I agree with George Taylor of TCSDaily.com in his reaction to statements like this:

"The vast majority of the most respected environmental scientists from all over the world have sounded a clear and urgent alarm. …these scientists are telling the people of every nation that global warming caused by human activities is becoming a serious threat to our common future."
-- Al Gore, MoveOn.org, January 2004

What a bunch of malarky. There was a study done to analyze abstracts on papers about global warming, and the results were dubious at best. Taylor provides details:

Dr. Benny Peiser of England's John Moores University attempted to duplicate Oreskes' work. Peiser found 1,117 abstracts using the same search technique. Of these, only 13 explicitly endorsed the 'consensus view.' However, 34 of the abstracts rejected or questioned the view that human activities are the main driving force of "the observed warming over the last 50 years."

Oreskes claimed, "none of these papers argued [that current climate change is natural]". According to Peiser, however, 44 papers emphasized that natural factors play a major if not the key role in recent climate change.

Hans von Storch and Nico Stehr, European climate scientists, stated earlier this year that "a significant number of climatologists are by no means convinced that the underlying issues have been adequately addressed. Last year, for example, a survey of climate researchers from all over the world revealed that a quarter of respondents still question whether human activity is responsible for the most recent climatic changes."

That survey involved responses from 530 scientists worldwide. They were asked: "To what extent do you agree or disagree that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic causes?" Only 9.4% strongly agreed, while 9.7% strongly disagreed. Another 19.3% were in general disagreement.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.

The coldest period will occur 15 to 20 years after a major solar output decline between 2035 and 2045, Abdusamatov said.

Dramatic changes in the earth's surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun's energy output and ultraviolet radiation.

The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.

Two scientists from the University of the Philippines yesterday lamented how Gore's "doomsday" pronouncements apparently received more attention than the more detailed analyses and solutions offered by Filipino environmental experts. They also challenged and branded as "exaggerated" what the former US leader said about Manila Bay "overflowing" because of the greenhouse effect.

Posted by Ryan S. on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 8:45 PM | Permalink |