
February 21st, 2009 at 11:13 am
Arctic Ice reference -
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/recent365.anom.region.1.html
February 21st, 2009 at 11:48 am
[...] who ought to be objective take a political position and it
February 21st, 2009 at 11:57 am
John is right on the money. Our so called government is trying to use global warming as a control. Now they have the banks and Obama to do it. Welcome to 1984. We had an American revolution over less. We didn’t think USSR would dissolve…it did. The US could do the same thing. this country is headed toward a country of rich v slaves. Wake up people…it’s at YOUR door.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:38 pm
All of us “free thinkers” have to remember that we ALL rely on other people’s research, ideas or opinions! That is how we learned everything that we are discussing now. No one on this site has ever performed scientific invistigations into all the aspects of “global warming”. We simply rely on others to do that and accept the ones that we believe. Man is a stupid creature. The world is warming and that is a fact. I believe that many natural events are the primary reasons. But, using what I believe is logic; even comparing the history of the earth to the things happing now is not possible because man is the one un-predictable and ever changing variable. We can’t control the earth’s rotation or the distance to the sun or the moon; but we indirectaly add or “cause” this effect. We over-populate this planet(not that way 1000 years ago), we destroy oxygen creatiing plants, and pollute like this is a dump. Many of our actions prevent this planet from following the so called cycle that this planet has been through before.
February 21st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
So one of you is a self professed expert in human behavior at fast food dumps? “Open” mouthed eating and “closed” is a function of age,IQ,news channels? Scientific research, impact analysis and world policy response is a conspiracy driven by fear mongering?
This comment session would be sadly witless, were it not for the precautionary points made by Jason and Anthony. Two voices of reason.
February 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
So instead of 100 reasons to go green, there are now only 99.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
If all the idiots who believe in man-made global warming would just kill themselves, the reduction in their combined carbon footprints would mean they could save the environment that they so worship. They should be more than happy to make that sacrifice. Then the rest of us could live in peace, in an idiot-free world. Everybody WINS!!
February 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Environmentalism, Economy and Equality are the three legs of the New World Order. This is a fight between Liberty and Sustainable Development and Liberty is quickly losing when the progressives have pursued our cities, towns, states and federal governments to push their agenda into the emerging global state collectivism. Check out newswithviews.com and other sites on global socialism. They are robbing our childrengrandchildren of their freedom, all the while purporting to be doing this for them. There is no time for complacency.
February 21st, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Global warming is the biggest farse of our time. It will cause billions of dollars in taxes and fines and fees on our society. We must somehow get this stopped. Let’s all thank Al for putting another bueden on our lives.
February 21st, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Right On. Gore and his army are all about the money and are feeding us a line of misinformation. The democrats in this country must be heavily invested in GE and their wind turbine technology.
Of course, they’re not studying what is going to happen to the climate as they change the winds and their natural cooling patterns. Most of the greatest climate changes are occuring downwind from these great wind farms.
If there were as great a problem as reported, they would have screamed at the amount of pollution the Chinese are putting into the atmosphere.
But why do that, the Chinese are pay Bill Clinton and all his cronies off for sending all of the business their way. (Wasn’t he begging for money for his defense fund since he was so broke when he left office).
As others have said, follow the money, follow the money, follow the money. Either controlling it or making it.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
February 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 am
Concerning “rising levels of the Great Lakes”, what the original writer meant was that the surface of the earth in the Great Lakes area is rising. This means that the land around and under the lakes are rising. He did not mean that the water level is rising relative to the land as Anthony A. interpreted. To my amateur scientist mind, the rising land would tend to make the lakes drain to a lower level although this is probably not the main reason the lake levels are lower now.
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 am
Have any of you guys ever ventured beyond Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” to learn about the global warming phenomenon? Did you know there are actually legions of books and articles and journals beyond publicity-stunt DVDs that were written by REAL scientists which provide overwhelming fact and evidence that demonstrate the effects of global warming even more effectively than the opinion of of a 70 year-old astronaut (read: non-expert)?
Very good M Henson, the earth DOES operate on a cycle! You just passed the eighth grade. Now consider that the earth’s warming cycle has increased over 400% beyond any other warming trend in geoclimatic history. Oh…and it’s still rising. But leave your collective heads buried in the sand and keep telling yourselves it’s just a government conspiracy. I’m sure your grand-children won’t mind.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 am
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when, in a period of one hundred years or so, as use of fossil fuels has become so prolific as to be inescapable, a reaction takes place, that it is indeed just that – a RE-action. Any mention of past cycles is patently ridiculous, and an embarrassment to its purveyor. Never has there been a man-made situation that affects the environment in such a way, and therefore no such conclusions can be drawn. And when in fact there were upheavals in the environment – natural as they may have been – the results were disastrous for that epoch. Does anyone really think that the black exhaust of the car/truck in front of you (and believe me, the situation is much worse outside the US), multiplied by 1, 2, 5, 10 million, won’t have any effect????
Stop fooling yourselves. It’s real, it’s here, and most important – it’s containable.
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Science was and is supposed to be based in factual data. Al Gore and his Greenies have twisted the scientific data into a tool to be used to promote the liberal left’s agenda. We must all panic and let those in government save us without questioning there motives. We must destroy the old economy and build a new one based on the Liberal’s view of the world. We must destroy the fossil fuel based industries of this nation, no steel, no auto,no manufacturing, no coal, no fossil fueled electricity. Instead we will have wind mills and photo cells powering the world, hiring millions to do so. If anyone honestly believes this they will be living in a cold and dark world. If those that follow Al and the Liberals are so concerned, tell them turn off their lights and sit in the dark. It shouldn’t be a problem for them, it is most likely dark where their heads are now. Harrison Schmitt seems to be a voice of reason in a world of fantasy. He deserves praise for his willingness to speak out. Politics and Science make bad bed fellows. One is based in fiction and the other in fact, the only thing you achieve by combining the two is a dime novel.
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
OK. Let’s say Schmitt is right. I’d rather listen to the green people and end up with alternative (free & non-polluting) energy than to keep paying Big energy to give us more sulphur and mercury from hydrocarbons or nuclear waste products from the splitting of the atom.
Of course, if someone were to tell me that CO2 emissions increase the heat of the planet and that keeps the core molten and that keeps the solar wind in check . . . well, I might just buy into it but not before I look into alternatives.
Go solar. Not to cool the planet but to stop paying through our noses for Big Energey.
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 pm
The methodology of Science research funding needs to be overhauled. Much science research comes from sources that have pressures put on them because their funding comes from political or business groups whose objectives are based on research showing the results they need to achieve their objectives. We need for researchers to be able to report outcomes of their research without having to worry about losing funding if the results show something other than what those who fund it would like.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 am
It never ceases to amaze me that people, human beings, think they are bigger than God. It really is about money and people like Al Gore making lots of it. What a hypocrite.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
If anyone remembers their high school science classes, we were taught about how many ice ages? What happened between those ice ages? Yes that is right, global warming for a time… Maybe this has more to do with the cycle of life that seems to be built in to our planet…
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
Jason on the 16th says that scientists have been right all along. Can you prove thier theories right? they can’t even prove their own hypothoses to be correct, all they can do is make an educated guess when they don’t even know if they have all the information needed to make a decision on an environmental subject. Remember Mt Pinotubo? it spewed a hundred years worth of chemicals that supposedly effect the environment but what has that done along with all the other active volcanoes except locally? I mean really?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
In follow up to the comment about TV programs and the generation of viewers…In conversation with some grade school teachers last week about learning problems and child behavior I asked them what constituted the greatest block to children’s ability to learn: Their diets, parental attitudes, or lack of discipline? Answer — video games! Children lost in video games seem to lose their ability to imagine, and to learn. They have no interest in reading and fail to expand their knowlege. Where will this lead us when these kids become the new voters, when a grounding in the principles of freedom is needed, when wisdom is required?? How can they or even their parents think straight about anything without some basis for doing so? They become puppets, fed whatever the media choses to dish up, and driven to and fro by any wind of opinion.
So having a real conversation about Global Warming which requires a broad background to comprehend they follow the pied piper of Tennessee rather than think.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Harrison is another example of someone who is a scientist, but not a climatologist, speaking out on climate change. Remember what happened when chemists tried to experiment with cold-fusion? They were out of their element. Google any “scientists” who claim there is no human-caused global warming and see just how many are climatologists.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
SATELLITES REVEAL A MYSTERY OF LARGE CHANGE IN EARTH’S GRAVITY FIELD
Satellite data since 1998 indicates the bulge in the Earth’s gravity field at the equator is growing, and scientists think that the ocean may hold the answer to the mystery of how the changes in the trend of Earth’s gravity are occurring.
here’s the page address
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020801gravityfield.html
THE ABOVE IS AN EXCERPT FROM AUGUST 01,2002 NASA ARTICLE.
MY OPINION:CLIMATE CHANGES OCCURING IN THE PLANET ARE PART OF A NATURAL PROCESS AND IT IS BEING CAUSED BY THIS SLOW SHIFT IN EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD(also a natural event).I AGREE WITH DR.SCHMITT,IT IS NOT HUMAN CAUSED. WE ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF A MAGNETIC POLE SHIFT AND THE CHANGES IN EARTH ARE GOING TO BE MUCH BIGGER THAN ONE CAN IMAGINE.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Anthony A says:
“Global warming is no longer a debate”
Why? Because you say so? Because the mantra gets repeated over and over?
As long as there are differing opinions, there will be debate…otherwise, it’s called fascism. If you can bring evidence to prove the theory, then you will win the debate. However, just declaring the debate over doesn’t mean you have proven your argument.
Fallacious arguments like appeal to authority, ad hominem and argument by consensus only shows how weak the hypothesis is. Bring ideas and evidence, not tired slogans and scare tactics.
Anthony A says:
“Also, for Mr/Misses AP, check your facts on the “rising levels of the Great Lakes.” You will note Lake Superior, Michigan, Ontario, are all at record low levels.”
You don’t need to check your facts, you need to check your logic. Clearly the reference is to the altitude of the earth’s crust at the great lakes, not the water level. I might be going out on a limb, but maybe precipitation and seasonal variance might be driving the water levels. This is another clear case of the old saying “Environmentalists will do anything to save the planet, except take a science class”.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Schmitt is a fool. Thank God, imbeciles like him got thrown out in the last election.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
You fools. A Senator who says things are done in the name of politics, ought to know! He’s a politician! Duh! You people are so stupid. Anthony A is right. It’s no longer a debate. It’s happening here, and now. Almost every scientist agrees that Global climate Change is happening and they agree about the affects! So the I’m going to stick my head in the sand and crank up my SUV ain’t going to cut it! No matter who or what is the cause is moot. We need to do something about it, and now, before it’s too late. Just ask the drought striken people in the south, and the flood plagued people of the midwest, or the fire prone people of the west, or the people in Britan buried in 3 feet of snow! It’s here. And it’s scoming to your home town! fools!
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Today our esteemed politicians are faced with a known Social Security Crisis in the next 20 years, an imminent engergy crisis that requires immediate exploitation of our current, known energy reserves, and a growing immigration problem and they refuse to address any of these. However, our liberal politicians are eager to address Global Warming with almost no credible scientific evidence that it is, by any measure, caused by human activity or anything else that we can control.
Examine their attitudes and actions, what issues they are willing to address and those they refuse to address, and examine the consequences of their proposed actions or lack there of:
1. Social Security Funding Crisis – this is a known and proven funding crisis but the Democratic Party has had no interest in addressing this looming financial calamity despite a very logical and straight forward solution, Individual Private Retirement Accounts controlled by each individual.
Result of their inaction -
- Failure of the Social Security System,
-increased societal chaos and fear,
- A growing dependence on our federal government during retirement and
- less individual freedom and choice for many Amwericans;
2. Current energy crisis that has seen increased prices for oil, gas, and other energy related natural resource. Again, this is a major economic issue today, not for some indeterminate future time, and the obvious immediate short term solution is to drill for more oil, expand nuclear generation capabilities, and begin erneast research and development of practical energy alternatives for future exploitation.
Results of their inaction on this crisis:
-Increasing energy costs,
- major economic slow down,
- a significant, immediate impact on budgets of individuals, local, state and federal governments,
- impacts on businesses at all levels,
- significant decline in consumer and individual confidence,
- disruption in normal daily life and increase in societal chaos and uncertainty,
- a tendancy for society, at all levels, to turn to our governmental entities for a solution.
3. Our growing immigration problems are causing a breakdown in communities, increasing a general atmosphere of distrust and fear among the general population. Illegal immigration has displaced many skilled and unskilled workers, thereby increasing unemployment in populations that have traditionally performed these skilled and unskilled jobs. It has also overburdened our traditional healthcare and legal system to the point that both have experienced significant degradation in facilities and the service they are able to provide. Again the obvious solution is to gain control of these illegal immigrants and reqain control of US immigration. Our politicians have failed the American people and ignored this major crisis due to their own political agenda.
The results of their negligence:
- A decrease in public confidence and trust,
- Disruption of American Society as a whole and the best healthcare and legal system in the world,
- Compromising the public safety and individual security, a general feeling of this insecurity pervades all we do and how we perceive our envoronment.
-A greater dependence on government at all levels to enhance our security, initiate programs to address the deterioration of our healthcare and legal system.
-A major impact on individual liberty and ability to find happiness in the growing chaos of the American culture.
The “crisis” they’ve chosen to focus their efforts and energies on, Human Impacts on Climate Change and Global Warming, has always been based on questionable science, a lack of creditable evidence, given the age of the earth, 6+ billion years, and its processes, our limited understanding of environmental ecology, and our limited scientific records, less than 200 years. Until we can reliably measure human civilization’s impact by any scientific measurement then we’ll not know what we’ve done and how we’ve done it, nor what will be required of us to correct the unknown damages inflicted upon our global environment. If anything is obvious a look at geological and climatological history clearly shows that temperatures fluctuate, environments constantly change, and species have come and gone ions before humans were present. Only in the last 150 years, the Industrial Age, has mankind been able to generate “green house gases” in any substantial quantities and this is only a moment in time in our earth’s history and its irrestible evolution.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I would only add this: Whether humans are causing global climate change or not, is a less important question than what should we do about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE6Kdo1AQmY
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Thank you!
I would much rather take an Astronauts view on Global Warming than a washed-up Vice President…who majored in law in college…
Frank Citizen
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Ever since the EU has implemented the Carbon Tax, the people’s standard of living has gone down by about 10%.. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear we were under attack by the EU so they could force their will on America…
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Thank you Mr. Schmitt for not being intimidated by the radical environmentalist hypocrites. It’s great to hear from the sane, rational and scientific minds. What a relief this is to hear rational reasoning about the latest sky-is-falling hoax.
Here’s some hard cold facts that certain gullible individuals should “think” about, preferably with their mouths closed: I survived the ice-age of the 70’s, then I survived the ozone layer depletion scare of the 80’s, and I sure as heck will survive this global-warming (ooops, I mean climate change) hoax.
The only thing that humans can be blamed for with all these hoax’s is that they are invoked and propagated through the mass-hysteria phenomenon of the human mind.
Dido’s to the comment above made by John.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Yay! Reason and sanity. Unfortunately, the powers that be have an agenda and truth is nowhere near important enough to be ON that agenda…because it doesn’t further THE agenda of Global Socialism and centralized control over EVERYONE not just Americans.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Jason, saying the correctness goes to the belief of the majority, even scientists (you must look past environmental issues alone), is a foolish viewpoint. Let us take a few examples.
1. Before the field of astronomy became developed, scientists believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, as all the stars appeared to rotate around the planet on a daily basis.
2. As people became more educated, scientists believed that the Earth was not in fact the center of the universe, but it was actually the Sun.
3. Before it was commonplace to sail the ocean, scientists believed the world is flat. Yes, a majority of them.
3 examples of a scientific community majority, all wrong. I am not saying the majority here is wrong, I am merely saying it is plausible.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:00 am
So nice to see some truth spoken and real science being talked about for once. Global warming as a human-caused effect is losing steam and no one really believes this bunk anymore. Even the proponents are having to resort to crazy means to sustain what is increasingly a losing argument.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Just what I thought! There is no “hole in the ozone” is there? All this nonsense about polychlorinatedbiphenyls and carbon emissions were conspiratorial scare tactics to increase the “police state”. How about Jesus? Did they make up Jesus to control us too? Then PETA! I bet the PETA people are in on it too!!!
February 24th, 2009 at 12:58 am
It’s a scare tactic used to slow the use of rapidly disappearing fossil fuels. They’re scaring people into using less and finding new ways to preserve these fuels. One fool gets a notion of global disaster and it’s fanned and fed by A. Idiots with nothing better to do who like to make a scene, or B. Control freaks in minor seats of power who think that blowing this one thing out of proportion will make a name for themselves.
http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/earth_on_the_brink_of_an_ice_age/
Enjoy the flip flopping. In the next decade, it’ll be that we need to increase the heat of the world because it’s cooling off and freezing us out.
February 24th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Apparently global warming is happening, and politicians are worried what will happen as a result. We know that the global temperature has varied in cycles and that we are not currently in one of the warmest ones. Is this push for green really a problem? Why are we complaining about reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, and reducing the amount of pollution that we create? It seems to me that this green push is a really good thing, whether global warming is human caused or not.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am
I love it when someone says global warming is not a debate its fact. That’s kinda what the Christians said to the Jews in the inquisition.you must accept the global warming god and worship it or bad things will happen. You know the end of the world, stuff like that. Sound familiar?
February 24th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Why would anyone believe anything Al Gore said – after all, he claimed to have invented the internet anyway, which was “bunk”. Maybe I’ll get the Nobel Prize in Physics if I claim “the moon is falling” and can get $50K speaking engagements and grants! Anyone care to let me in on what qualifies AL to be the main spokesperson for “Chicken Little International”?
February 24th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Thank you for common sense. How do we get thw word out? The entire financial mess we are in is exagerated by theis “global Warming” Scare!
February 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Could not have said it better, in the 1990’s it was the clorine atom in freon that was causing global warming. The governments told us the chlorine atom attached itself to the ozone atom and and split it and moved on and on and on.
A chlorine atom is the same in swimming pools, water from the city, and freon, it evaporates from your pool, from washing your car, and from freon leaks, the Montreal Protical was based on theories, nothing more. It did creat a new tax though. Did away with a great freon, then and now the are phasing out R22. They did this by raising taxes on R12 and R22 until you can’t afford it. Carbon is next. Anyone want to bet?
February 24th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Well said John (#14). I’m so tired of hearing the nonsensical “the debate is over” pitch churned out by senseless fear-mongers whose logical reasoning apparently capped around the fifth grade. The “debate” was never allowed to evn begin! FOLLOW THE MONEY. Everyone screaming doomsday either has a government grant to protect or a political agenda to push. Its’ not about “Mother Earth,” its’ about CONTROL of her children.
February 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Good to hear about you again and doing the RIGHT THING. Will look forward to the results of your meeting.
February 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Finally…a voice of intelligence in a world choked by idiocy in power. First off…Al Gore needs to have that Nobel prize of his utterly revoked. then take him and all his global warming spewing cronies and put them in a hole somewhere out of public view. To anyone spewing this garbage of global warming or believes in it really needs to go find thier 3rd grade Science book and reread it. You apparently forgotten the basics. It should be sufficient in debunking the some of the Bad Science made in the name of “Global Warming”.
February 24th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
LARGE CHANGE IN EARTH’S GRAVITY FIELD.THAT IS THE CAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGES;AND IT IS A NATURAL EVENT.
OCEAN CURRENTS,EARTH’S GRAVITATIONAL FIELD,CLIMATE,VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ETC.. ARE ALL RELATED TO THE OTHER.
HERE’S THE LINK TO AN INTERESTING ARTICLE:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020801gravityfield.html
ANOTHER:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/11/scienceofclimatechange.gravitymapping
February 24th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Harrison Schmitt is a geologist, not a meteorologist or a climatologist. He is speaking well outside his field of expertise. The real criteria for judging his words should be facts and evidence rather than gut feelings. On that basis his statements are also largely without merit. Humans release gigatons of fossil CO2 into the atmosphere each year, far more than all earth’s volcanoes combined. We know this from coal and oil production records compared to measurements of volcanic outgassing. It might still be possible to conclude all this CO2 has no effect, except that careful research has shown otherwise. The climate models are accurate, and hothouse gasses do contribute to accelerated environmental change.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Wow – what a silly group this is. You are all in denial. It is trivial to show that CO2 is rising in the atmosphere, and that humans are the cause.
Measurements of actual air shows that there is an increase each year in CO2 concentration. It is a no brainer, and lots of different groups have shown it. All this data shows thatthere is an increase of around three gigatons of carbon being added to the atmosphere each year.
Next it is also equally simple to show, using industrial suplied values, that humans are adding around seven gigatons of carbon to the atmosphere each year.
We are just getting lucky that the earth is stashing those extra four gigatons, or else we would be in real trouble already.
What part of that is so complex that you deny that humans are causing the CO2 in the atmosphere to increase. Add 7, see an increase of 3. Hardly takes a trip to the moon to deduce that it is our fault.
Sorry if the results make you uncomfortable.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Three things indicate that CO2 is not major cause of climate change. 1. CO2’s capacity to trap more heat declines logarithmically(verey rapidly)-it is already at a very diminished level of capacity; 2. Ice cores from both polar areas show that temperature changed BEFORE CO2 levels changed-by several hundred years, a cause does not folloow an effect!; 3. Empirical (real) evidence shows that CO2 trends and temperature trends often diverge, as they are doing now since temperature has declined for over 6 years, Earth experienced a significant ice age 430 million years ago when CO2 levels were 4,400 parts per million vs 384 ppm today, Earth was 5 degrees Celsius warmer and sea levels 19 feet higher during the last interglacial…all this with no SUVs. Tens of thousands of scientists are going crazy at the complete disregard of scientific facts. Thanks Harrison!
February 25th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Anthony …
The debate has just begun.. We often forget our first step is to assessment of options. Of these, one is to do nothing..
If the debate is over, then we can stop now. From what I see and read, the rate of the global heating, costs of potential solutions, degree of success, and the ineffectual results, lead to one conclusion. Man can not effect climate change. SOME WOULD ARGUE THE ONLY WAY, ENSURE THIS IS NOT MAN-MADE IS TO REMOVE MANKIND FROM THE EQUATION AND SUGGEST WE DROP THE POPULATION FROM 6-7 BILLION TO 600 MILLION.
Harrison Schmidt’s arguments are sound, and need to be taken seriousily. We need a second opinion, and one not driven by the political appointees of the UN.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
John, I think I love you! Okay, maybe I don;t really love you, but I do love your intelligence and wit. Good comments.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
For Anthony A… you sir, should check your facts before you declare record low levels on those Great Lakes. According to NOAA’s hyrographs, which you can verify at the link, NONE of those lakes you mentioned are at “record lows”, and that’s just going back over the last 150 years. All three have been lower over the last 100 years, and Ontario is actually above it’s average for the last 150 years. In any event, thanks for helping make Sen Schmitt’s point!
February 25th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I am in total agreement with Mr.Schmitt. If you tell clueless people the sky is purple everyday they will eventually agree that the damn thing is and has been purple. I think in today’s day and age that people are far too busy chasing and worrying about things that have no meaning. People are easily influenced today, to the point that they hear a blurb about something and run around telling everybody what is going on with little or no knowledge about that subject.
Most people today attribute the continuation of bad information being passed along as if people are in some sort of a fog because they are all wrapped up in the world surrounding them. To some extent that is true, more importantly people as a whole are to blame not technology, the digital revolution, or cheap labor in China. It is all very simple, the crux of the matter is that people are generally lazy and incapable of solving problems. It is that simple!!! I remember being a student in high school in the early 1980’s and hearing the debate between (fire and Ice). I remember being told in thirty years Florida along with many other places would be under water? Sound familiar.
Quick suggestion to all. If you hear something from anybody, stop for a millisecond or so and think it through, then do a little homework when time permits and then decide for yourself. Most important decide based on real facts. Don’t be lazy. We can all solve problems, but most prefer someone else to solve them for us.
That is global warming, hot air coming out of clueless people’s mouths. That is our net contribution as human beings living on the beautiful living earth.
February 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
No matter if global warming is caused by man or not, no matter if it is real or not, we cannot keep using the air and water as a dumping ground. We still need clean energy. We cannot rely entirely on fossil fuels – most of them are dirty – and all of them will run out some day.
Anybody who thinks we should keep on going as we are is being foolish. Fossil resources are not clean and are not renewable. It doesn’t matter if we run out in ten years or one hundred – we need to start getting ready *now*.
Clean water, clean air, clean energy. What’s wrong with that? (unless of course you are a greedy selfish pig with an attitude of ‘denial’ not unlike what we see in tobacco ‘executives’).
February 25th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Global warming is here. It is mostly hard-core republicans, oil company geoscientists (who have *no* expertise in world weather modeling) and a handful of ‘rogue’ scientists who deny it. They are all entitled to their opinions, no matter how wrong.
The dinosaurs all died off.
So eventually will the modern dinosaurs mentioned above.
February 25th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
John, you’re a perfect example of the very thing you’re railing against.
iPod playing Mozart in the 70’s? Please, put down the crack pipe and step away from the computer.
February 25th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Most scientists say the added Carbon Dioxide is causing the Global Warming.
While Schmitt’s head, says that the Global Warming is causing the Carbon Dioxide.
So whether it’s the Warming causing the Carbon, or the Carbon causing the Warming they are all still saying the same thing! The Earth is getting Warmer and there is more Carbon Dioxide!
We can argue for decades about what came first the chicken or the egg, the carbon or the warming, but it doesn’t change the fact that both the carbon and warming are getting bigger!
We must find the cause, and try to fix it! End of Story!
February 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Finally, this global warming scam is being debunked! I say scam, because it makes the Bernie Madoff Pozie scheme pale by comparison and is actually resulting in people in poorer under-developed countries dying, because of the “eco-restrictions” being implemented. Wake up people and climb out of your caves! The only viable factor in climate change on this planet (and all the other planets) is, was and always will be the SUN, not we lowly Earthlings. Our contribution, good, bad or indifferent is miniscule in comparison, and only becomes “viable” when someone can scam money, or a power base, as a result.
February 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
How can the majority of people be wrong?
February 25th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I have a great respect for Sen. Schmitt and his impressive career. But he also may have a bias. Otherwise, why is he ignoring an overwhelming quantity of actual hard data to draw a conclusion that conflicts with the data? I, too would like to think it is all bunk, but a geologist ignoring data is not going to make up my mind for me, any more than a former vice president is going to make up my mind for me.
If people really want to know about this, they need to read the actual data, not the comforting or discomforting conclusions that support their preconceptions.
Think for yourselves, folks.
February 25th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
They were right back in 2001 weren’t they?
February 25th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Global Warming is a Al Gore Whacko idea, the “Inventor of the Internet’ needs to have a lobotamy he and Joe Biden make a great pair why don’t they keep the mouths shut, the reduction in hot air would solve any so called global warming problem.
Seriously, We are not doing much to change the Global Temperature AND IF we are It is a GOOD thing, We need the increased agricultural output. Man has never created or destroyed a single drop of water, dirty some of it up but not destroyed it. An in crease in Global temperatures will increase the oceans evaporation rates (distilling the water) and serving to provide more clean water for us to use.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
“Global warming is no longer a debate.”
You’re right about that. You’ve got “consensus” now. Ain’t no more discussion allowed!
Anyone who believes global warming is being caused by or can be influenced by mankind is an IDIOT. You can thank the government later for capitalizing on your stupidity when they asses the carbon tax.
DOLTS! I am surrounded by dolts.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
What we need is more ex-astronauts coming forward with their highly credible speculations and fewer scientists that have been politically coerced by things like ‘research’.
February 25th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Anybody who agrees with Al loser Gore needs to wear green all the time so we who do not agree with the idiot can recognize you and not be exposed.
February 25th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Anthony, he is not talking about water levels of the great lakes, rather the great lakes basin itself is rebounding. This is geological, not hydrological. The real truth is there is NO WAY to prove or disprove the impact of mans activities in this regard on a human timescale. It is all conjecture and opinion being supported by statistics gathered. There is no way to experimentally confirm this and the complexity is so vast there is no way to draw really meaningful correlations.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Gore-bull warming is a hoax! The world has been warmer in the past. How do you think Greenland got its name?
February 26th, 2009 at 4:18 am
don’t worry – the PC crowd and their willing/useful idiots in the press will soon discover the astronaut has an unpaid parking ticket from 17 years ago and publish the story more widely than this one….
February 26th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Anthony A. The Great lakes levels have been rising again for the past two years.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:10 am
the hole in the ozone went away on its own, with no help from us. Banning R-12 in the U.S. replacing it with R134A was the result of the patent on R12 expiring, not the already shrinking hole in the ozone. The rest of the world still uses R-12 in abundance. I doubt our hairspray had much effect either. If thousands of years of volcanic eruptions didn’t do it, then I doubt a can of aquanet would push the ozone over the edge. Did you notice that it was fixed right about the time “global warming” picked up steam?
Before the hole in the ozone crisis, was 100 and 500 year flooding occurring every 4-5 years, and before that was “the coming ice age” The cycle between “experts” bouncing between global warming and global cooling goes back into the mid 1800s with five distinct campaigns. They were wrong before, and they are wrong now. Real scientists show with real scientific methods that a difference of about 1 degree in that timescale proves the hype to be bogus.
“climate change” is just a new controlling religion set forth by the political class to be used to control the people. same plot, same story, same players, different script.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:02 am
It is great to hear a follow New Mexican speak the truth and not the Democratic agenda. Enough of the blaming game with global warming. Gore should be prosecuted for global terrorizing mental abuse. He can go around the world and make statements that are half truth and half lie for the betterment of mankind. He should be held accountable for all his statements he has made on the college campuses and elementary schools. Even though I think the kids in elementary schools are harder to convert for Gore.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:08 am
their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and t”For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit urn aside to myths.”
February 26th, 2009 at 11:11 am
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
February 26th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
He is wrong on all counts. I only hope the rest of you are still around to say you’re sorry.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
So Harrison Schmidt, former astronaut and New Mexico Senator doesn’t believe in global warming? I wonder how much the oil industry paid to get this drivel on Faux News?
While I’m sure that the Hannity Zombies and dittoheads will eat this up, reality doesn’t support them.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I don’t believe in Man-bear-pig either.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
“When CNN was playing, the 40’s something children would watch in rapt attention while raising their food and chewing, many of them with their mouths open.”
John–Too funny! What a great observation! A knee-jerk generation of mouth-breathing media-lemmings absolutely incapable of reasoned thought on any level. Oh I could think of a few other things to say about this generation but it would be lost on them.
I do appreciate Mr. Schmitt’s stand. Only wish there were others out there like him that would grow a couple of huevos and stand against the hysteria. Thank you, Harrison.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Thank goodness for a voice of reason. I believe in practical conservatism– that is, not using or abusing environmental resources outside of what is needed for living, and do nothing in excess– so I do agree with some environmental concerns. But Schmitt has hit the nail on the head. They’re preaching the green doctrine for all the wrong reasons and it’s going to bite us in the hindparts sooner or later.
February 26th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Nature is VERY cyclical. Anyone bothering to look at the history of the world and the temperature variations will note that what we see today as far as temperature change (currently cooling globally) is largely natural. That is not to say that we have some small impact, but far and away the effect is likely a natural one. Shame on the alarmists, who lead the less ecologically educated to their ridiculous conclusions. We of course should be ecologically conscious in our deceision making. Rest assured that the sky is not falling. If down the road the oceans rise, and they may eventually, it will not be caused by man made global warming. The earth has been much warmer in times past. We have had cooling periods (like the little ice age in the middle ages).
Look at the data analytically, not based on emotion or politics (or grant approval). Look at history (not just the last 50 years). You will see that climate change is not an isolated current event.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I find it so very vain of humans to claim responsiblity for global warming. There was a recorded micro-Ice Age at the end of the 1700s. When Washington crossed the Delaware, it was ice chunks. Look at the geological history, ice is RARE on our planet. But we are used to it. Sometimes I think humans are the least adaptable of all the animals, we adapt our environment to us.
And it isn’t one lone geologist. The head of the hurrican forecasters in Colorado (forgive me, his name escapes me) was terminated and tenure ended because he refused to go along with the status quo. He denied global warming.
I agree in reducing pollutions, finding renewable energy and preserving our natural lands, but not because of the thought of global warming.
Climate is not a consistant entity. It changes, just on a huge and very slow scale. We are finally at a time to see this happen via new scientific equipments and computers.
It is the Baby Boomers last hurrah. They want to throw something else at us, keep involved.
I am done with the selfish generation that is behind this. The drugs they brought into this country has eaten out the reason in their heads.
Old school and the brand new school have a habit of thinking for themselves.
My children are taught to recycle, to provide stewardship, but not because of guilt over global warming.
BTW there is always a hole in the Ozone, it’s always at the poles. It, too changes periodically. We all haven’t died of massive solar radiation have we?
What’s next? Stop Plate Techtonics? Reunite Gondwannaland?
February 26th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
If the Goreacle would just go take a class in chemical engineering thermodynamics like some of have… he’d understand basic principals that would explaine why it’s NOT man made CO2 that is causing the planet to change.
The really funny thing is if he could read a simple timeline he’d know that temperature increases lead CO2 concentrations…. but he probably understands that, but it’s too inconvenient to his bank account.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Anthony A — “The debate is over”??? Really? So, because Al Gore said that, it makes it true? Which debate was it, refresh my memory. Because I honestly don’t remember there ever being an actual debate over this issue. Anyone who said global warming is a natural phenomenon rather than a human one was ridiculed. Doesn’t sound much like a debate. The science of this doesn’t support the claim. That’s a HUGE problem. Which makes this a political issue, not a scientific one. Which is why you have people like Al Gore (a politician, not a scientist) leading the charge. It’s very sad when liberals are constantly telling conservatives to “open their mind,” and yet their minds are completely shut down on issues such as this. Personally, I’ll make up my own mind rather than have politicians tell me what I should believe.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
For the most part, yes, the temperatures are rising, okay, global warming. But, the question that should be asked is this: When did the global warming actually start? Was it 50 years ago? 100 years ago? 300 years ago? Or, how about 10,000 years ago when the glaciers stopped moving southward and began to retreat northward? Don’t you think that is when the ‘global warming’ started? But I have yet to hear Al Gore mention that when he makes his dire predictions that the world will be come one big hunk of coal real soon. And of the ‘green house’ gases, what about all of the decaying plants and animals, and the animals that ‘pass gas’? And what about the very active volcanoes? And of course, the Sun. There are a number of reasons for CO2 but to blame only humans is to be a ‘Politically Correct’ (or pure c**p) hypocrite.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
The very real, and highly insiduous reason for global warming hysteria has been pointed out by Sen. Schmitt
‘the “global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making.”’
That fact should put fear in everyone’s hearts because of the obvious trend it reveals. We really need to pay attention to this instead of fat Al’s rants.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Lets make this as basic and understandable as humanley possible. ” There is a beginning, and there is an end. There is birth, there is death. Nothing stays the same. The whole universe is continually evolving. In our Milky Way, our planet is the only living planet, all the others started out living, their now dormant or dead planets. Now do you see the writing on the wall. Everything inbetween becomes irrevelant, we as a world are a snake eating our own tale
February 26th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
@Anthony A:
No one is saying that global warming is not happening; what we are saying is that it’s a hoax that man is causing it. Absolutely, the earth is warming, but if you took all of the carbon emissions of every factory, power plant, car, truck, train, cow and human, they would be nothing compared to the greenhouse gases spewing from the world’s hundreds of active volcanoes and the hundreds of smokestacks under the worlds deep oceans. And to repeat a point made by Donald Seraphim above, when the temperature rises, the oceans release more of their stored CO2. And no one is going to stop the earth from going through it’s normal cycles of cooling and warming.
@Jason:
There never was a consensus that there even was a hole in the ozone. NASA’s own satellites at one moment showed a giant hole over Antarctica, then 10 minutes later it was gone, and over and over. They never proved anything. But if you’ll indulge me, think on this for a minute. Freon, as in R12 and R22, were said to be causing ozone depletion. In fact, in laboratory tests, freon did in fact cause ozone to break down into regular old O2. Here’s the problem, though. The ozone layer is miles above the planet, but freon is HEAVIER than air, and can’t reach the ozone layer!!! So you tell me how freon could have any impact on the ozone. IT CAN’T!!! But that didn’t stop the alarmists from forcing everything change to “environmentally friendly” freon.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Uhh, I don’t see anywhere in the article that Schmitt says the Earth isn’t warming or that global warming is bunk or a hoax. I DO see where he says that he doesn’t think that the human population is the reason for the warming…..why did the author spin the title of the article? Guess the author is part of the problem. Jerks my chain when I’m misquoted or misrepresented and I hate to see it happen to others; especially in print.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
HWhat does astronaut status have to do with it? Does one have to have a heart attack to be a cardiologist? Ph.D. in geology…that’s nice.
How will Harrison Schmitt breathe when the oxygen-producing rain forests are burned away? The next time you climb into your hot SUV after it sat in the sun, that’s what your planet will be like for your children. Wake-up America! If you ignore global-warming, it won’t go away. Wait until the buffering capacity of the oceans have maximized and warmed. What an idiot!!
OK, Spock, give us the reference for your claim of global warming by 1 degree since 1400.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Honestly this feels just like Y2K… Only no definate date. Do we need to stop polluting when possible, Yes, are we killing the planet… probably not. The bad part is some areas are killing themselves. I have been around the world and I have seen where the acid rain has dissolved away parts of buildings and statues… but then again most of the cars there ran on two cycle engines!! the biggest polluters are exactly the ones no one wants to police, India, China, etc.. Think about it.
February 26th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Global warming is a debate, and quite frankly, one of the biggest hoaxes ever known by mankind.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I met Dr. Schmidt at a geological convention in 2007. He is a very laid back, friendly man, with years of experience in alternative energy and, of course, lunar geology. I have 45 years of experience as a geologist, myself, and judged that he was someone I could trust. Listen when he talks. Remember: my favorite city–Anchorage, Alaska–was under 2,000 feet of ice less than 10,000 years ago. Climate change is good!
The bottoms of the Great Lakes are higher vertically from elastic rebound after the glaciers that formed them melted. Water levels are lower because the lakes are physically higher and drain faster into the rivers that flow out of the lakes. Check it out with your local surveyors.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Follow the money? Right, because there is a huge conspiracy of people making millions off climate change how exactly? Research funds? Give us a break. Like the multinational oil industry isn’t throwing wads of cash at any has-been who will front at a “sceptics” conference.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:52 am
[...] via How Green » Blog Archive » Ex-Astronaut: Global Warming Is Bunk. [...]
February 27th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I am glad that more people are finally taking a stand. I am glad that this man is an educated, intelligent (not always the same) person with a PHD in a science integral to the debate. Here he stands saying, “not so fast”. We “unwashed masses” can yell all we want, and may even be right. But, when someone who has studied the issue directly says there is something wrong, it means something. I’m not saying the “wackos” will take notice, (short of finger waving), but the debate is NOT over. We are NOT all sold on the doom and gloom of the global-warming-is-all-our-fault mantra.
Mt Pinatubo in the Phillp. in 1989-90 reportedly spewed more “greenhouse gasses” than man has in his existence…even during our worst, genuinely polluting days. The world did not shudder to a halt. It absorved it and went about its business. Look at the historical record. Krakatoa blew, and the world had some adverse weather effects for a few years. Other volcanoes blew and caused the little ice age, which wounded civilized Europe and drove it into the Dark Ages. Ice age.. not Oh-my-god-the-sea-is-rising age. Even the quintessential “green” movie, the Day After Tomorrow, had to admit cooling, not heating, was more likely. (They admitted they had to stretch the science to fit the 2hr time slot. Why? Aren’t the Quaids immortal? You mean they can’t seem to live for 50-60,000 years?) WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!
Anyway, to you green-types, it isn’t over. We are not all bowed before your stone god of global warming. I am convinced that we should be good stewards of this Earth. That was our job from the beginning. The first profession was gardener… not a hooker. I don’t want some company polluting my drinking water either, and rules have to be set to prevent unscrupulous people from doing destructive things like that. But be reasonable. When you cook the science and become alarmist to further your agenda, you lose credibility.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Schmitt is right and Donald Seraphim D. Eng Yale knows what he is talking about, never mind though, rationalists siting bogus ozone cause & effect data like Jason will prevail. Be prepared to bow before your green masters. Live happily in knowing your friendly carbon trader will survive despite all logic. Enjoy the fall.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Hooray!!! FINALLY someone has told the American people what the truth really is!! My husband has been saying this same thing for 20 years!! People this is exactly what Mr. Schmitt say’s it is!! Get out of your dream world, stop letting politicians tell you what to think and start thinking for yourself! Stop worrying about something that you and I have no control over and start living your life!!!!
February 27th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Right ON!!! Ever think that the 1 degree change
he talked about over time, maybe due to the great change in population. Try filling a room with people, with the temp at 70 see if it doesn’t get warmer. Can someone tell Gore to stay home!!!
February 27th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Global warming is a hoax, and no objective scientist who actually looks into the matter can accept the teachings of Al Gore except for political reasons. Furthermore, the hoax is designed and is being exploited to divert the attention of the population away from the transformation of our culture to socialism and a one world government.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Global warming is a hoax, and no qualified scientist can accept the teachings of Al Gore unless for political reasons. Furthermore, the global warming hoax was designed and is being exploited to divert the attention of the population away from the conversion of our nation into a one world socialist government, which is the objective of our Democratic leadership.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Wonderful site dear FOX, Thanks!!!
My congratulations to Yours webmaster! Looking for all Green sites in the net-sea I find this and I tell me: the FOX-GREEN is the BETTER!
About the theme of the day, I think that many damnages of climate change are in the solar tempests. For this I dont think that the Human People must destroy the industry of the CARS. I love the CARS! Maybe, with patience, step by step, the automobilistic world can be changed in green. But now we must help (also with our money) the SCIENCE & SpaceScience who study the SUN. With Love & Thanks & Tribute to all You:)
(Bea-mariemarion from Italy)
February 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
OPS! Dear FOX, if I would keep the banner of this Green site for my website, how can I do?
It’s possible ask Your mythical Webmaster to design an original banner only for us of internet?
My slogan is: saving your WORK, helps us to DIFFUSE YOUR WORK!
With all my Gratitude:)
(bea from SOB!!!… Italy)
February 27th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
The right thing for the wrong reason. The right thing to do is conserve our resources “go green”. We don’t need to pollute our planet or waste energy. But global warming is not the right reason. After reading many articles on both sides of the Global warming issue I am convinced that it is caused by “MONEY”. The biggest waste of our resources may in fact be global warming.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Anthony A – There is still PLENTY of debate. Do a web search – Roger Revelle, now deceased was questioning his own hypothesies regarding so called man made global warming before his death. Just look for an the writings of the San Diego Meterorologist who helped found The Weather Channel (sorry, don’t have his name in front of me). Also interesting is the vested interest that certain U.N. scientists have in perpetuating the Man Made Global Warming Hysteria that this man documents and discusses.
Also consider these facts:
The Yosemite Valley of California (and many others in the Sierra Nevada south and east of San Fransisco) were carved by glaciers over a vast period of time. These glaciers melted long before many even became a dominate species on this planet, much less the discovery and widespread use of fossil fuels.
Petroleum deposits originated as prehistoric wetlands areas which developed over eons and then were submerged and exposed to various geological processes. Considering that one of the largest untapped oil reserves sits underneath the artic ocean, this would indicate that for a significant period of time in the planets more recent history, there was a much smaller ice cap than there is now.
These facts lead those of us who have not drunk the Kool-Aid of Man-Made Global Warming to recognize that not only does this planet and it’s ecosystems go through significant variablity with regard to temperatires, but that our knowledge of the most likely source, namely, the Sun is in it’s infancy. Our records of mean solar output and understand of potential solar cycles is so limited, we have no way of knowing just what a 2.5% +/- variablity in solar output of hundreds or thousands of years could do on the surface of this planets.
Lastly, I recommend you investigate recent discussions regarding sun spot activity. We are currently experiencing an previously unseen low in the numbers and sizes of sunspots. The last time we had activity close to this low, the planet entered into what many call the last “Many Ice Age”. How do we justify the hysteria if/when global temperatures actually start dropping?
February 27th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I think it’s important to note that Harrison Shmitt is being paid by the Heartland Institute to attend this conference. The board of directors of the Heartland Institute is populated with people like Thomas Walton of General Motors, and other executives from ExxonMobile and Philip Morris. When the exceedingly few people who are telling us not to worry are the ones whose livelihoods depends on our continued use of petroleum products, it is time to worry.
And for those who think that the only way to get research funding is to agree with what everyone else is saying, the scientific community has failed you. You are completely wrong and have no idea how the process works.
February 27th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Ever seen the brown haze of smog over LA. Not man made?
February 28th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Has anyone ever asked why global warming would be bad? How do we know the earth isn’t supposed to be warmer? We are coming out of a very cold period just a few hundred years ago. What makes us so sure that the earth isn’t stabilizing??
Just think: warming means longer growing seasons and a larger area of the earth to grow on means more food. More CO2 means more plants and trees can thrive and create more oxygen. More heat means more seawater converted to rain to water all the new crops that can be grown.
These are just a few examples. If the earth is warming, I look forward to it.
Plus, when weather forecasters can be 100% accurate on tomorrow’s weather, I’ll start trusting them when they tell me the earth is going to get “x” hot in 20 or 40 or 100 years. They don’t know squat about this planet.
February 28th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Great Lakes. Could the Great Lakes’ level be ‘falling’ because the land mass is rising due to decreasing downward pressure by melting snow and ice in the north? If the snow melts, then there is less ice and snow causing the land mass to rise (as it floats on the liquid material within the earth), the waterin the lakes then would run to the sea ,and the former water line would be higher at the great lakes, thus creating a larger gap between the water level and the former ‘water line’ resulting in the appearance that the water level has dropped?
February 28th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Commrade Al, in harmony with “Barry”, Dingy, et al, continue to play Chicken Little on this subject for nothing but profit (previous comment; “follow the money.” Dittos on purchasing SUV’s, etc. Sadly though, Americans won’t awaken until we’re in chaos. It’s going to be a hard climb back up the hill.
February 28th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I’m in high school, and I must say that that my peers are going overboard as well as the Al Gore minions. It’s in style to wear shirts covered with peace signs and “stop global warming!” slogans. I fear for the country in a couple years when these teenagers are able to vote.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
What bothers me is that science is about proving the null hypothosis. You cannot prove the theory. Similar issue with E=MC2 as I grew up hearing about the “fact” of the Theory of Relativity. It was assumed as fact by the un-educated. Now we know it has been disproven by quantum physics.
What do we not know about global warming? For starters, the scientists could start with explaining some background of what warms the Earth. If you are going to talk about change, the factor that has the most weight (in the weighted average of effect) will be the most likely to cause change. For instance, if the center of the Earth is basically one big nuclear reaction vs one big ice ball(the deeper you go, the warmer it gets, see National Geographic on crystal caves where it is too hot to remain without cooling packs on), then it makes sense to me that changes there could have a big impact on global warmth, warming or cooling. If the big yellow ball in the sky is warm and has an effect on global warmth, warming or cooling, then we may want to study how much heat is coming out of that thing, if we are getting closer or farther away, etc (only problem is, that is a tough thing to do using data from the 40’s pre-space technology era). I understand that we are only talking about something like 60 some ppm’s of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing global warming. Can we not have a little common sense here?
I am not listening to “scientists” that focus on only one factor with some simple correlation factor while they assume all other factors will be held constant, when they simply cannot adjust or hold those factors constant and cannot know what the measurements of those factors are/were over time.
Can we have some common sense here? Please, keep it simple for me.
February 28th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Just as the arrogance of the liberal politicians drives them to control others through governemnt with the cover of higher knowledge, the cult of green politicians now follows their lead in believing they have the power to change billions of years of Earth’s own evolution within a spec of what we call time. Perhaps it is not coincident that these two contemporaries have merged to become one all-knowing diety working toward a utopian existance for all of their subjects with a cost to be bourne by the average working citizens. It takes a scientist to point out that two facts occuring in concert do not define correlation. It takes an honest and objective person to find truth. I leave it to the readers to describe a modern politician to themselves before blindly being led.
February 28th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
That’s a terrible headline. He never said global warming didn’t exist, he said he “doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.”
The headline should have read “Ex-Astronaut: Global Warming Not Caused By Humans.” But then that just wouldn’t be sensationalist enough for Fox News.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:25 am
solar system folks all has to do with solar flairs it so simple
March 1st, 2009 at 3:30 am
Did anyone ask former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, whether he believes we are being visited by extraterrestrials?
March 1st, 2009 at 10:09 am
Man made global warming is another panic induced by socialists to take charge of the economy. Its the same people, who lost the ice age argument in the late 70s. These are political scientists, from the church of socialism, who have once again taken normal climate cycles to come up with unfounded theories and conclusions to garner political power using the tool of fear. Its the oldest trick in the book. It is the same tool Obama uses to effect dramatic socialist change.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:46 am
Thank God some sanilty is being injected to this nonsensical Global Warming argument. The eco-fascists and looney liberals have hijacked our institutions and public services and turned ‘environmentalism’ into a political weapon. I would suggest that the current environmental movement poses just as much of a thrreat to our way of life as did communism during the Cold War. Make no mistake about it, what is happening in Washington now is part of a well planned move to steer our society towards socialism under the guise of liberalism, which sounds much more acceptable. I would strongly recommend Vaclav Klaus’s ‘Blue Planet in Green Shackles’ for a very balanced and accurate appraisal of what is happening in our world today.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:57 pm
You can differentiate the scientists from the political hacks by the way they approach theories. The scientist always tries to disprove, the political hack declares the debate to be over.
Newton had almost complete support for his ideas about the mechanical universe. But Einstein had the stones to question Newton’s theories and gave us a much more complete picture.
Galileo had the stones to assert that there were blemishes on God’s perfect sun, and went on to assert his heliocentric view of the cosmos. He was called irresponsible for putting forth views which would insult and anger God, potentially inviting his wrath upon all mankind.
The study of cancer was put back decades by the requirement that research had to somehow validate various political goals. “…we can fund your research as to the cause of these tumors, but since we already know the causes, you would be well advised to avoid any conclusions which deviate from our known causes if you want your funding to continue…”
It isn’t that difficult to create a climate model. The hard part is in validating the results. In the long run, they generally go three ways: they trend up, trend neutral, or trend down. If you already know what you want the model to predict prior to validation, it is a simple matter to tweak the model until it yields the results you expect. This is what has gobbled up the funding in the atmospheric sciences.
Power to the correct people!
March 1st, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Its not global warming anymore, it’s climate change (that covers all the bases). If there is a hurricane, its climate change. If there’s a drought , its climate change. If its too hot or too cold, its climate change. Whatever happens, it’s to be blamed on climate change, so fork over all your money (carbon tax) to the idiots fighting climate change.
The problem is we’re not dealing with the real issue, corruption at the highest places in our government. Most Americans have common sense enough to know what should be done with liars and thieves but most of the media and pc police are clouding the issues. Were not even turning to the Constitution for restraining the government and its tentacles. I’m not anti-government but they have no authority telling us what light bulbs we can have and what kind of cars we should drive. That’s Fascism. They focus on corrupt CEO’s when social security funds are spent on pork projects and the benefits are paid by the current contributors (this is called a ponzi scheme). We need to hold our government responsible for their actions.
March 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hey, look at the hypocrisy of The Obama Himself. He states that we need to cut back and lower our standard of living along with our thermostats.
Now that he’s in the White House, he cranks the heat up to 80 degrees, stating he “wants it to feel like Hawaii”…
Keep watching him. He’ll deceive the voters more. He’s just getting started.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:58 pm
To Jason: Your comment supports your opinion very well, (though too long) — but you didn’t go back far enough — your lovely amoral scientists of the early 20th century were very supportive of eugenics — along with celebs and politicians, and just as fervently and they support global warming today. They were far form right about that.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I don’t buy the global warming, when I was a teenager in the early 60s, that is 1960s, we were being told by algoreites we would be in an ice age by 2010.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Gobal whatever is silly. Why, Al Gore has never debated it. Why should we belive it. Set up a debate with Al Gore so we can really show the world what a big myth he has created. He is getting rich at the tax payer expense. Have him debate on prime time. Have a great day.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:05 pm
The Federal Government just looks for ways (just like a parasite) to increase their size, scope, power and life span. Make up global warming and create a new industry for the environmentalists. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. We cannot create CO2, only transfer it from one form to another. Whey does no one bring up the increase in sun spots to put Algore in his place?
If you are looking for it, you will find it. Scientific studies usually have a conclusion before the research is even started. What a shame.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:52 pm
global warming is a fact. ideological stupidity is a fact. the bosses lies are also a fact. follow the money. go to the heartland institute website. they are front group for “free-market solutions” to business and government, in other words, polluters who stand to lose big bucks. don’t confuse fact with ideology, or it’ll make yer’ balls shrink (literally).
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:12 am
I’ve just finished reading these posts, and though I am positing this late and not sure if anyone apart from me will read this, I am curious about the Great Lakes rising. How can this be when any unbiased report will inform the reader that the lake levels are the lowest they have ever been since recording began. Surely, this is a result of the global warming that is going on, isn’t it? Is this not proof of the runaway, human-induced global warming? Or, is this driven by humankind through drainage for use in various large cities and municipalities for drinking, sewage, industrial usage, etc.? If this were global warming-driven, then why the push to prevent small cities and towns from doing the exact same as Chicago, Milwaukee, etc., are doing, but at a tiny, fractional rate? Surely, global warming is global(hence the name) and we ALL must stop using the lakes in this manner immediately. Correct? Then why do large cities get to continue said usage?
Secondly, the Great Lakes are rising. Every day, every year. Whether conveniently or inconveniently true, the lakes are rising (in elevation, not water level). But why stop at asking the real questions when the red herring suffices?
Please, it is not fair to criticize the under forty crowd, please refrain from such generalizations in futurity. I am under forty. I also remember (but as a child) the horror stories printed many days in a row in 1977 about the coming ice age. The coverage lasted off and on for a few years afterward, with no debate. Pleasantly, these stories faded when the hot summers and droughts of the early 1980’s came about. They, too, passed and cooling returned with the rains.
Anthony A. makes perfect sense however, the debate is OVER! President Obama declared it so. This he did with a science adviser on Global Climate Change, Mr. Al Gore (press conference Fall 2008). It is therefore settled. Like it or not, there it is. Global Climate Change is real (notice I no longer refer to it as Global Warming since this hasn’t happened since 1998[read:NASA report Fall 2008 on climate]and former Global Warming experts now ask that it to be referred to as Global Climate Change[read:story in the London paper the Sun when reporter emailed to a climate change "specialist" and the reply he received from her and her then continuing correspondence on said issue]).
Because Al Gore stands to pocket somewhere between $300 million and $1 billion from all of his global initiatives dealing with this, or that General Electric, the largest manufacturer of CFL’s (compact fluorescent light bulbs) in the world, is positioned to corner the US market on green technology and “smart Power grids” or that the head of GE serves on President Obama’s economic advisory council, DO NOT let this in any way sway your thinking about this complex issue.
There is however, something of which Global Climate Change critics should be wary, the NOAA records which cannot be made to lie or politicized. They have recorded unprecedented temperature increases as well as CO2 increases. I cannot help this fact. Though they don’t actually measure CO2 and so far, three hundred plus have been found to be incorrectly placed in such locales as roof tops next to HVAC exhaust vents, next to fire department HVAC exhaust vents where trucks are parked after code runs, on black top parking lots, against sides of buildings, all of which are against the guidelines for proper and ACCURATE atmospheric data collection, sorry, I cannot change these facts. they show a warming trend that is massively increasing until 1998.
I hope that if anyone reads this, they will know in their hearts, that I am a liar. I truly do. In fact, I want you to know these are all lies and therefore, you have no need to dispute these facts. You can simply tell yourself that I do not know anything or I am making this up and go about your business. But if you are to prove me a liar here, in this forum or any other, you will need to check these simple facts for yourself. And by this process of discovery, you may learn to not follow such complex subjects without wanting to actually learn something about the processes involved. Such processes like precession and its effects on global climate.
Remember: We are as warm NOW as we were 136,000 YEARS-AGO! (news report: Fall 2008)What part of this statement does not register with the public? What are the real implications of this statement?
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
I am not taking any chances, Al Gore has spoke.
I just bought a raft and floaties.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
It is interesting how many on the left claim that the previous administration’s use of fear in order to erode civil liberties was a heinous crime yet are willing to jump on the bandwagon to use climate fear in order to erode civil liberties.
We know the exact cause of deaths of thousands of Americans from terrorism; there is no debate that terrorism kills. Global Warming (though they changed the name to “climate change” to hide inconsistencies) is the alleged cause of problems, but I can’t think of one death officially attributable to it. (People have been killed by bad weather since the beginning of human history.)
Since terrorism is real and climate change is a theory, who are the true fear mongers and who is ready to sacrifice civil liberties based on a hunch it will help?
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Anthony A. is obviously one of the mouth-breathers caught in the snare of the Cartoon News Network. The author of the article did not say that the water level was rising in the Great Lakes, he/she said that the earth’s crust under the Great Lakes was rising: “the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.” Elevation, not water level. Maybe it was an honest mistake…doubtful, but maybe.
It used to amaze me at how gullible the human race was — they no longer observe for themselves but take what they see on the television for granted. They forget that news is reported only to increase ratings (otherwise, there would be no need for Nielsen Ratings?) and not to deliver facts. Now, I have come to expect ignorance and idiocy out of the human population as part of the status quo.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
50 years from now al gore will be looked at as the biggest idiot to ever live. the world will have spent more dough on warming than obama can spend on failing banks.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I wish that the majority of people that are buying into the global warming farce would read this. Most of the people I know that are believing it, tend to believe just about anything and like feeling like they are a victim of “something” I know a blogger who is recently divorced and never worked. liked spending her husbands hard earned money, but now suddenly finds herself having to make it on her own. She is now an “advocate” for living green and living “frugal”. Now we are all wasteful pigs that want to kill the planet because she is too lazy to work harder. Understanding the mentality of the alarmists helps us to realize that is what they need to feel ok in the world. Politicians and special interest groups know this and feed into it, knowing these people will do whatever they say, hence it becomes quite profitable. Do these people think the Earth is never going to change again because we are too smart to let that happen? As far as I am concerned we are like the tiny fish that swim with the whales and eat off of them, the whale barely even knows they are there. Just like us and the Earth. The Earth will change and do whatever she wants, we have no control over it. If we all disappeared the Earth would continue to live on. Not the other way around.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Grey realities for the black and white lies. There is a name for this propaganda technique, false alternatives?. The polar bear thing: do you need any more proof than those bears were playing on that ice chunk (which was filmed off the coast of alaska btw), and it was edited to seem dramatic for idiots? yes folks polar bears can swim. The people behind this are ruthless corporate elites. In public they they claim to be all for free enterprise and so called conservative values (modern liberalism). In reality, we are running out of oil slowly, the pollution is much more devestating than the warming (example, entire town in virginia i went to basically ges cancer from photochemical plant, no payouts yet). Solar panel, electric car. For this about 20 grand investment, a person can have transportation while adding redundancy to the grid. Has anyone noticed that all “alternative” (to oil) technologies have one supposed drawback that just bear-blasts their marketability. I do not think that happened by accident. For example, solar has the potential to economically and reliably replace all current energy sources right now ( or in a few years) within an area about the size of nevada. Dont believe me?
54 252 (square miles) = 1.40512035 × 10^11 square meters
(area of nevada)
global power usage = 16 terawatts << 1.40512035 × 10^11 square meters * 300 Watts / Meter
= 3.9 * 10 ^13 Watts = 39 terawatts, double the worlds energy needs during the day.
and that is with current technology, putting the collector in space would more than half the size. That’s not even getting into the possibility of zero point energy technology. Anyone who thinks there’s not a solution is brainwashed. It is amazing how easily people believe blatant lies.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
As a resident of Tennessee,if Al Gore believes in it,it must be false.He is making money on this myth called Global Warming.Besides if we lose both Ca and NY due to increase of water from the oceans,I say bring it on.The warming of the Ice Age,we have oil as a result.I wonder what melted the ice back then.Could it be man had no effect. Who knows maybe some good could come this,that doesn’t meet the eye.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Regardless of whether or not we are a cause, anyone with half an ounce of dignity and self responsibility would clearly see that we are polluting and destroying at a record pace. If this is the course of action that would allow us to rethink the destruction that has been placed upon todays children so be it. It seems this argument is only being had in the same climate as our political system, which has equally become a fraud. At least here there is being made an attempt to remedy the situation. Drive SUVs? How about why. Is it to prove that you’ve got a small penis or perhaps to show that you wish you had one. An automobile is utilitarian. It serves a purpose. We replace the oil in the ground with salt water. I want to hear the science on pressures. All in all I’m simply disgusted with the you as a whole of the “older” generation, who’ve shown no respect for what you’ll leave us as your children to bear. It’s no monkey, its a damn elephant. At least we’re making an effort to resore some of the vitality to this planet you’ve set to consume. Forget the argument and remember the purpose.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I am old enough to remember the great late 1960’s early 1970’s uproar over the coming ice age. Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines as well as the Times all wrote about how we were doomed to death by starvation because of global cooling and the coming ice age. We are comparable to a family of fleas on the back side of an elephant imagining that they are controlling the elephant.