  In 1997, the Heartland Institute published a urlLink broadside in Environmental News that began to focus on the political as well as the scientific aspects of the discussions surrounding the theory of global warming that had been gaining ground in the national consciousness. In the article they interviewed some researchers whose models seemed to funk out from time to time... "On the whole, climate modelers are a decidedly more modest lot than they were just a few years ago. Having seen their models' predictions of rising temperatures not confirmed by actual readings, they are beginning to appreciate how such variables as aerosols and cloud cover can bedevil the most sophisticated computers. Kerr spoke with one senior climate modeler who preferred his name not be used. Summarizing the doubts many climate modelers are beginning to voice, the humbled scientist said, "The more you learn, the more you understand that you don't understand very much". " What we seem to have all forgotten is that in the 70's the same science was pointing to a new Ice Age, rather than a new Tropical Age.
The urlLink Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise reminds us "In fact, 30 years ago forecasts for global cooling represented the conventional wisdom. For example, a feature story in the April 28, 1975, edition of Newsweek described "ominous signs" that the climate had started "to change dramatically. " Well... what do you know, that isn't just an urban legend... here's an excerpt from the Newsweek issue from that date courtesy of the urlLink University of Texas at Austin .
"The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually.... To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world's weather. Meteorologists... are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic. "A major climatic change would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale," warns a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences... A survey completed last year by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968. According to George Kukla of Columbia University, satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72.
And a study released last month by two NOAA scientists notes that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972. " "Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies.
The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality. " Good heavens! Are we dead yet? In 2001 Dr. Patrick J. Michaels (author of Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air About Global Warming ) penned an article for a publication called urlLink Objective Science that directly challenged the science used to come to the conclusions we were about to be turned into rye toast in which he questioned the models used from a scientists viewpoint... "It's not that there weren't other computer models available. There are. There were nearly 20 different sophisticated, but still flawed, models tested in the IPCC's TAR called general circulation climate models (GCMs). If Watson were forthcoming, he would have pointed out that the average for those models was a rise of only about 3.8°F--or some 2.75 times less than the extreme value Watson and the Post trumpet.
" An organization in Britain known as Numberwatch published its urlLink Ten Facts About Global Warming everyone should know. Its funny stuff... in a way. This would be funnier if it wasn't so see-through. Global Warming indeed... if by GLOBAL one means G rants L eaving O ur B ig A mbiguous L ab! In the winter it gets cold. In the summer it gets hot. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes its dry. If you stay out in the sun too long you may burn. Oh yeah... and don't forget to eat plenty of complex carbohydrates. Oh... wait a minute... -------------------- Further Reading: Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death urlLink MORE… 
