Much has been in the news about climate change and the harm it could cause. President Joe Biden wants to spend 3 trillion to help solve the problem. AOC’s Green New Deal claims that “global warming at or above two degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrialized levels will cause … $1,000,000,000,000 (trillion) damage of public infrastructure and coastal real estate in the United States … global temperatures must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialized levels.” The common claim is these conclusions are scientific consensus, thus beyond question. Are they?
I have a thick file of professors allegedly terminated for expressing doubts about human-caused climate change. Examples include Professor Nickolas Drapela, fired from Oregon State University; Dr. Peter Ridd, ex-professor of marine science at James Cook University; Professor Judith Curry, ex-head of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Professor Valentina Zharkova of Newcastle University; Professor Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Professors Fred Singer, Ph.D., Craig Idso, Ph.D., and Robert Carter, Ph.D.
The problem is so great that Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, Richard Lindzen, wrote: “How can a barely discernible, one-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes?” Lindzen asked, why don’t more scientists speak up about this? He answers, many scientists have been cowed by fear of losing the ability to support their families.
As a non-climatologist I cannot judge every climate-change controversy, but am very concerned about repression of respected scientists expressing their concerns about climate-change. My climatologist friends relate their concerns to me privately, but must be careful expressing them publicly. We must debate the ramifications of Biden’s proposed actions. The mid-19th century Little Ice Age, which followed the Medieval Warm Period (AD 950 to AD 1250), illustrates two non-anthropogenic cyclic change examples. I obtained a list of a thousand scientists who objected to the anthropogenic climate claims and was surprised to see it included my politically leftist father’s name. Under the Paris Accord Biden rejoined, the major polluters, China and India, have no obligation to reduce their CO2 emissions. China and India have hundreds of new coal-fired power stations planned. Where are protests about their ‘destroying the planet?’ Experts tell us if Americans got our CO2 emissions down to zero, it would have little effect on the problem.
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