The Ohio Section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists has adopted a position statement rejecting global warming alarmism and calling on Congress to defeat legislation aimed at restricting carbon dioxide emissions.
The position paper reflects growing scientific sentiment that humans are not causing a global warming crisis.
“The Ohio Section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists does hereby oppose House Bill H.R. 2454, the Markey-Waxman ‘cap & trade’ bill,” says the position statement. “The bill is based on the premise that human production of CO2 gas is responsible for ‘global warming’ and that ‘global warming poses a significant threat to the national security, economy, public health and welfare, and environment of the United States and other countries.’ The Ohio Section of AIPG professes that there is no scientific evidence supporting this premise. We therefore reject the bill’s aforementioned, unsupported premise. Subsequently, we also reject the bill’s alarmist claims and unprecedented, economy-wide, government-control proposals.”
Natural Climate Change
Climate change, the geologists note, is an ongoing, natural process.
“As geologists, we affirm that any evaluation of climatic change should be viewed through the context of geologic time and processes. We recognize that world climate has and will change,” the position statement observes.
U.N. Report Flaws Cited
Of particular concern to the geologists is a lack of scientific support for alarmist conclusions reached by the United Nations, which inspired the congressional legislation.
“We are concerned that the bill relies primarily on reports by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) to support its premise. Our concerns include IPCC reliance on unrepresentative ground-based temperature stations. We note an inability of ground-based data to agree with superior quality temperature values from weather balloons and satellites,” the geologists explain.
“We also take concern with IPCC dependence on unreliable climate computer-model simulations. A high degree of model uncertainty was made clear during a recent failure to predict a current cooling trend revealed by NASA satellite data (2008). Dr. Roy Spencer, former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, contends that an incomplete understanding of clouds, and water vapor in its role as the dominant green-house gas, are prime sources of model error,” the statement notes.
Negligible Human Impact
“There is compelling evidence to support the position that human CO2 emissions do not cause climate change,” the statement concludes. “Existing data reveal that human change-agents are so small in the total climate force-field that they are negligible. We therefore advocate thoughtful evaluation based on the scientific method and oppose any hasty and drastic action. We, the Ohio Section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, find we are in the company of some 30,000 scientists world-wide who objectively subscribe to this same position.”
The American Institute of Professional Geologists, founded in 1963, certifies geologists based on their competence, integrity, and ethics. They present testimony and position papers to federal and state legislators and agencies on matters affecting geologists. The membership of the Ohio Section approved the position statement by majority vote.
“The position statement of the Ohio scientists illustrates how surveys of scientists themselves reflect a far deeper skepticism toward global warming alarmism than is often asserted by the bureaucratic branches of scientific organizations,” said Joe D’Aleo, executive director of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project and the first director of meteorology at the cable TV Weather Channel.
“Those of us who are meteorologists and who work daily with fellow meteorologists will tell you there is no truth to the alleged ‘scientific consensus,'” D’Aleo observed.
Penny Rodriguez ([email protected]) writes from Parrish, Florida.
