Stated briefly, I will simply try to clarify what the debate over climate change is really about. It most certainly is not about whether climate is changing: it always is. It is not about whether CO2 is increasing: it clearly is. It is not about whether the increase in CO2, by itself, will lead to some warming: it should. The debate is simply over the matter of how much warming the increase in CO2 can lead to, and the connection of such warming to the innumerable claimed catastrophes. The evidence is that the increase in CO2 will lead to very little warming, and that the connection of this minimal warming (or even significant warming) to the purported catastrophes is also minimal. The arguments on which the catastrophic claims are made are extremely weak – and commonly acknowledged as such. They are sometimes overtly dishonest.
UPDATE: Speaking of catastrophes:
A meme that permeates the left is that the Heartland Institute is a bastion of anti-science morons that are actually paid oil stooge know-nothings who are scared of real debate by real scientists and are representative of all illiterate and stupid conservatives. They even have a new "study" that shows that stupid children grow up to be conservatives! Oh, my, I love dat science! (If you are not an atheistic liberal they have a study researched by JEN-U-INE geniuses that shows Christians are stupid too)
UPDATE: Speaking of catastrophes:
A meme that permeates the left is that the Heartland Institute is a bastion of anti-science morons that are actually paid oil stooge know-nothings who are scared of real debate by real scientists and are representative of all illiterate and stupid conservatives. They even have a new "study" that shows that stupid children grow up to be conservatives! Oh, my, I love dat science! (If you are not an atheistic liberal they have a study researched by JEN-U-INE geniuses that shows Christians are stupid too)
Why Heartland? And how did the “leaker” get his hands on authentic Heartland board materials that are obviously the source for the faked strategy memo? The Heartland Institute sponsors the most significant annual gathering of climate skeptics, usually in New York, Chicago, or Washington, D.C.—a conference that attracts hundreds of scientists and activists from around the globe, including most of the top skeptical scientists, such as MIT’s Richard Lindzen, Yale’s Robert Mendelsohn, and career EPA official Alan Carlin. By assembling a critical mass of serious dissenting opinion, the Heartland conference dispels the favorite climate campaign talking point that there’s virtually no one of repute, and no arguments of merit, outside the -so-called consensus of imminent climate catastrophe.
The Heartland conferences have been too big for the media to ignore completely, though coverage has been spare and grudging. The conferences are also a morale booster for skeptics, who tend to be isolated and relentlessly assailed in their scattered outposts. It is worth adding that Heartland has always extended invitations to the leading “mainstream” figures to speak or debate at the conference, including Al Gore, NASA’s James Hansen, and senior officials from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Heartland typically receives no response from such figures.)
Morons, all! Just ask a liberal. Especially liberals who have no expertise in the areas of which they speak. They know the most!
