Global warming and political pressure


Former astronaut stands up for science
Remember all those posts on global warming when I said that the money and power controlled the debate?

Someone said the same thing.

Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.

"I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.
Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels.

"They’ve seen too many of their colleagues lose grant funding when they haven’t gone along with the so-called political consensus that we’re in a human-caused global warming," Schmitt said.

Dan Williams, publisher with the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which is hosting the climate change conference, said he invited Schmitt after reading about his resignation from The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.

Schmitt resigned after the group blamed global warming on human activity. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making."

Since the same tactics are being recycled, let's hit a few points.

Dissent is a good thing. It shows healthy debate.

You shouldn't trust anyone who says that the issue is settled because "everybody agrees."

And if someone is trying to panic you into acting without thinking, that's exactly when you should take the time to think before acting.

If that someone has more information than you do and they are counting on your emotional reaction to validate what they are saying, somebody's getting played.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - February 16, 2009 at 03:00 PM  Tag


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