Thursday, October 25, 2007

Yet more on global warming!

On pages A21 and A23 of today's WSJ: an interesting pair of opinions about global warming, in response to David Botkin's article (see post: "Scientific method, eh?"). The first is a group of four letters, all commending Botkin's logic. The second is a "Notable & Quotable." I'll try to get the gist of each here...

  • Letters: Chris B. of Saint Louis, MO, complains about the government/policy "pendulum" that affords only a lopsided approach to various problems, including the ethanol issue. A great quote encapsulating my opinion on you-know-what is encapsulated by Donald S. of Whitefield, NH: "global warming alarmism being preached by environmentalist true believers based largely on cockamamie climate model pseudoscience." He comments on the sad state of affairs when a "credible scientist" (read: Botkin) is forced to say "I am not a naysayer." Michael M. of NY agrees with the other half of Botkin's article - that regardless of whatever stupidity various 'scientists' are propounding, we still should try to minimize adverse climate change. The final letter, from William. I., Senior Vice President Conservation Programs Defenders of Wildlife Washington, also insists that action needs to be taken.
  • Notable & Quotable: Miles O'Brien of CNN interviews John Christy on why he didn't want to share the Nobel Prize with Al Gore. Two great quotes by Christy: (1) "Well, as a scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, I always thought that -- I may sound like the Grinch who stole Christmas here -- that prizes were given for performance, and not for promotional activities." Hmmm...radical concept! (2) "And when we build -- and I'm one of the few people in the world that actually builds these climate data sets -- we don't see the catastrophic changes that are being promoted all over the place. For example, I suppose CNN did not announce two weeks ago when the Antarctic sea ice extent reached its all-time maximum, even though, in the Arctic in the North Pole, it reached its all-time minimum." Again - what is the climate doing, anyway?

1 comment:

Weien said...

Haha, great to hear from you Hannah! Yes, talking about brains is always a dangerous venture. ^^

Interesting blog; most of it is out of my range of contemplation--e.g., had no idea that the Nobel Prize that Gore got was being shared? I'm definitely behind on current events. *grimace*