Let me start with the fact that I use the term “geek” affectionately here. I love geeks. And, there are some out there that feel as though they’ve been defeated, in a sense, by Al Gore and his fuzzy science.
Enter Global Warming – or what Joseph L. Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, refers to as “popular delusion.”
According to this article, the Heartland Institute had its third annual International Conference on Climate Change last week – “a daylong session of speeches and scientific presentations.” Including “conservative think tanks and groups, the conference drew about 250 guests, most of them researchers and policy analysts, some from as far away as Japan and Australia.”
And, I know you’re going to be shocked to hear this – almost no media was there to cover it.
In fact, Bast eludes to the fact that the conservative scientific community is pretty much ignored on this issue, saying that “if you open your newspaper, turn on your TV set, you’re likely to see global warming alarmism, and nothing else.”
This group – like many other educated people in this country – believe that emissions and carbon dioxide aren’t heating up the earth and eventually causing the demise of our planet and the people on it. Instead, they feel that any weird atmospheric happenings in the 20th century are a “natural cycle of the Earth’s unpredictable, roller-coaster weather patterns.”
So, you can imagine their disgust at Al Gore, his movie (they laugh at it), and the “darker motives of the climate debate.” These “darker motives” include what they believe to be a “liberal-inspired hoax, intended to wrest control of world energy policy and wealth from Western countries so the United Nations can have its way.”
To them, liberty, capitalism, and our economy may be at risk because of this hoax. And I’m not sure if I disagree, seeing as how there is still no substantial proof for global warming, or moreover, proof that cap and trade will lower the core temperature of the earth by 1 degree in 100 years. And, moreover, if THAT one-degree difference will really be worth our economy, our liberty, and capitalism being wrecked in the process. Regardless, policy is being made around the fuzzy science at hand.
The group points out that the research that’s been done hasn’t taken into account many factors, and it’s excluded a great deal of other data, adding that you basically get out of research what you put into it. Go figure.
In Virginia, they’ve established a Climate Change Commission and developed their first official report last December. That report has a footnote that reads, “While we have concluded that the overwhelming evidence supports these points, we have heard testimony providing contrary information during public comment periods at our meetings.”
Alrighty then. I feel much better now about the government regulating how much carbon dioxide I exhale…
