Post-Gazette Editorial – 6/28/06

This page was last updated on June 29, 2006.

Listen to the warm / It’s time for America to act on climate control; Editorial; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; June 28, 2006.

In my opinion, this editorial is one lie after another connected by misrepresentations. You’ll see what I mean below.

When reading this editorial, keep in mind it uses “global warming” to mean both “global warming from all sources” and “manmade global warming.”

Finally, my comments below are based on the subject report’s Executive Summary and Report in Brief. I did not read the entire report.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The U.S. National Academy of Sciences is renowned for its sobriety. There isn’t a dilettante or wild-eyed celebrity tree-sitter in the bunch.”

[RWC] As you will read, this editorial completely misrepresents the NAS report. The editorial wants us to believe the report is about global warming and supports the belief that global warming is the result of humans. The report does nothing of the kind. The report, entitled “Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years,” deals solely with the accuracy of temperature data collected for the last 2,000 years. Don’t take my word for it, though. Read the report yourself.

Here’s what led to the report. During the 1990s, a report was published asserting, “the 1990s are likely the warmest decade, and 1998 the warmest year, in at least a millennium.” A lot of people took issue with that assessment given that recorded temperatures only go back about 150 years. The report wasn’t about what may have caused global change, but about whether the temperature data was reliable enough to use to determine if climate change occurred at all.

“When Congress needed honest brokers to undertake a systematic review of the data on global warming, it turned to the National Academy to cut through the partisan smoke and propaganda being kicked up in what has become a cyclical debate in Washington.

“Scientists at the National Academy recently issued a 141-page report on global warming that didn’t leave an inch of wiggle room for skeptics of climate change. According to the report, the Earth is the hottest it has been in 400 years thanks to human and industrial activity. The Northern Hemisphere is at its warmest point in 2,000 years and doesn’t appear to be in a hurry to break the one-degree ‘fever’ it picked up in the 20th century.”

[RWC] Just as the PG tries to conflate legal and illegal immigration, it is trying to conflate climate change with manmade climate change. If the data shows climate change, I don’t know anyone who’s trying to deny it. Any skepticism has to do with the role of humans regarding climate change. The PG wants us to believe any climate change is the result of human activity.

As I noted above, the editorial lies about the conclusion of the NAS report. It’s true the report concludes, “with a high level of confidence, that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries.” It does not say, or come close to saying, “thanks to human and industrial activity.” Again, read the report and see for yourself.

About its temperature estimates, the NAS said, “There is less confidence in reconstructions of surface temperatures from 1600 back to A.D. 900, and very little confidence in findings on average temperatures before then.” I wonder why the editorial failed to note that comment.

Regarding the last 400 years, the editorial fails to note the existence of the Little Ice Age from sometime in the 1200s through the mid-1800s. Simply put, at least the first 250 of the last 400 years took place in a period of below average temperatures. Given this data, why wouldn’t we expect today’s temperatures to be “high” relative to those during a “little ice age?”

“Instead of debunking previous reports on global warming for excessive pessimism, the academy confirmed that research from the 1990s was ‘very close to being right.’”

[RWC] The research to which the NAS report referred was only regarding the accuracy of temperature measurement. The report did not even attempt to explain the cause of climate change.

“Reputable scientists, at least those not on the payroll of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, have long agreed that global warming is primarily the result of human-generated greenhouse emissions. For decades, the naysayers have defied this consensus by insisting that warming trends are cyclical and that mankind isn’t capable of knocking Mother Nature out of balance with greenhouse emissions.”

[RWC] What hogwash! If you disagree with the idea that humans have caused global warming, you are either disreputable or on the payroll of Big Oil.

“For decades, the naysayers have defied this consensus?” Just three decades ago, the same people today telling us humans are responsible for global warming were telling us global cooling was going to doom us.¹

“Two years ago, novelist Michael Crichton gave voice to this sentiment in ‘State of Fear,’ a best seller that suggested that global warming is based on the lies of environmental extremists out to sabotage human progress. President Bush was so impressed by the book’s wacky premise that he invited Mr. Crichton to the White House.”

[RWC] For this paragraph to be accurate, you must substitute “manmade global warming” for “global warming.”

“Between repudiating the Kyoto emissions accord and endorsing Mr. Crichton’s book, the Bush administration was signaling its impatience with the scientific consensus on climate change.”

[RWC] Lest we forget, the Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol 95 – 0 in 1997 during the presidency of Bill Clinton and vice presidency of Al Gore.

“Recently a new political consensus has begun to grow (Hurricane Katrina may have had something to do with it). Conservatives who were once skeptics are now more inclined to examine the evidence. Evangelicals have begun claiming the environment as a ‘stewardship’ issue.”

[RWC] Earth to PG. The idea last year’s hurricane season was caused by global warming was debunked last year by hurricane experts.

“Even Mr. Bush appears to have reluctantly ceded the existence of global warming, though he prefers market-driven solutions to the problem.”

[RWC] Once again we have the editorial using two different meanings for global warming. This time the editorial uses two meanings in the same sentence.

“Between the National Academy’s report and former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ global warming has come into its own as a political and moral issue. As hard as it is to get the naysayers to agree that there’s a problem, it will be twice as hard to build consensus for real action. But that needs to become part of the American agenda -- now.”

[RWC] See here what the Senate says about the AP’s contention that “Scientists OK Gore’s Movie for Accuracy.”

1. The Cooling World; Peter Gwynne; Newsweek; April 28, 1975.