The book ‘Deniers’ suggests no cause for panic over global warming as Kofi Annan demands ‘climate justice’ and Hansen marks 20th anniversary

Lawrence Solomon’s new book The Deniers takes a clinical look at scientists who disagree with a number of conclusions other scientists make today about global warming. Meanwhile, Kofi Annan’s got his eye on Western checkbooks (and possibly others like Japan), demanding ‘climate justice’ for countries that are latecomers to the table of developed nations. As if that’s not enough, James Hansen, dubbed a 'climate prophet' by progressive and some mainstream media, celebrated his 20th year of crying doomsday because of global warming. Basically, Hansen said, “We’re toast.” He spoke at the National Press Club. Meanwhile, warming alarmists refuse to debate those with opposing views. But Congress is making decisions based entirely on the alarmists. How do you decide for yourself about this warming frenzy that is burning dollars every time you fill your tank?

I think global warming is the central issue in the US election—it’s directly tapped into our economy, our national security and if  Annan gets his way, our courts. Well, if Hansen gets his way, he may end up in court too, with lie-spewing heads of major fossil-fuel companies as he sees it, who Hansen says, should be “tried for high crimes against humanity and nature." Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He holds degrees in physics and mathematics (B.A.), Astronomy (M.S.) and Physics (Ph.D.) He’s been talking to us about global warming for 20 years.

Right now it’s politically correct to blame developed countries for all that’s wrong with the world. And it’s expedient—Annan and many others of his ilk know how to work the money and the dogma game. Remember Oil for Food? And every time there’s a natural disaster or a heat wave, some  intellectual will mention it’s attributable to global warming, just like a Stanford University professor told ABC about the heat wave in the Northeast in early June. These are people who study nature on paper. In the South I admit we can’t drive on snow and ice. But up North, people have a hard time holding it in the road when the temp tops the 90s. The extreme heat seems harder for the brain to bear.

I’ll devote the next few days of posts to the issue of global warming, covering Solomon’s book and other issues related to this topic. Your budget and your comfort—your very lifestyle—are riding right now on policy set by a government advised by researchers like Hansen and nonscientists like Al Gore (his degree is in government).

 If you don’t think global warming is important, consider the current costs of your food bill and your gas. And be glad your energy needs aren’t equivalent to Gore’s. The chief evangelist of global warming policy founded an investment firm focused on “sustainable investing.” He was so concerned about carbon footprints he pulled a Sasquatch. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research revealed Gore’s home in the past year could power 232 U.S. homes for a month and his personal electricity consumption was up 10%, despite “energy-efficient” home renovations.

Hansen’s voice is basically the only one being heard by the public right now, courtesy of standard media. In 1989 (Feb. 6 issue), he told Time Magazine his studies of global temperatures suggested that the warming trend had already begun and would  “soon become widely apparent.” He said, "Our model predicts that by the middle of the 1990s, the greenhouse effect should be pretty clear not only to scientists, but also to the man in the street." I don’t think that was a very good prophecy.  But  Hansen's research has been handy for NASA and in 1989 it was timely. In 1990 the White House ordered a review of NASA's goals.

I’m not an expert about global warming. Chances are you’re not either if you’re reading this. But I am an expert at politics, in my own way. I am already paying for global warming believed by some scientists to be caused by emissions from fossil fuels. I’ve lived long enough to distrust 90 percent of what scientists and politicians tell me and to see a goodly percentage of reversals on scientific beliefs as well. As a result, I have immensely enjoyed my life so far although in the 1970s I was told to prepare. We would soon have an ice age. 

Join me in coming days as I share with you what I think about dealing with challenges facing our planet, and hear some thoughts on what scientists with backgrounds in economics, statistics, climate science and meteorology told Solomon. Experts weighed in on global warming. I personally do not see cause for immediate panic despite what you hear from those whose livelihoods (and grant money and speaking platform) depend on global warming, sort of like those fossil fuel guys if you know what I mean and the politicians as well. 

Global warming may be temporarily real; that I don't dispute. The devil's in the details, and I mean that literally.

[Text and photo by Kay B. Day. Caption: Butterfly on my Lantana.]