Global Warming Petition - Just another way to slam Bush

A friend of my wife's forwarded the below email to me about some ridiculous petition against the Bush administration and promoting the global warming alarmists agenda.

"Hey,Thought you might want to know about this petition. The Bush administration is trying to block progress at crucial negotiations for the next global climate treaty--the successor to the Kyoto Protocol. This petition sends a message to other countries that Bush's actions don't match Americans' wishes. (The petition just says: "Dear World, please ignore Bush.") Please join me in signing the petition--we need to make sure the world doesn't let Bush block a strong agreement on climate change! http://www.avaaz.org/en/please_ignore_bush/98.php?cl_tf_sign=1"

My reply was

Before you send your friends to sign a petition to support a treaty that they will have no idea how it impacts their lives (other than it disses the hated Bush administration, and will save us from Global Warming), maybe you should consider some facts.


Brief Kyoto Facts:
· The Kyoto Protocol was completed in 1998 (during the Clinton administration)
· The US Senate voted 95-0, in July 1997, before the protocol was completed, that any treaty that did not include binding targets for developing nations (like China, India, and Brazil) should not be ratified by the United States.
· At the completion of Kyoto, it did not include any binding targets for those nations, and has never been brought forward to the United States Senate for ratification and likely never will be.

Doubts About Global Climate Change:
· There is no doubt that global temperatures have increased in the last century. However, there is significant doubt in the scientific community (Al Gore’s reputation as the scientist who created the Internet notwithstanding) as to causes of this warming.
o Significantly, most of the warming occurred in the first 50 years of the last century, before the increase in CO2 levels we have observed in the last 50.
o The Earth has seen many warming and cooling trends over its history. Today, many scientists believe these trends correspond to solar activity.
o Temperature data is, at best, inexact, and, in many locations on the planet subject to an aberration known as the “urban heat sink” where measuring stations have been located in populated areas that, as they have become developed, tend to display higher temperatures than the surrounding countryside. This would indicate a localized problem due to overdevelopment, but not a global problem if these stations are reporting temperatures that are not representative of a large area.
o Man’s impact on global warming, while certainly possible, is not known to any degree of certainty, and can’t be without more considered study. Those who are against treaties such as Kyoto and its successors, do not believe we know enough about the science of global temperatures nor of man’s impact on them to take such drastic steps as these treaties compel on their signatories.

The Doomsayers have a rotten history of being (in)correct:
· The first Earth day was held because “scientists” thought the Earth was entering a new Ice Age. That was 1970. Amazing what has changed since then.
· In the 70’s population was another time bomb that was going to lead to the demise of civilization. Doomsayers claimed the planet couldn’t support 6 billion people. Lo and behold, we are still here today with more than 6B of our friends, and due to modern farming techniques (mostly pioneered and practiced in THIS country), brought about by competition in the marketplace, we are easily able to feed the world’s population. Famines today are not due to lack of food, but due to political stupidity and transportation problems.
· Al Gore and other “scientists” promised us after 2005’s Hurricane season we were in for more and more severe storms during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, due to Global Warming. You live in South Florida, what was your hurricane season like the last 2 years? I know in Atlanta, we’re in the middle of an historic drought that could have been solved by a couple of big leftover tropical storms.
· Al Gore’s movie is full of distortions and some outright lies (these come from Weatherunderground.com, which actually thinks his movie was worthwhile, an opinion NOT shared by me, although I admit, I will not see the movie, but I did read his book, Earth in the Balance, and it is one of the most awful pieces of tripe ever written):
o “it would have been appropriate for Gore to acknowledge that the consensus of climate scientists--as published in the most recent report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)--is that sea level is likely to rise between 4 and 35 inches, with a central value of 19 inches, by 2100” vice 20 feet, as he tried to claim, and many scientists believe the IPCC report overstates the sea level increases. Coincidentally, I cancelled my subscription to Sports Illustrated when they decided to parrot the 20 foot claim.
o “He should have also mentioned that temperatures in Greenland in the 1930s were about as warm as today's temperatures, so the current melting of Greenland's glaciers does have historical precedent.”
o “The biggest failure in the movie's presentation of science comes in the discussion of hurricanes and severe weather events," to wit, “No single weather event, or unconnected series of severe weather events such as Gore presents, are indicative of climate change. In particular, the IPCC has not found any evidence that climate change has increased tornado frequency, or is likely to. Gore doesn't mention the unusually quiet tornado season of 2005, when for the first time ever, no tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma in the month of May.” As I’ve already mentioned, this movie was completed before the relatively quiet hurricane seasons on 2006/2007.


I won’t ascribe motives to the supporters of Kyoto and its ilk. They may be truly committed to saving the planet from its most dangerous denizens, humans. Humanity certainly has a large stake in the survival of our planet and, the best friend of the Earth has been capitalism and Western Civilization. Our system continuously looks to force efficiencies in all we do, even in the use of energy. One need only look at the environmental disasters that were Eastern Europe and Russia to understand how detrimental to our world a “Socialist Utopia” would be.

Because the track record of the doomsayers is so bad, and their motives so suspect, I do not believe we need to ACT NOW! to save the planet. I’ve got news for all, the end is not near.