In the last few weeks, we’ve seen an increase in the amount of scientists who have publicly challenged the claims of the UN’s IPCC report about Global Warming and the impact humans have had on global climate change. In fact, the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works recently came out with a 231-page report, wherein over 650 international scientists directly challenged the claims of the IPCC, which was actually authored by only 52 scientists. In fact, when the IPCC claimed it had the support of a very high number of scientists, most of those who were named on that list had never been informed of their support of the conclusions and actually tried to have their names removed from the list!
Beyond the challenges to the original report, there are new findings pointing to faulty data being manufactured to support the theory of man-made global warming. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by an Al Gore supporter, Dr James Hansen, announced that this last October was the “hottest on record”, despite the fact that there were reports of un-seasonal snow and dropping temperatures everywhere, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October, and had ranked it as the 70th-warmest October in 114 years. Why the disparity? Apparently, the recorded temperatures from the previous month had been carried over and repeated for the next two months! According to one GISS spokesperson, “GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with,” a rather shocking statement given the fact that the IPCC regularly relies on the data from GISS to make their case for man-made global warming!
Meanwhile, the overall news coverage has not only not reflected the news about global warming, but it has gone on to cause more alarmism and fear with articles like “Obama left with little time to curb global warming“, which not only ignored these facts, but it also made sweeping and inaccurate statements about global warming, calling it “a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid,” and stating that “global warming is accelerating.”
Fortunately, sources more well-informed than AP writers were quick to point out the fallacies in the article, pointing out that the claims amounted to propaganda, contained factual errors, and ultimately was attempting to cause hysteria and fear. One scientist even said “Reporters, as I understand reporters, are supposed to report facts… What he’s doing here is he’s writing a polemic and reporting it as fact, and that’s not right. It’s not reporting. It’s propaganda.” So what can we do?
Regardless of the facts of situation, we’re seeing a media which has consistently chosen to hide the facts and couch every news story in terms of its own agenda. How can conservatives fight back against this? I propose a three part strategy.
The first part involves giving more publicity to these news stories, like those I’ve linked here, and making sure people are more well-informed about these issues. Talking about these news stories with your immediate friends can have a significant impact if everyone decides it’s something worth talking about.
The second part is to hijack the “choice” dialogue- as per Abby’s post earlier, one of the underlying Republican “truths” is that the Government should not legislate the actions of individuals. We should start framing our position on Global Warming as being the “pro-choice” position- people should be capable of making their own decisions about what they buy, what they do, and how they go about it.
The third part is to point out that conservation, efficiency and choice are not incompatible. This should be made very clear as well, some of the “green technology” innovations can significantly help businesses. Businesses, as well as interested citizens, should freely choose to pick more energy-efficient, and therefore more economical alternatives per their own personal choice. There are many great examples of where “green” technology has saved money and helped make for more efficient use of resources.
One argument I constantly hear is that regardless of the fact that the global warming supporters often rely on falsified and misleading evidence to support their claims, the ends justify the means as conservation is a good thing and more efficient use of resources is a positive thing for everyone. To this I reply that if this were the only thing that this hysteria accomplished, that wouldn’t be nearly as problematic. However, we’re seeing a concerted movement to mandate choices, from suing car companies for global warming (ever wonder why they need a bailout?) to telling consumers which light bulbs to buy- consumer choice is being threatened now more than ever. And it should be the job of the Republican Party to make sure that choice is protected here- that people know they have the option to be more efficient, and that it can be more economical, but they need to come to that decision on their own.
By promoting real facts about global warming to defuse hysteria and emphasizing conservation and choice together, the Republican party has a real opportunity to promote real change while staying factual and well-balanced.
Last 5 posts by Brad Tidwell
- Obama and International Perception - October 20th, 2009
- The Healthcare Debate, Simplified. - October 2nd, 2009
- Win $100 for Reporting Campus Leftist Abuse! - September 30th, 2009
- Serena, Kanye, Wilson and the GOP's Crisis of Coverage - September 22nd, 2009
- The Next Generation of Conservatism is Here- CampusReform.org - September 16th, 2009
