Cato’s ’scientific’ rebuttal on climate change
The libertarian CATO Institute sent out a blast email a while back seeking scientists willing to sign their names to a petition disputing President Obama’s claim of a scientific consensus on climate change. They got 116 to respond, and CATO has now published that petition in major national newspapers.
Interestingly, 25 of those who signed the petition describe themselves as either retired or professor emeritus. And through the magic of Google, you find that many of those on the Cato petition work in disciplines rather far afield from atmospheric science and climatology.
There’s Susan Crockford. She’s a “an archeoanthropologist who specializes in the evolutionary theory of the domestic dog.” Craig Idso is a geographer by training. Peter Salonius is a soil microbiologist. Neil Hutton is a retired petroleum geologist. Ross McKitrick is an economist by training who works at a right-wing “think tank” in Canada. Bob Breck is a New Orleans TV weatherman. David Kean of New Zealand is a retired geologist. John Reinhard is director of clinical services at Ore Pharmaceuticals.
Now, think of the thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands or even millions of people around the world who could be described as “scientists” by the definition apparently applied by Cato. Out of that population, Cato was able to find 116 to dispute claims of a scientific consensus on climate change and the importance of taking action.
You have to ask: Is that really the best Cato could do? And if it is, why would Cato broadcast its glaring lack of success to the world at large?
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120 comments Add your comment
Pokey
April 1st, 2009
1:47 pm
Wait…is “global warming” or is it “climate change”?? I can’t keep it straight.
Paul
April 1st, 2009
1:51 pm
Jay
Just guessing here, but could it have anything to do with the number of scientists (or others) who “work in disciplines rather far afield from atmospheric science and climatology” who have been cited in support of climate change (or before that, global warming, or before that, global cooling)? Al Gore, anyone?
I think Taxpayer would call that ‘precedence in the rule of politics.”
But seriously, it is pretty weak.
RW-(the original)
April 1st, 2009
1:53 pm
I’m not sure why Jay B has so much trouble providing a link to what he’s poking fun at, but if anybody wants to spend their day googling names, here’s the ad.
RW-(the original)
April 1st, 2009
1:56 pm
And if you don’t have a PDF reader there’s a link on this page to allow you to see the ad in HTML.
Bosch
April 1st, 2009
2:00 pm
OMG – I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time:
“an archeoanthropologist who specializes in the evolutionary theory of the domestic dog.”
Now THAT’S quite the specialization.
Well, hell, maybe she can tell me why my dog is so dumb.
Taxpayer
April 1st, 2009
2:03 pm
Presidents! Is someone talking about Presidents and the rules of politics.
RW-(the original)
April 1st, 2009
2:04 pm
OFF TOPIC
This guy is not only making us into a banana republic, but also an international laughingstock.
Change!
God help us
Barack Obama’s gift for the Queen: an iPod, your Majesty
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:04 pm
Meanwhile, the libs have the rocket scientists at NASA on their side, at least when they aren’t cleaning up their latest explosion.
Besides which, I’ll you need to do is consult a thermometer to know what a joke this junk science is.
duh
Taxpayer
April 1st, 2009
2:07 pm
Well, I for one can appreciate that this “archeoanthropologist” could likely educate all of us on matters such as Huskies evolving into Mexican hairless critters once they migrated south for the winter.
Corporal
April 1st, 2009
2:07 pm
Just remember, there was a time when the greatest scientific minds in the world thought the world was flat and held up by Atlas, four pillars, or on the back of a large turtle or elephant depending on your culture.
In my opinion there are thousands of scientists who would get on board except they are fearful of being politically (as opposed to scientifically) incorrect and being held in contempt by their colleagues.
Just one man’s opinion but I’ll leave it to the experts ………. like everything else …. time will prove the issue.
Rush Limbaugh for President
April 1st, 2009
2:08 pm
I Report,
Talk about a subject that’s over your head. You probably think we faked the landing on the moon and that it really is made of green cheese. You best stay out of any discussion that requires the ability to support your argument with facts.
Taxpayer
April 1st, 2009
2:08 pm
Uh Oh, Andie is running a temperature. Jay must have touched on a sore spot and got it all inflamed.
RW-(the original)
April 1st, 2009
2:13 pm
I sure would love to know where this invisible line is that establishes a comment as nothing but a personal attack. I know where it looks like it should be, but somehow it seems extremely amorphous.
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:14 pm
RLFP- I mean really, don’t flood me with empirical evidence or anything.
Bosch
April 1st, 2009
2:22 pm
Just freaking great – now we can’t eat pistachios anymore. That’s my favorite snack (and ice cream).
Taxpayer
April 1st, 2009
2:23 pm
Regarding flat-earthers and censored science, where to begin. …Copernicus and Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved around the sun…Giordano Bruno was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science…
Today, flat-earthers within the Bush Administration–aided by right-wing allies who have produced assorted hired guns and conservative think tanks to further their goals–are engaged in a campaign to suppress science that is arguably unmatched in the Western world since the Inquisition. Sometimes, rather than suppress good science, they simply order up their own. Meanwhile, the Bush White House is purging, censoring and blacklisting scientists and engineers whose work threatens the profits of the Administration’s corporate paymasters or challenges the ideological underpinnings of their radical anti-environmental agenda. Indeed, so extreme is this campaign that more than sixty scientists, including Nobel laureates and medical experts, released a statement on February 18 that accuses the Bush Administration of deliberately distorting scientific fact “for partisan political ends…”
And, that was back in 2004. He did not improve with age.
Bosch
April 1st, 2009
2:24 pm
Sorry for that little outburst – I just had to vent.
Um, yeah, back on topic: climate change is bad – going green is good, and all that stuff.
Bosch
April 1st, 2009
2:26 pm
This is off topic too – sorry, but that’s one reason I’m glad I’m not the President – I would have no clue as to what to buy the Queen. I mean really, what do you get the Queen of England? Another purse? A pink hat?
bi -- IJI
April 1st, 2009
2:31 pm
Great, the usual denialist trolls with their usual generic talking points and their Gore Derangement Syndrome. What’s new?
This Cato petition doesn’t deserve a serious response. I propose to reply to it with a poster.
– bi
RW-(the original)
April 1st, 2009
2:34 pm
I guess making fun of a very mild rebuke by the Cato Institute to a very definitive statement by PresBO is something that can be done to keep from confronting stories like Geithner going on TV and saying there was 135 billion dollars left in the TARP fund and only being off by about 103 billion.
Maybe he’s keeping track of it with Quicken, since we know what happened when he tried Turbo Tax.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 1st, 2009
2:34 pm
As climate change skepticism goes, I much prefer that guy with the cheezy “30,000 scientists” homepage to Cato’s more genteel version.
Redneck Convert
April 1st, 2009
2:37 pm
Well, it strikes me you get a Queen whatever you’d get for other people. Maybe a roll of Skoal and tell her don’t spit in the wind or let it dribble down her chin.
Anyhow, this climate change stuff is a bunch of bunk. I been around nigh on 60 yrs. and ain’t seen no change in the weather. It’s still chilly in the winter and hot in the summer. All this talk about climate change is just a way to set us up for higher power and gas charges and making us tool around in cars the size of the ones we use to buy for kids at Christmas. When I see ocean waves coming into Simpsons Trailer Park then I’ll beleive in climate change.
Have a good day everybody.
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:39 pm
“Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change,” Sorokhtin writes in an essay for Novosti. “Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind.” In a recent paper for the Danish National Space Center, physicists Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Friis-Christensen concur: “The sun . . . appears to be the main forcing agent in global climate change,” they write.
duh
Joey
April 1st, 2009
2:41 pm
Retired Atmospheric Scientists or Climatology Scientists are the only such scientists who can afford to challenge the Man-Made-Global Warming Industry.
Do not doubt that Man-Made-Global Warming is an industry. It is an industry that requires belief that carbon dioxide reduction and carbon sequestering are the answer to Carbon Dioxide Driven Global Warming in order to exist and to prosper.
The retired scientist and professors no longer require research grants in order to house and feed their families. They do not require the approval of their peers in order to be successful and flourish in their chosen field.
It would be wise for us to listen to these Scientists. Scientists who have no income driven motivation to mislead us.
bi -- IJI
April 1st, 2009
2:42 pm
RW:
You know, if giving an iPods to the British Queen is such a grave matter, perhaps you should be complaining to the Cato Institute for not talking about it in the first place?
Or perhaps it’s an axiomatic principle that whatever right-wing talking point is being debunked, the debunking is merely a “distraction” to prevent one from talking about… another right-wing talking point! And so on and on goes the Wingnut Fractal.
DB:
Orgone Petition, Organ Petition… it’s all so confusing!
– bi
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:44 pm
The largest increase in tobacco taxes (.62 per pack) took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
“I can make a firm pledge,” Obambi’ Teleprompter said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
ew
mm
April 1st, 2009
2:44 pm
Jay,
The Nay-sayers are disappearing in a hurry. Did any of your googles come up with a wingnut troll?
Speaking of trolls:
We’ve got Dave R wanting to divide the nation and Corporal wanting a revolution. And Andy/Duh/AJC/IRYW/Cybil thinks he can disprove global warming with a thermometer. This is why the GOP lost the last 2 elections and will lose the next two.
And for good measure, did you check out the GOP budget proposal? They’re still pandering to the same people that think like the three above.
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:47 pm
A memo distributed to reporters this morning by the NRCC notes that there is a “Republican advantage among the absentee and military ballots that exceed the current Murphy lead,” adding: “This is not a ‘model’ but raw data.”
bwa
Rush Limbaugh for President
April 1st, 2009
2:48 pm
I Report, From National Geographic
The report, based on the work of some 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming. Human-caused global warming is often called anthropogenic climate change.
• Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth’s surface. (See an interactive feature on how global warming works.)
• Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.
• These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, meaning that even if such emissions were eliminated today, it would not immediately stop global warming.
• Some experts point out that natural cycles in Earth’s orbit can alter the planet’s exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today’s changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
• Other recent research has suggested that the effects of variations in the sun’s output are “negligible” as a factor in warming, but other, more complicated solar mechanisms could possibly play a role.
What’s Going to Happen?
A follow-up report by the IPCC released in April 2007 warned that global warming could lead to large-scale food and water shortages and have catastrophic effects on wildlife.
• Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) by century’s end, the IPCC’s February 2007 report projects. Rises of just 4 inches (10 centimeters) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia.
• Some hundred million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level, and much of the world’s population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities. In the U.S., Louisiana and Florida are especially at risk.
• Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water.
• Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause food shortages in many places.
• More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans.
• The ocean’s circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes.
• At some point in the future, warming could become uncontrollable by creating a so-called positive feedback effect. Rising temperatures could release additional greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water.
Doggone/GA
April 1st, 2009
2:49 pm
“Wait…is “global warming” or is it “climate change”?? I can’t keep it straight.”
Keep thinking about it…it’ll come to you: they aren’t mutually exclusive
Jake
April 1st, 2009
2:53 pm
Who cares? This doesn’t look like much of a catastrophe unless you’re a polar bear, should actually be good for farmers from Kansas to Saskatchewan.
I Report/ You Whine
April 1st, 2009
2:54 pm
RLFP- Um, the atmosphere on Mars is 97% CO2 and it has experienced a temperature rise almost exactly that of the Earth. Why is it not in flames?
Wanna chance to rethink the Tax Mongering IPCC report?
Or what?
CBO DIRECTOR (DOUGLAS) ELMENDORF: Yes…at any point in which we are putting a price on carbon emissions, that would be passed through to the cost that consumers face on energy products but also all other products that are made using fossil fuels.
Wingnuts are wingnutting: debunking the Cato Institute petition is merely to ‘distract’ from ‘more pressing issues’ « International Journal of Inactivism — Mindless Link Propagation section
April 1st, 2009
2:55 pm
[...] pm on April 1, 2009 | # | It’s April Fools Day, and wingnuts are wingnutting. At Jay Bookman’s blog [cached], a bloke named “RW-(the original)” says, This guy is not only making us into a [...]
bi -- IJI
April 1st, 2009
2:56 pm
But… but.. but.. AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
– bi
Mrs. Godzilla
April 1st, 2009
3:01 pm
My highly evolved domestic dog Joe and his life partner Puppers,
are concerned about the effects of climate change on international kibble production.
flat-earthers and birthers and ‘prompters – OH MY
DB, Gwinnettian
April 1st, 2009
3:05 pm
“there was a time when the greatest scientific minds in the world thought the world was flat and held up by Atlas, four pillars, or on the back of a large turtle or elephant”
Oh, that’s nothing–check out what these nutty guys used to believe!
bi -- IJI
April 1st, 2009
3:10 pm
Well, everyone knows that the “global surface temperature” is a meaningless concept, and we know that earth is actually cooling, and it’s caused mainly by the sun, and warming is good, and it’ll be too costly to try to mitigate global warming anyway, unless we do it using Patiotic Nuclear Reactors which are obviously a dollar a dime.
Also, consensus isn’t science, unless it’s a consensus of people who signed the Cato Institute’s petition. Then suddenly it’s rock-solid science.
– bi
Taxpayer
April 1st, 2009
3:14 pm
…The Bush Administration has interfered with science on numerous issues — from abstinence education and breast cancer to workplace safety and the Yellowstone National Park. Most of these issues have one of two features: (1) they are issues like abortion, abstinence, and stem cells that have active right-wing constituencies that support the President; or (2) they are issues like global warming or workplace safety with significant economic consequences for large corporate supporters of the President.
The Administration has deployed a wide range of tactics to skew the science on these issues. These fall into three general strategies…
Dusty
April 1st, 2009
3:15 pm
Of course the climate is changing…at least four times a year. spring, summer, fall and winter. I don’t disagree with that one bit!
But to say that such changes will melt every glaciar, flood NYC, cover Bangledesh,and dilute the ocean MIGHT be true. But it will take another thousand years to do it. Mankind will adjust like it always does to that which it cannot control.
If NYC is flooded in a thousand years, I won’t be here to worry about it. Just another Atlantis for history.
If Obama wants to jump on the climate change genre, tell him “Go for it as soon as China does but don’t spend one cent of American money because the Chinese already own most of it.”
Would that stop Obama? NOOOO! He’s probably already bought waterwings, swim trunks and a new innertube to show his support (at taxpayer expense, of course.) A large Yacht One with teleprompters and 500 rowboats (for security staff) will be ordered. He’s ready!
As Boy Scouts always say “Be prepared!”
Mrs. Godzilla
April 1st, 2009
3:16 pm
flatearthers……hehehehheee
Joey
April 1st, 2009
3:19 pm
Evidence that Global Warming is a hoax. Any scientist, hell anyone, who challenges the existance of Man Made Global Warming is censured and castigated.
Joey
April 1st, 2009
3:27 pm
Some of the people who are Man Made Global Warming Believers. Those who have a financial interest in the Global Warming Business. Those who thrive on the belief that Humans will destroy Earth.
Jake
April 1st, 2009
3:27 pm
Mrs. G’s dogs are gay! hehehehehehe
DB, Gwinnettian
April 1st, 2009
3:33 pm
Any scientist, hell anyone, who challenges the existance of Man Made Global Warming is censured and castigated.
“And worst of all, the meanieheads at NASA keep you out of Astronaut Skool!”
–Whiner
Rush Limbaugh for President
April 1st, 2009
3:33 pm
I Report,
I didn’t realize you’d been to Mars lately to check the CO2 and temperature change but you are clearly a man of many talents. I have no idea why Mars is not in flames. Maybe ACORN did it. And please pray tell what that has to do with this discussion?
Tax Mongering IPCC? HUH? Again you seem cluless…
The IPCC was established to provide the decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. Its role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. IPCC reports should be neutral with respect to policy, although they need to deal objectively with policy relevant scientific, technical and socio economic factors. They should be of high scientific and technical standards, and aim to reflect a range of views, expertise and wide geographical coverage.
Cap and Trad has not passed yet and probably won’t.
So your cigarette taxes are going up? Excellent! You should stop anyhow.
bi -- IJI
April 1st, 2009
3:34 pm
“Any scientist, hell anyone, who challenges the existance of Man Made Global Warming is censured and castigated.”
Anyone who claims that 1 + 1 = 3 is censured and castigated. Therefore the ‘theory’ that 1 + 1 = 2 is clearly a hoax!
Right-wing ‘logic’ at work.
– bi
Dusty
April 1st, 2009
3:36 pm
I see that Redneck Convert aka FatHead wants to talk about the climate, gas charges and Simpson’s Trailer Park. Well…if RedNeck lives at Simpson’s Trailer Park you can be sure there is a large cloud of “gas ‘charges” going aloft.
They want to blame cows for methane and forget RedNeck. I’m sending Al Gore a note about this so he can invent something to stop it. He did invent TVs, internet of something, didn’t he? Or maybe I should talk to Bill Gates. I think he invented something too….
Mrs. Godzilla
April 1st, 2009
3:40 pm
Jake
No they are not gay, but if would be ok, if they were.
However, as they are canine not human they are not legally allowed to marry.
You did know dog’s can’t marry didn’t you?
cc
April 1st, 2009
3:43 pm
anyone who doesn’t believe in global warming or global cooling or climate change (or whatever you need to call it because of your political background), is a moron and must believe that the earth has a thermostat. i checked with dave lennox and he advised me that to his knowledge the earth does not have a thermostat. the saxons migrated from northern germany along the coast because a warming period flooded what was once their land. the mongols who were herdsmen and needed grass to feed their animals moved from their traditional lands when a cold period occurred leaving most of their land in the steppes frozen for longer times and limiting feed for the livestock. global warming and global cooling happen, and if you are one of the people i hear everytime there is a cold day mocking global warming you’re just a small minded, easily led idiot.
Rush Limbaugh for President
April 1st, 2009
3:48 pm
Dusty,
I see you have entered the frey and are looking to pick a fight. You consistently make the same mistake as your brother, I Report. You take a knife to a gunfight. You seem mighty sensitive about trailor parks.