On Thursday, March 2, at a media industry conference in Orlando, former vice president Al Gore called on the media to support an upcoming effort to spend millions on an alarmist television ad campaign portraying global warming as a looming catastrophe, “the most serious challenge our civilization has ever faced.”
James M. Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News, responded to Gore’s exaggeration of the issue. For more information about this statement or to contact Taylor, email [email protected] or call Michael Van Winkle at The Heartland Institute, 312/377-4000.
“Al Gore’s call for the media to give free air time and donate huge financial sums to an alarmist global warming effort is a typical Al Gore campaign against scientific independence and a level scientific playing field. This is also typical of the propaganda campaigns and intimidation tactics advocated by global warming alarmists, attempting to ‘shame’ real scientists by subjecting them to public scorn.
“More than 17,000 scientists have signed a petition calling into doubt global warming alarmism [http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p357.htm]. Significantly, many of the scientists are specialists in climatology.
“There is still much to learn about the Earth’s climate system. Only partisans, blind alarmists, and scientists more interested in research dollars than dissemination of the truth believe ‘the debate is over.’ Indeed, to the extent the debate is over, it is because initial alarmist predictions have been completely debunked.
“The only current debate is over whether the moderate warming projected will marginally benefit or marginally harm mankind and the Earth’s ecosystems. The early indications are this moderate warming will benefit life on Earth, just as past global warming periods have.
“If Al Gore were indeed more concerned about human welfare than environmental and political posturing, he would ask the media to donate money and air time to halting the current malaria holocaust, from which more than a million people will die this year. Even the New York Times has called for the return of DDT, which effectively combated malaria until activists such as Al Gore banned it due to faulty data and a public scare campaign not unlike his current global warming effort.”
James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is managing editor of Environment & Climate News (http://www.heartland.org/Publications.cfm?pblId=1), a publication of The Heartland Institute, a national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Heartland is supported by approximately 1,500 donors and members. For more information, call Michael Van Winkle, research and media affairs assistant, 312/377-4000, or email him at [email protected].