LJWorld.com / GOP cool to global warming

Archive for Friday, May 16, 2008

By Cal Thomas

May 16, 2008

In an effort to win over those “moderates” who believe that global warming is about to destroy the planet, Republican presidential candidate John McCain spoke Monday at a Portland, Ore., training facility for Vestas Wind Technology. He claimed, “The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington.”

There certainly is more “hot air” on this and a lot of other subjects in Washington, but that isn’t what he meant. The era of big government is so not over, as Bill Clinton claimed it was in 1996. It is just beginning, and increasingly the political contests seem to be about who will manage its growth, not who will reduce its size, cost and reach.

Despite a recent Wall Street Journal editorial characterizing his position on global warming as “Obama lite,” McCain asserted, “We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.” No, the most relevant question is whether global warming is true. Cults ignore evidence and facts contrary to their blind faith. Science should never be blind to opposing views, but the apostle of global warming, Al Gore, and his new disciple, John McCain, want us to believe in a 2008 version of the Pete Seeger anti-war lyric: “we were — knee deep in (carbon monoxide) and the big fool said to push on.”

McCain would have done better to push back against the global warming cult and conduct a raid on the cultists similar to what Texas authorities did to the FLDS polygamists. Instead of buying into the claims of global warming alarmists who seek more control over our lives through big government intrusion, McCain should demand a debate on the issue. Global warming cult leaders won’t debate. Al Gore has refused every debate challenge, asserting the facts are undeniable and that global warming is real. That’s another mark of a cult leader; he will tolerate no doubters.

Growing numbers of atmospheric scientists and others with related expertise are emerging from the global warming cult and testifying to their conversions. They are mostly ignored by the media and by politicians who have embraced the cultists’ doctrines.

Two years ago, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held hearings and produced a document quoting anti-global warming scientists. Among the conclusions was this: “On April 6, 2006, 60 scientists wrote a letter to the Canadian prime minister asserting that the science is deteriorating from underneath global warming alarmists: ‘Observational evidence does not support today’s computer climate models, so there is little reason to trust model predictions of the future. ... Significant (scientific) advances have been made since the (Kyoto) protocol was created, many of which are taking us away from a concern about increasing greenhouse gases.”

Among the noted converts is Claude Allegre, a member of the French Socialist Party and a former Minister of National Education. Allegre is also a member of the French and U.S. Academy of Sciences. He once was a believer in the “science” behind global warming, but no more. He, too, wants a debate and his ranks are growing.

If global warming alarmists are right, they will only strengthen their position by having robust debates, not between politicians who seek votes, but among scientists who seek truth. The issue is too important to allow politicians to decide it for us because it has the potential to drastically change the way we live.

Sen. McCain may win a few votes from some “moderates,” who mostly are uneasy about having convictions about anything that matters, but if he persists in embracing the global warming cultists, he risks experiencing a temperature drop from the conservative base that could cast him out in the cold when the weather and his election prospects turn chilly in November.

— Cal Thomas is a columnist for Tribune Media Services.

Discussion

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16 May 2008 at 7:01 a.m.

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JJE007 (Anonymous) says…

This is what makes'merica grate…blathering and bloviating 'bout who's right and who's left…out of the reindeer games.
16 May 2008 at 7:29 a.m.

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ChristmasCarol (Anonymous) says…

Okay so Global Warming… I consider myself conscious of the “envirnonment” and concerns around it.

I have also noticed locally that in the last two years I have lived in Lawrence( for the fourth time in my life ) that there has been an increasing amount of wildlife coming into the city via Bruford WAtson park and the railroad tracks beside it. Last night it was a coyote running across the intersection near the bridge and last year it was three deer that I startled on my early morning bike ride. The three deer were spooked and ran into the train park and then by the pool and are so fast compared to me on a bike I was not sure how much further they got into town. Don't get me wrong and I love wildlife but they have their place and it is not in a town. I think that mishaps like this need to be addressed due to eastward expansion and farming squeezing food and other resources out of their habitat.
Coyotes and deer are dangerous in city limits. They do not understand what is in a city and the element therein. They are dangerous to traffic and coyotes are predatory to any dog or cat in a fenced area that cannot escape and even so carry rabies and other diseases that a dog can contract by a mere fight with a bite. I never found out what happened to the deer they were pretty far into town at that point but I imagine not many people bike as early as I do, I don't see many anyway.

So Environmental smiromental. Think Globally Act Locally.
16 May 2008 at 7:35 a.m.

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ChristmasCarol (Anonymous) says…

Besides I have heard theories that the earth is shifting anyway and that many a time on the planet continents have shifted from the time of Pangea on. So maybe the expansion of the Sahara in the last 50 years is not due to increase petro production and use but in a natural course of some kind? Who really has the data to prove it?

Anyway if you want to stop using a car you can, I did for nearly 5 years. Get any of your friends to do it though. It is too important to hurry up and go get your butt to the next bar and get that beer that costs us in harvests of grains that we don't do something else with.

So cheers environmentalists. It is Environmental fascism or your freedom of choice. I don't hang with anyone I knew in my 20's that did not cycle instead of drive their ass to Westport every weekend to shake their precious ass to the latest in pop music, but that is my freedom of choice, so I guess I will fly back to Canada and sleep next to my wife and let you figure it out.
16 May 2008 at 7:48 a.m.

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merrill (Anonymous) says…

http://www.inthesetimes.com/main/cartoon…
16 May 2008 at 7:59 a.m.

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normal_entire_route (Anonymous) says…

Wow, I can't believe people are still saying these kinds of things. Cal sounds so threatened. What is so frightening about clean air, clean water and clean energy for all?

So what if global warming as a theory isn't perfect. The actions we need to take remain the same. Calling it a cult, Cal, sells papers, but is not very classy. Clean air, clean water, clean energy, its that simple.
16 May 2008 at 8:17 a.m.

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ndmoderate (Anonymous) says…

Funny, this exact same column appeared in my local newspaper today, but with a different headline:

“The cult claims McCain.”
16 May 2008 at 8:41 a.m.

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blessed3x (Anonymous) says…

All I know is that this has been one of the coldest springs I can ever remember! With a new baby, we were still occassionally running the furnace right up until May 1st. Global warming is a hard pill to force down someone's throat when we haven't even been able to pack away the coats yet and we've pushed planting the tomatoes back so far we won't get any fruit until September!
16 May 2008 at 8:48 a.m.

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Reality_Check (Anonymous) says…

To be a “conservative” used to mean that you would also err on the side of conservatism. So, if there is a reasonable CHANCE that a certain thing might occur, you took steps to make sure it didn't. Things sure have changed.

Of course, to about 25% of American, Jesus is coming in a year or two, so why do anything about the environment?
16 May 2008 at 8:55 a.m.

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SettingTheRecordStraight (Anonymous) says…

The Kyoto Protocol was rejected by the Senate 95-0.
16 May 2008 at 9:05 a.m.

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ReadingSports (Anonymous) says…

“Of course, to about 25% of American, Jesus is coming in a year or two, so why do anything about the environment?”

That was ad hominem, in point of fact there are Christians on both sides of the issue. As an undecided on this issue, it's comments like this from the global warming side of the house that makes this Christian doubt the Global Warming case.
16 May 2008 at 9:39 a.m.

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just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“As an undecided on this issue, it's comments like this from the global warming side of the house that makes this Christian doubt the Global Warming case.”

What's the logic operating here? Shouldn't you base your opinion on the data and facts rather than a comment on a forum like this?
16 May 2008 at 10:44 a.m.

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salad (Anonymous) says…

Hey, didn't good ol' Cal recommend riding bicycles and conservation on Wednesday? Now he seems to be saying, “Global warming is BS, release the carbon!!!! bwahahahahaha, bwaaaaaaahahahaha!!!!”
16 May 2008 at 10:49 a.m.

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malcolm_x_obama (Anonymous) says…

Gormanism is not a cult and the Holy Goran is not a story book. The Church of Climatology practices Gormanism as led by the Modern Prophet Al Gore. Quit referring to Climatology as a cult.
16 May 2008 at 11:40 a.m.

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supertrampofkansas (Anonymous) says…

I do find it a little curious that noone is asking about the statements that Cal brings up to support his contentions. For example, the 60 scientist who sent an open letter or how about Claude Allegre. Regardless of whether you are conservative, liberal, antienvironmentalist, or Mr Greenpeace, it certainly wouldn't hurt to at least explore those sources to make more informed choices and to be able to talk about the subject matter intelligently. I for one would question a list that included several poltical economists represented as “scientists” or a person who has clearly supported the nuclear power industry.
16 May 2008 at 12:07 p.m.

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acoupstick (Anonymous) says…

“If global warming alarmists are right, they will only strengthen their position by having robust debates”

It's called peer review and has been happening in this field for the last 40 years and will continue to happen regardless of how climate change is politicized.
16 May 2008 at 2:48 p.m.

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dialupandy (Andrew Stahmer) says…

I just don't know about this whole 'global warming' thing; it does seem our weather is becoming more extreme…we're getting hotter summers BUT colder winters too.

Keep on building those coal plants; that might just settle the whole debate…when it's too late.
16 May 2008 at 3:38 p.m.

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MyName (Anonymous) says…

Supertramp:

>I do find it a little curious that noone is asking about the statements that Cal brings up to support his contentions

That's because Cal brought absolutely no data up to support anything he's said. It's a completely political hack piece. He mentions “60 canadian scientists”, one “French socialist” and a 2006 Senate hearing to back up his doubts on global warming and then conveniently ignores the thousands of scientists and decades of good research to support the facts that global mean temperature has been rising for decades and that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been rising for centuries (ever since the industrial revolution). The only excuse a fair and reasonable person would have to take Cal's position on this issue is willful ignorance. My guess is Cal is taking this position out of political necessity and truth about the issue is of little importance.

What I find a “little curious” is that Cal brings nothing to the table, then miraculously, people in these forums still manage to wonder why no one one from the other side is responding to his vapid arguments and baseless conclusions. The only hopeful thing about this situation is that there are no serious presidential candidates left who even question the facts of global warming, and that's got nutters like Cal Thomas more worried than they've been for 8 years.
16 May 2008 at 3:58 p.m.

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vpete69 (Anonymous) says…

Who cares. We're all going to die anyway. I might as well burn as much sh1t as I can while I'm here.
16 May 2008 at 4 p.m.

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beatrice (Anonymous) says…

CalT: “Cults ignore evidence and facts contrary to their blind faith.”

Is that different from any religion?

So is Cal basing his opinion on the science, or his dislike of Al Gore? It doesn't matter, as long as he and other conservatives keep knocking McCain.
16 May 2008 at 4:14 p.m.

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dorothyhr (Dorothy Hoyt-Reed) says…

vpete69
Obviously you have no children, and definitely no grandchildren. I am not working to “save the planet”. All humans could die tomorrow and the planet will just go on. I am working to give my descendants a chance for survival. If and when you have children, you will feel different, maybe. Some people are just really self centered and short sighted.
16 May 2008 at 5:22 p.m.

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cg22165 (Anonymous) says…

OK, most of us aren't climate scientists (least of all Cal). Most of us aren't electricians either. If 99 out of 100 electricians tell you that wiring in your house is very likely to cause a fire, do you do something about it or cling to the hope that that one is right?

STRS, yeah, and how many senators can really understood the science? Let's face it, scientist types don't really get elected to public office. Senator Einstein? I don't think so.