GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Hot or Not? Global Warming Confusion

Dave Greenfield | Date: 03-10-10 | Comments

Is global warming an inconvenient truth or a stunning example of how the populace has been "brainwashed"?

There is a heated debate, pun intended, centered on global warming. Some vehemently argue that human interaction with the planet is the cause of rising temperatures and shrinking ice caps. Others liken Al Gore�s claim of impending global catastrophe due to human behavior to his claim that he invented the Internet: simply not the case. Is global warming an inconvenient truth or a stunning example of how the populace has been �brainwashed�?

Brainwashing is exactly what Bill Gray, the world�s leading expert on hurricanes, believes is happening concerning climate change. �They�ve been brainwashing us for 20 years,� says Gray. �Starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15 to 20 years, we�ll look back and see what a hoax this was.� Many others agree, saying that global warming has been �politicized.�

The scientific community has actually bolstered the global warming �deniers� case: In November 2009, e-mail accounts of renowned climatologists at the U.K.�s East Anglia University were hacked. Incredibly, the purloined e-mails showed that the scientists had covered up or doctored data that was contrary to their beliefs. One of the climatologists admitted that there was not �statistical warming� in the last 15 years.

Even the U.S. Senate is weighing in heavily here. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., suggested that these mistakes mean scientists are ensuring their political beliefs are tainting their scientific research.

Adding to the confusion for the layperson trying to sort this all out is �Himalaya-gate.� This centered around the prediction that the Himalayan glaciers would melt completely by 2035. It was later found that a researcher took this tidbit from a 10-year-old science magazine piece and did no fact checking. Another twist in the debate is the fact that there were more than 6,000 weather stations used to collect climate data in the 1960s. Today, there are 1,500. Guess where those stations are located? In warmer climates, of course.

Al Gore wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, �It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.� Brainwashing? Hysteria? Truth?