Consensus Thaws On Global Warming

IBD Editorials ^ | August 20, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

[Kaslin]

Global Warming: What's the climate change scare really about? Not what the alarmists want the public to think. Just ask the retiring head of Greenpeace. In an unguarded moment, he might spill the secret again.

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During an Aug. 5 interview with the BBC, Gerd Leipold, outgoing executive director of Greenpeace, admitted that his organization emotionalizes issues to influence the public. At the time, he was admitting his group had made an error in its July 15 news release that claimed "we are looking at ice-free summers in the Arctic as early as 2030."

"I don't think (the Greenland ice sheet) will be melting by 2030," he said. "That may have been a mistake."

Or maybe it was one of those examples that Greenpeace embellished to stir fear in the public? If so, it wouldn't be an isolated case. Others have admitted they're willing to bend the truth in order to draw attention to the cause.

Twenty years ago, Stanford University environmentalist Stephen Schneider told Discover magazine that it's perfectly fine "to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts we might have. . . . Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest."

Al Gore noted the power of propaganda when he once told Grist, a magazine for environmentalists, that "it is appropriate to have an overrepresentation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience."

So why all the distortions about global warming? To save the planet, to save us from ourselves? No. To choke economies in developed nations, particularly the U.S.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[calex59]

Ask any old time "Ham" radio operator, which I am one, about sun spot activity over the last 60 years or so. This is the worse I have ever seen it, shutting down High Freq bands from long distance communications. Also, this is the coolest Summer I have experienced in CA in a long time. Last night the low in this area was 48 degrees F. August should have had temps in the 106-110 range and we didn't have them. Very few days over 100, today is only going to hit about 88.

Winter's coming on and I've a hole in my coat!(Johnny Cash)