Posted by
Civis on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 5:28:33 PM
Is warming for real? Ask Californians in fiery grip
By FROMA HARROP
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
It has long been sage policy to ignore the crank denials around global warming. But now and then you have a weather-related disaster like the fires devouring big chunks of Southern California — and you wonder about the extent to which the blockheads have slowed progress in dealing with the problem.
to read more of Ms. Harrop's editorial:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5249730.html
This is my response to Froma Harrop's editorial regarding the late reaction to global warming.
I believe the debate is not over on the causes of global warming. Ms. Harrop uses the typical bullying tactic of labeling people that are skeptical of human caused global warming as “deniers”, which is to invoke the vision of the despicable Holocaust deniers. Scientific hypotheses are meant to be tested and retested by multiple scientists. If we are to end the debate, what is the use of the Scientific Method? We might as well surrender all sovereignty to the government because they know what is best for us.
She of course paints a picture of “deniers” by taking quotes from someone on the fringes (Pat Buchanan) and a “meteorologist” that has not published his findings in a journal. What she fails to mention is that there are a large number of rational scientists that are skeptical of human caused global warming or the extent to which humans cause global warming. I don’t trust Wikipedia as a primary source, but a list of scientists with links to their positions can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming
There are also many private citizens that either believe in or are open to human caused global warming, but believe that government and globalization are not the solution to the problem. For example, individuals can take responsibility for reducing their carbon footprint and create larger markets for environmentally friendly corporations through the laws of supply and demand. My fear is that government, in its infinite wisdom, will go to the extreme and I will have to make monthly trips to a local emissions testing facility, be subjected to price controls and strict rationing, and have the tax code used to punish rather than using tax breaks to promote breakthroughs. (See the recent SCHIP proposal of taxing smokers that are generally low income earners to pay for medical insurance for low income earners’ children.)
It is important to keep an open mind. The debate was once over that the Earth was the center of the universe.