https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/18/trum-right-question-climate-change/
By Tom Harris and Jay Lehr | Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition; Science Director, The Heartland Institute
President Donald Trump was right to express skepticism about human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change in his October 14th interview on CBS television’s “60 Minutes.”
Contrary to Al Gore’s assertion in his PBS interview aired on October 12 that only “a few outliers” in the scientific community don’t support the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclusions, there are many scientists who disagree with the U.N. on climate change.
Indeed, it was an understatement for the president to say in the” 60 Minutes” interview that “We have scientists who disagree with that,” in regard to the view that Greenland is melting significantly because of anthropogenic climate change.”
In his October 8 lecture for the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), Professor Richard Lindzen referenced “the finding by both NOAA [the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and the Danish Meteorological Institute that the ice mass of Greenland has actually been increasing.”
GWPF report that Lindzen, formerly Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT and the author of over 200 papers on meteorology and climatology, “slammed conventional global warming thinking warming as ‘nonsense’.”
Many scientists agree with Lindzen and would applaud the president’s answer to the question posed by CBS’ Lesley Stahl, “Do you still think that climate change is a hoax?”
Trump responded,“I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again. I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s manmade.”
In fact, the “Climate Change Reconsidered” series of reports of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change(NIPCC) summarize thousands of studies from peer-reviewed scientific journals that either refute or cast serious doubt on the climate scare.
NIPCC’s latest document, titled “Summary for Policymakers — Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels,” (“CCR — II — Fossil Fuels”), reports the contributions of 117 scientists, economists, and other experts. They conclude that we are not causing a climate crisis and we should be increasing, not decreasing, our use of coal, oil and natural gas.
The “CCR — II — Fossil Fuels” report, released on October 5, states:
Fossil fuels have benefited humanity by making possible the prosperity that occurred since the first Industrial Revolution … Fossil fuels powered the technologies that reduced the environmental impact of a growing human population … Nearly all the impacts of fossil fuel use on human well-being are net positive (benefits minus costs) or are simply unknown.
The NIPCC is an international network of climate scientists sponsored by three nonprofit organizations: the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), and The Heartland Institute.
“CCR — II — Fossil Fuels” is the fifth volume in the “Climate Change Reconsidered” series, and, like the preceding volumes published in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014, it focuses on research overlooked or ignored by the IPCC.
The latest NIPCC report addresses every aspect of our climate from sea level to hurricanes, the fallacy of climate models, the physics that controls weather, the irrationality of thinking industrial societies can run on either wind or solar energy, and the erroneous science used by alarmists to scare the public.
One of the reasons that IPCC reports have little credibility is that they often ignore the scientific method of testing hypotheses. Trump was justified to say that scientists promoting the climate scare “have a very big political agenda.”
Indeed, the IPCC’s main focus is directed toward proving a political position rather than conducting an unbiased search for the truth. “CCR — II — Fossil Fuels” explains:
IPCC and its national counterparts have not conducted proper cost-benefit analyses of fossil fuels, global warming, or regulations designed to force a transition away from fossil fuels, nor are they likely to do so given their political agendas.
In the past 20 years, the climate scare has plagued every nation, wasting billions of dollars attempting the impossible, namely, to control the temperature of our planet. It has been driven largely by a combination of arrogance and ignorance coupled with a desire to place the government in charge of most activities in society.
President Trump is right, it’s time to stop the war on fossil fuels, on American prosperity, and on American jobs. It’s time to finally defeat what Canadian historical climatologist Dr. Tim Ball calls, “The greatest deception in history.”
Dr. Jay Lehr is the Science Director of The Heartland Institute which is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition and is also a policy advisor to Heartland.