Wednesday, August 05, 2009

German Scientist Doubt Climate "Consensus"

Sixty German Scientists doubt the current "consensus" that human CO2emissions are driving the climate.

More than 60 prominent German scientists have publicly declared their dissent from man-made global warming fears in an Open Letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The more than 60 signers of the letter include several United Nations IPCC scientists.
Well well well. It seems the goat herders at the UN's IPCC have failed to get all their goats in line.

Well that is just the opening volley from these German scientists. They have some bigger guns.
The scientists declared that global warming has become a “pseudo religion” and they noted that rising CO2 has “had no measurable effect” on temperatures. The German scientists, also wrote that the “UN IPCC has lost its scientific credibility.”
I'm sure that recent books like these:

Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science

Air Con: The Seriously Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed

Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them

Scam: The Liberal Misinformation Machine And Its War On America

haven't helped the "CO2 is an evil gas" cause. So what is the cause of the recent rise in temperatures which seem to be falling currently? Ah. The Germans have an answer.
The July 26, 2009 German scientist letter urged Chancellor Merkel to “strongly reconsider” her position on global warming and requested a “convening of an impartial panel” that is “free of ideology” to counter the UN IPCC and review the latest climate science developments.

The scientists, from many disciplines, including physicists, meteorology, chemistry, and geology, explain that “humans have had no measurable effect on global warming through CO2 emissions. Instead the temperature fluctuations have been within normal ranges and are due to natural cycles.”

“More importantly, there's a growing body of evidence showing anthropogenic CO2 plays no measurable role,” the scientists wrote. “Indeed CO2's capability to absorb radiation is almost exhausted by today's atmospheric concentrations. If CO2 did indeed have an effect and all fossil fuels were burned, then additional warming over the long term would in fact remain limited to only a few tenths of a degree,” they added.

“The IPCC had to have been aware of this fact, but completely ignored it during its studies of 160 years of temperature measurements and 150 years of determined CO2 levels. As a result the IPCC has lost its scientific credibility,” the scientists wrote.

“Indeed the atmosphere has not warmed since 1998 – more than 10 years, and the global temperature has even dropped significantly since 2003. Not one of the many extremely expensive climate models predicted this. According to the IPCC, it was supposed to have gotten steadily warmer, but just the opposite has occurred,” the scientists wrote.
Is that the final word? Of course not. There is no final word in science. New evidence and/or new ideas are always coming along to displace "what we know is true". One need only look at the history of plate tectonics in geology where the consensus was against the idea of plate tectonics for a very long time. And then with some better evidence and some scientist willing to buck the orthodoxy a new consensus was formed.

Now why do the Germans think the CO2 orthodoxy is a religion? It has one of the essential features of a religion: new evidence contrary to belief does not change the belief (at least in the minds of the believers).

If you are not in the believer camp it may be a good idea to contact your Congress Critters and make sure they kill the Cap and Tax bill. And even if you are a believer you should contact your critters and make them kill the bill. Why? Because even if you believe the current failing consensus, if India and China don't join in taxing CO2 the Bill will just drive American jobs to India and China. And heaven knows that we could stand to keep what jobs we have. And it wouldn't hurt to have a few more. And no "Green Jobs" Malarkey please. If going Green doesn't reduce costs for energy it is a jobs killer. And when Green Energy costs less than current sources it will not need Government Subsidies and unfunded mandates.

House of Representatives

The Senate

Cross Posted at Classical Values

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