Global Warming Hoax Roundup

Yep, more on global warming. This pseudo-science fad looks to be finally coming to an end... but will somebody please get the memo to Al Gore?

Here's some of the latest scoops.

The 32,000 Deniers
We've already heard about the 100 scientists in NY, the letter signed by over 100 leading climate scientists released last year, and the list of 400 scientists released last December who all question the notion of man-made global warming. Now, feast your eyes on the most impressive list of all...

It's a project known as the "Oregon Petition", and it is a list of roughly 32,000 scientists who now deny man-made global warming. (Yes, you read that number correctly.) And it's not just anybody who could sign the petition -- the invitation was offered to the members of American Men and Women of Science, "a who's who of science" according to the Financial Times. So the question at the beginning of the linked article is an apt one: How many scientists does it take to establish that a consensus does not exist on global warming?

Crap! Call everyone with a big SUV to save us!
The London Telegraph has the scoop with the headline "Global warming may 'stop', scientists predict." In the article, we learn that researchers and scientists are now predicting a drop in global temperatures until 2015 -- what they call a "lull" in global warming that will completely negate the rise in global temps that have been "caused by manmade greenhouse gas emissions". (Not to pick on these scientists and researchers, but how strange is it that the rise in global temperatures is automatically attributed to greenhouse gas emissions, but a predicted cooling period is because of "natural trends" and "natural variations in climate"?)

Then there's this story that has four different scientists all predicting that "the global warming trend is done, and a cooling trend is about to kick in."

So dust off those SUV's, everyone, and kick some more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere to keep us all warm for the next 7 years!

Holy Regenerating Ice Caps, Batman!
Much angst has been displayed over the loss of the Antarctic icecap in recent years. It is popular to display a picture of the icecap from, say 50 years ago, next to one from today and then decry the awful global warming forces because the icecap is now smaller than it used to be. But don't let anyone fool you: that icecap is coming back with a vengeance!

In fact, the Antarctic icecap achieved record growth in 2007, according to the University of Illinois! Here's a neat picture to illustrate what they found (the purple is new icecap growth last year):



Dovetailing with that stuff are new studies released by NASA that declare that global warming never had anything to do with the previously decreasing size of the icecap anyway -- that winds were responsible for the change. (Here's another link to the story.) Here's the line straight out of the NASA report: "The rapid decline in winter perennial ice the past two years was caused by unusual winds."

Phew. Glad we don't have to worry about those polar bears any more.

APS Now Deniers As Well
That's APS as in the "American Physical Society," a group of over 50,000 physicists. Prior to last week, the APS held an official position that endorsed the view that man-made global warming exists. In fact, the leadership of the APS had called the evidence for man-made global warming "incontrovertible." Now, however, they have officially changed their position because "many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming." In fact, the group is now debating whether or not CO2 emissions will have any significant impact on global climate at all!

Well, the ride was fun while it lasted, Al
Finally, this little quickie for all you Inconvenient Truth fans out there... a judge in Britain has ruled that Al Gore makes at least 11 unsupported or flat out false claims in his movie, and any teacher showing the film in school must inform their students of that fact.

Now the only question remaining is: how long until these folks find the next "crisis" to warn us about?