Now that the Copenhagen meetings have ended in abject failure, it is important to give credit where credit is due. More than any one person, the University of East Anglia whistle blower should go down in history as an American folk hero.
It is more than the fact that this person saved American tax payers from becoming obligated to a deal that would involve an enormous taxing scheme and transfer of American wealth. The more important aspect is that perhaps now a much more critical level of public attention will be brought to bear on the current environmental orthodoxy of the sky is falling alarmism regarding climate change.
It is clear from the information released in the emails and computer files that the leaders in this field were involved in a systematic effort to shape the facts of their science to match the conclusions of their thinking. No amount of skepticism from outside of this little cabal was going to change the "facts" as they arranged them.
It is also clear that the bulk of the raw data that was used n the Climate Research Unit and subsequently the basis for the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was either lost or compromised severely through "alterations."
As the fraud became more public, the fraud deniers sprang into action. Al Gore was quoted as saying the following, "To paraphrase Shakespeare, it is sound and fury signifying nothing. I haven't read all the emails but the most recent one is more than 10 years old." Unfortunately for Al, the most recent ones were two months old.
Al further damaged his dwindling credibility when during a Copenhagen presentation he stated, "These figures are fresh," Mr Gore said, pointing to the slide. "This is the volume metric measure of the ice and some of the models suggest to Dr Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years. This was simply a lie as shortly there after Dr. Maslowski repudiated Gore by saying he mentioned only such a possibility in a conversation with Gore over three years ago.
The Cap and Trade legislation that was the United States law makers reaction to the Global Warming hysteria is likely now dead. However, the EPA's recent announcement that it's unilateral decision to regulate carbon dioxide as a dangerous emission (your breath is dangerous?) is still very much alive. The decision was rendered shortly before the Copenhagen conference and in many quarters was viewed quite suspiciously as a political effort to force the senate's hand on CO2 emissions.
Any effort by the EPA to enforce regulations based on the findings of the existing data will ultimately end up in very long and expensive court battles.
Climate change is happening as it always has during the 4.5 billions years since the birth of the earth. What is not settled science is whether or not it will get hotter or cooler over the next few hundred years. What also is very far from settled is whether or not the United States has any responsibility in Mother Natures over all climate plan. Before the U.S. government commits to any transfer of wealth from the American taxpayers by a non elected U.N committee, a lot more objectivity and skepticism should be brought to the subject.
As for the Massachusetts congressional delegation, they should be acting a lot less as citizens of the world and denizens of Washington and a lot more like citizens of Massachusetts and in the interests of our residents.
