Friday, February 29, 2008

Our Best Hopes, Not Our Worst Fears

By Alan Caruba

I will be attending the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change March 2-4 and will be surrounded by perhaps 500 or more of the world’s leading skeptics of global warming. Sponsored by the Heartland Institute, scientists, economists, and policy makers will come together from many nations to share the facts that so clearly debunk this global hoax.

Generated out of the United Nations through its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the reports that underwrote the global warming hoax were from the beginning protested by many of the scientists and others invited to contribute to them.

It didn’t matter, though, because (1) the findings reported were based on flawed or deliberately false computer models and (2) the findings were preordained and determined by an inner circle of global warming propagandists for the purpose of creating a global crisis that would put more and more control of the world under the control of the UN.

The failure of its predecessor, the League of Nations, should have been a sufficient lesson to avoid the creation of the United Nations, but the world that followed the end of World War Two yearned for a way to avoid another one. What it got was a collection of the worst cynics who did the bidding of dictators most of the time while plotting to become themselves the greatest dictators in history. The United States was always the exception and, as often as not, the point of the sword when military action was required.

The world has always been a scary place. There are always people ready to commit the worst crimes against humanity in the name of some political, economic or religious doctrine. Despite that, more of humanity is freer now than it was at the beginning of the last century. It took a number of large, small, and Cold wars, but the outcome is brighter for millions because brave men and women made great sacrifices for freedom.

Always, too, there have been voices saying, “This is not our war” or “This war is a bad idea”, but freedom is a particularly American idea, even though it has been pursued by many people in many nations for many centuries. Born in the crucible of war, the American experiment has always been the standard, the lamp of liberty held high.

Part of being free is to be free of the lies and deceptions that are widely disseminated to convince people to give up their freedom for an illusionary security, for guarantees that government will take care of you from birth to the grave.

I was reminded of this while making preparations to attend a conference where scientific proof will be the measure of what is real or not. The conference is a confirmation of the freedom America provides to those for whom only the truth matters. This is a conference about what real science offers in the face of superstition and political subversion.

I was reminded, too, of something President Ronald Reagan once said: “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”

The election that lies ahead for Americans must be about our best hopes, not our worst fears about the hobgoblin of global warming and the illusion of “energy independence.” Its outcome must be based on truth-telling, not vague promises of change or naïve beliefs that the nation can be protected by making deals with thugs or by not engaging them on the battlefield as so many Americans did in the past to preserve a future based on freedom.

7 comments:

eastwind said...

Alan: Not sure you have seen this, but this is a comment to James, from the Heartland Institute, to RealClimate and their response. I guess the Hysterics response to a challenge is to simple throw their 'peer-reviewed' papers at it.....


James M. Taylor Says:
31 January 2008 at 11:30 AM

The anonymously authored Real Climate article above is a disappointing smear job — i.e., you have nothing to say substantively, so you attempt to smear your intellectual opponents. Many of the world’s leading climate scientists from some of the world’s most prestigious universities will be giving presentations. Rather than behaving like children and throwing mud at them, perhaps you might behave like adults and discuss the science. Of course, that will never happen because open and honest debate is what you fear most.

I never thought I would see the day when scientific debate and inquiry, conducted by some of the most credentialed scientists in the world, would be considered a bad thing. But that is what happens when people are afraid of the truth.

Al Gore in one day rakes in more honorarium money than all of our speakers combined. Nevertheless, we have offered to pay his usual honorarium to speak at our conference, but have not heard back from Mr. Gore. We have invited Real Climate’s Michael Mann to come and speak at our conference, but Mr. Mann also has failed to respond to our invitation.

Unlike Real Climate, we do not attempt to stifle scientific inquiry. Instead, we encourage it. We are equal opportunity investigators of science. As the Real Climate article above notes, we have invited many members of Real Climate to come and give presentations. It is odd that Real Climate is invited to discuss the science in a professional, scholarly environment, yet throws stones from afar, where they do not have to subject their claims to scientific scrutiny.

Perhaps Real Climate will abandon their fear of public discourse, and will reconsider their decision to decline our invitation to speak at the conference. After all, isn’t honest and open scientific discussion a good thing? Please send me an email at taylor@heartland.org and, as my prior emails indicate, I would be happy to add you to our conference lineup.

With warmest regards,

- James

[Response: The level of chutzpah in your comment is breathtaking. Our ’substantive’ additions to the scientific knowledge is well attested to by our publications in the peer reviewed literature and is subject to scientific scrutiny every day. I will even venture to make a prediction that the number of peer-reviewed papers on climate science we have collectively authored in the last 5 years will be substantially more than all of your speakers put together. Honest and open scientific discussion is greatly to be wished for, and in fact, happens all the time. I don’t recall ever bumping into you at a real conference (AGU/AMS/EGU), but should you ever go, you’ll see it how it works first hand. Your institute plays no role in that because your approach is the anti-thesis of scientific inquiry - your conclusions have been decided before you look at the evidence. When you decide to stop abusing the scientific process for political gain, then perhaps we can talk. - gavin]

eastwind said...

Sorry, the link James was responding to is as follows:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/01/what-if-you-held-a-conference-and-no-real-scientists-came/

TJP said...

Alan, I enjoy reading your posts. The man-made global warming alarmists particularly irk me because of the damage they do to the taxpayers & economy whenever our gullible politicians bow down to them. Ban the light bulb? Come on! I guess one ultimately has to laugh at them from time to time to keep our wits about us. Therefore, I composed this song parody that I send out wherever I can. It is more than appropriate while the unending winter we're having this year drags on. Thanks and enjoy!

We Need Some Global Warming
(Sung to the tune "We Need A Little Christmas")

Haul out the parkas.
Turn up the heat before my fingers freeze again.
Stock up on canned goods.
I may be shoveling walks till half past midnight or more!

Oh, we need some global warming,
right this very minute.
Heating bills are climbing.
Temps in single digits.

Yes, we need some global warming,
not Gore’s carbon credits.
They haven’t saved a single flurry,
just make our children fret and worry.

So smoke up the chimney.
Pile on the wood then brew a pot of hot coffee.
Slice up the fruitcake.
Wait, that’s just Al Gore cruising in his limousine now!

Though he’s grown a little greener,
it’s still grown a little colder.
The snow’s a little deeper.
The wind’s a little bolder.

And we need a snuggly blanket
sitting on our shoulders.
We need some global warming now!

Alan Caruba said...

TJP...love the parody! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Eastwind...I will let James Taylor know he has a fan when I see him at the March 2-4 NYC conference of global warming skeptics.

Paolo DePetrillo said...

I'm not a climatologist, but I am pretty good at analyzing nonlinear time series. It is relatively simple to discern several cyclical patterns, including sunspot cycles, influencing GISS rural temperature station data time series.

The periods match the known periods for the PDO, ENSO, sunspot cycle, etc. For an example from the American heartland, see the Wichita, KS station data by clicking here.

I did not find evidence of a linear trend, either in warming or cooling. News flash! Maybe because the earth undergoes periodic cyclical variations in climate?

I look forward to reading all the gore-y details from the conference!

Otter said...

I have to wonder- was there ANY msm coverage of this event?

Alan Caruba said...

The only media coverage I have seen thus far--March 4--is a hit job by a Washington Post reporter who depicted the event as filled with "flat Earth" loonies. I mention it in my post above.