The end of the IPCC?
Just before 2 a.m. on February 19, the war on climate science showed its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives as it voted to eliminate U.S. funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Republican majority, on a mostly party-line vote of 244-179, went on record as essentially saying that it no longer wishes to have the IPCC prepare its comprehensive international climate science assessments. ( http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2011/02/19/house-votes-244-179-to-kill-u-s-funding-of-ipcc/ )
Some examples of the "rationale" in the background of this vote:
Representative Luetkemeyer (Missouri): "Scientists manipulated climate data, suppressed legitimate arguments in peer-reviewed journals, and researchers were asked to destroy emails, so that a small number of climate alarmists could continue to advance their environmental agenda."
US Congress Representative John Shimkus (Illinois): "Today we have about 388 parts per million [of carbon dioxide] in the atmosphere,". "I think in the age of the dinosaurs, when we had most flora and fauna, we were probably at 4000 parts per million. There is a theological debate that this is a carbon-starved planet, not too much carbon." " " The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood. http://washingtonindependent.com/36373/gop-still-arguing-for-a-return-to-dinosaur-era; click here
The Representative is correct in pointing to the wealth of fauna and flora in the age of the dinosaurs (Figure 1). The only error he makes is in overlooking the fact that humans, as a part of nature, are the product of environment changes associated with cooling of the Earth since the mid-Pliocene about 3 million years ago, followed by the glacial-interglacial eras during which H. sapiens and civilization arose. The other error is that rapid shifts between climate states result in mass extinctions.
But then its
not clear how many of the new House majority accept Darwinian evolution?
Representative Joe Barton (Texas), who is competing for the position of chairman of the Congress Energy and commerce Committee states: "Wind is God's way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it's hotter to areas where it's cooler. That's what wind is. Wouldn't it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I'm not saying that's going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can't transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It's just something to think about." http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-20-house-republicans-bring/.
Never mind that in nature winds move air from cold high pressure to warm low pressure zones, such as in onshore sea breeze or the polar vortices.
E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance
for the Stewardship of Creation, argued that because the "biblical worldview sees the world and
ecosystems as the work of a wise God, humankind couldn't possibly be affecting
the climate". click here
Some are happy with ongoing carbon emissions, among other as "plant food", in what some of them regard as a "carbon starved world". http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-20-house-republicans-bring/
A new kind of "science" is being invented, free of data and unrelated to the basic laws of physics and chemistry.
Just in case those who reject the science may not be correct, at least Congress continues to support space research programs. In search of habitable planets when Earth is no longer suitable for human life?
Defenders of the IPCC are in retreat. Representative Waxman (California) states: "The US contributes only $2.3 million to the IPCC. Our $2.3 million contribution leverages a global science assessment with global outreach and global technical input -- a process we could not carry out alone and one that could come to a halt without US support ". click here
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