Conservative Think Tank Says Global Warming Needs More Study
None by KCPW
(KCPW News) A new study released by a conservative Salt Lake City think tank claims climate experts do not agree on the existence of global warming. Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute says the issue is being used as a political football in Utah.
Mero says more research needs to be done to avoid unnecessary government intervention.
"Before we send Utah on this path of telling everybody when they can do this or that, what cars they can drive, whether they can have this manufacturing business or not . . . we'd better be very careful of the information we base those decisions on," Mero says.
The study asked 530 climate scientists from 27 countries a series of questions related to global warming. Mero says researchers found no consensus among climatologists that existing models accurately predict climate change. That flies in the face of Governor John Huntsman, who recently signed the Climate Action Initiative to reduce carbon emissions in the state.
The Sutherland Institute is distributing the study locally, but research for the study was done in 2003 by two German scientists and distributed by sister think tank the Heartland Institute.
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1. Sean Morris said:
For gawdsake people, that "study" was an online poll.
EVERY NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY & SOCIETY IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD IS IN AGREEMENT: HUMAN ACTIVITY IS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING.
When will the deniers lies stop? Never, I guess.
3. James M. Taylor said:
As a coauthor of the study in question, let me mention that the survey was done twice, once by mail in 1996 and again using an online survey instrument in 2003. The online survey had restricted access to climate scientists, and a statistical analysis of the pattern of answers to the two surveys, conducted by the authors, shows it was quite unlikely that the second survey had reached a different audience than the first.
The survey is serious social science, as revealed by the full report just released here: http://downloads.heartland.org/GKSS_2007_11.pdf The short version being distributed by the Southerland Institute can be found online here: http://downloads.heartland.org/2086111.pdf .
4. Morty said:
I agree with Scott. Not EVERYBODY is in agreement here. Even the founder and former president of Greenpeace, said he feels temperatures are rising, and that we should try to cut emissions, but that this is part of a normal, global cycle. He's since distanced himself from the organization because they are so radical. Much of this debate is just centered around control. Let's think things through more before we keep shouting that the earth is flat.
2. Scott James said:
Golly Sean! Don't get your panties in a wad there. I have to agree with the 'think tank' here. It's getting pretty easy these days to find peer reviewed research that flies in the face of a human component to climate change. You do of course, have the right to maintain a state of high anxiety over AGW if you like, but trust me... the science is anything but settled...and us 'denier liers' appear to (thankfully) finally be getting our point across.