Monday, June 05, 2006

Global Warming: Is Debate Possible?

David Harsanyi of the Denver Post is one of the few media voices challenging the push to accept the theory of Global Warming as doctrine:
The only inconvenient truth about global warming, contends Colorado State University's Bill Gray, is that a genuine debate has never actually taken place. Hundreds of scientists, many of them prominent in the field, agree.

Gray is perhaps the world's foremost hurricane expert. His Tropical Storm Forecast sets the standard. Yet, his criticism of the global warming "hoax" makes him an outcast.
Harsanyi also notes this story from the mid-70s:
"Climatologists," reads the piece, "are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change. ... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality."
At this time activists were fretting over whether or not the government would take action in time to avert imminent global climate change in the form of a new ice age.

The real question is whether or not theories of global warming have become so entrenched and politically charged that meaningful discussion is no longer possible. Global warming enthusiasts, most notably Al Gore, seem to be approaching the subject with something akin to religious fervor.