One of the shrill claims that environmentalists (including Al Gore) make is that there is scientific consensus that global warming is caused by man. This is a total lie. There are many scientists who say that global warming is not caused by man. The petition project by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine is one example. Over 17,000 scientists (two thirds with advanced degrees) signed the petition.
Of course, this scares environmentalists such as Richard Fielding who claims in today’s South China Morning Post:
The signatories – 17,000 right-wing politicians, businessmen, entertainment stars and a few academics – were hardly scientists, as he claims. The petition is part of a sustained campaign sponsored by the energy industries to deny global warming.
This is typical smearing by the left, and is a blatant distortion of fact. A simple reading of the petition project shows this to be the opposite. The signatories were scientists, independent of any industry. Even if they were financed, industry too has the right to publish the truth. If they distort the facts (like the tobacco industry tried to do), they lose their reputation – this is something the left clearly does not understand.
If anything there has been a lot of controversy over the original IPCC report, which apparently was changed after it was approved — at the behest of NGO’s who wanted a more alarmist document.
Let’s ask, why is Al Gore making his movie? Why do environmentalists make such claims? To get publicity, and get money?
Richard Lindzen (Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT), the has an interesting summary of the typical way that environmentalists get their funding. He calls it the iron triangle of alarmism. That is what we are seeing again from Al Gore, and people like Mr. Fielding.
