Not Settled Science … Anymore?

Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe as a great column on the upcoming Global Warming Conference … it seems even science is no longer convinced. Or is it the economy.

Actually, no. The scientists and scholars Heartland is assembling are not members of the gloom-and-doom chorus. They dispute the frantic claims that global warming is an onrushing catastrophe; many are skeptical of the notion that human activity has a significant effect on the planet’s climate, or that such an effect can be reliably measured or predicted. Some point out that global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have been falling since then.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

8 Comments

  1. Wayne SW on December 8, 2008 at 8:33 am

    2008 will likely be the coldest year since temperature recording records have been kept. This is due to lower sunspot and solar flare activity. Man's activity can no more influence global temperature than man can control hurricanes, tornados, northeasters or the time that the sun rises and sets every day.

    Going green should return to it's original meaning….that is having CASH.



  2. Dimsdale on December 8, 2008 at 9:32 am

    There is a inverse correlation between the depth ones scientific background and training and one's belief in "anthropogenic global warming (AGW)."

    Gore is the AGW messiah, and he got C's and D's in the few science courses he took in college (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A37397-2000Mar18).

    Scientists who say they are AGW proponents really only do so to get the grant monies that are disbursed by the likes of that science "giant" Al Gore.

    You don't have to be a scientist to look at the history of the Earth's climate and see that it is complete hubris to a) believe we are having more than a flyspeck's effect on climate, and b) that the current climate is the "right" one. We are in an interglacial period for crying out loud!!

    When you can ignore "global warming" that is simultaneously occurring on Mars and the other planets, you know you are in a scientific black hole.

    But I digress……. 😉



  3. Dennis Chase on December 8, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Does anyone tell chris Dodd how unpopular he is and how all his decisions and comments have damaged the economy and the country. He and Barney are the causes of this so called meltdown and now they are the ones who say they can fix it? Are they listening to their constituents? Especially Dodd, Look at Rays informal survey, 77% said he should get out. It was alot higher probably until his staff was told and they got others to vote.



  4. Wyndeward on December 8, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    The problem is not that the people don't say these things, Dennis… the problem is that Dodd and Frank don't care to listen. Dodd is a testament to the power of name recognition in politics, even in light of his father's short-comings.



  5. Gary the socialist on December 8, 2008 at 2:25 pm

    I do have to keeep an open mind but am forced to ask if the aguement against this being man made is that man can not really affect the enviorment then I have to ask if we can not what about all the old air pollution from the seventys that is now quite a bit cleaned up. What about the last olpyicis and that they the Chinese mandated not allowing cars on the roads to hopefully clean the air.What about the fact that you can not eat certain fish or have to be limited on it's intake because of pollutions in the water. What about the fact that if you look at the sky you can only see a third of the stars now do to light pollution ?What about all the countries trying to limit fish catches because there is a third less fish in the oceans?What about the fact that if you have a child you have nearly a 1 in what(?) less then 2 hundred of a chance on having a mentally challeged child now(Thats a note to all those getting married now that when you have kids your more then likely to have challaged child so meatally prepare for it).. What about the new study saying that pollution in the enviorment has gotting to the point that mammels like humans our now having sexual changes like penis shinkage and female tendenices like frogs and other animals. So no we may not becausing the plante to warm but to say that humans can not change the envoirment has to also be excepted as false and if you accept that we can do and our now changing major air and sea and land issues on our planate then you have to at least listen to the other side no matter what side you have a tendencice to believe based on your politics to aggree with.So go your son and daughter huge them and tell them when the time comes you will be there for them when they have a deformed and challeged Kid. Yes deformed because that is starting to happen to lower classses of animals and will work it's way of the ladder.



  6. Wyndeward on December 8, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Gary, until and unless you can explain past variances in global climate with *any* of the above, you're just throwing mud at the barn to see if anything sticks.



  7. Linda Mae on December 8, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    Google "global warming – hoax " and then enjoy the next few hours reviewing all the comments made by actual scientists who state man is not responsible. At last count, 31,172 scientists have signed statements which disagree with NASA's Jim Hansen. (Also, I think it interesting that Hansen received $750,000 from George Soros and $250,000 from John Kerry's wife's fund to "help" him with legal and PR issues. ) I love icecap which lists comments from our own Dr. Mel Goldstein. I love (CA) Rep.Dana Rhorabacher's floor speech to Congress in which he asks GW advocates in Congress, "Do you think we are morons?" The latest issue is that data which "proved" we had a problem was faulty and used the same data for 2 months. I loved listening to Charlton Heston's reading of the prologue to Jurrasic Park. You can find it on line. Bottom line: How arrogant is man that he can think he can affect Mother Nature.! With this in mind, however, I do believe that it is important for us all to practice good conservation habits in order to protect our ecology because it is the right thing to do. I take issue at those who tell us that the end justifies the means, however, so even though there may not be man made GW, we need to save our planet just in case GW in man made. Europe has become "green" yet now countries are starting to rebel against the concept of man-made GW requiring that we pay more taxes, etc. There's a great article in this year's Farmer's Almanac which has a time line that shows the natural heating and cooling our our planet for the past 100 years. Also, since we've been having cooling since 1998, notice that the term is now "climate change."



  8. Dimsdale on December 9, 2008 at 8:22 pm

    Gary: pollution is one thing. It is real, documentable, and repairable. By technology, not taxation. And it is local. It is also one reason automobiles prices have increased tenfold in the past 30 years.

    AGW is "chicken little" pseudoscience espoused by snake oil salesmen like Al Gore, who has ZERO credentials as a scientist. He is an opportunist, a quack. Ask yourself why meteorologists disagree with AGW. Anyone that says anything in science is "settled by consensus" is no scientist and knows nothing about the scientific method.

    AGW is being used by the government, or parts of it, to gain more control over our lives and profit by it in the meanwhile, thus consolidating that power. When Obama says he will tax a coal powered generating powerplant out of existence, how does that help America or you? Cap and trade? All taxes to the gov't. Gas taxes? Ditto. Carbon taxes. Ditto. EPA legislation that denies the building of nuclear power plants or new (and more efficient and cleaner) refineries? Double ditto. Refusal to allow offshore drilling of our own resources to carry us until alternative energy sources are developed and made practical and affordable? Triple ditto.

    I will believe in the lofty goals of the gov't when they aren't profiting by it, or consolidation control over industries, and us, through it.



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