I am a PhD scientist and mathematician and am truly concerned with the welfare of the planet and its people.
I have spent countless days reading a whole lot of scientific information from sources I feel are trustworthy.
I am no longer worried that we face a major threat from an increasing CO2 concentration. In fact there are some very positive consquences from some more warming that outweigh the negatives. In that case it makes no sense at all to waste trillions of dollars doing something that is likely to either have no effect or actually have a negative effect on climate. The cost of those remedies will hurt poor people much more than the rich.
If you sincerely want to learn more to make up your own mind, I recommend reading these books:
Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming
by Patrick J. Michaels
This book convincingly demonstrates the remarkable differences between what we commonly read about global warming and what is really happening. Nine chapters describe major problems with computer simulations of future climate that are the basis for wrenching policies being proposed by world leaders. Anyone who reads this book will come away with a new appreciation of the complexity of the climate issue and will question the need for expensive policies that are likely to have little or no detectable effect on the planet's temperature. Published in cooperation with the George C. Marshall Institute.
A Primer on CO2 and Climate
by Howard C. Hayden
Much of the world is poised to take very drastic steps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the hope that doing so will keep the world from becoming overheated. Indeed, some alarmists call for an 80% reduction in burning of fossil fuels (from which the world gets 85% of its energy) by 2050. But does CO2 really control climate? Perhaps we should look at the facts before committing to CO2 reduction policies that would surely be devastating. Hayden's Primer is based on the notion that the first step in understanding the relationship between CO2 and climate is to gather the facts. Outputs from computer programs are not data.
About the Author
Howard Hayden is a Professor Emeritus of Physics from the University of Connecticut. A Colorado native, he entered the University of Denver as an engineering major, but soon discovered that he wasn t temperamentally suited to all that reality. He switched to physics and went on to earn his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. at DU. On receiving his Ph.D., he went to the University of Connecticut where he spent 32 years clasting icons and corrupting young minds. He did accelerator-based atomic physics, including measurements of cross-sections for various processes, measurements of energy loss in atomic collisions and of lifetimes of excited states, beam-foil spectroscopy, and ion implantation.
Hayden has a long-standing interest in energy, stemming from before the OPEC oil embargoes of the 70s. Presently, he publishes a monthly newsletter, The Energy Advocate, which in August 2007 began its 12th year of publication. He wrote The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won t Run the World. Reviews of the book have varied from praise to venomous hatred.
Hayden is not employed by any petroleum, coal, natural gas, nuclear-fuel, or any other energy company, or any utility, nor does he receive any compensation from any such facility, either as direct payment or as research support or any other kind of grant. His association with such scurrilous outfits is that he has to pay them for fuels and electricity, quite as if he were a normal human being.
Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years
by S. Fred Singer , Dennis T. Avery
In this New York Times bestseller, authors Singer and Avery present the compelling concept that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle. Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with natural physical records, the authors argue that the 1,500 year solar-driven cycle that has always controlled the earth's climate remains the driving force in the current warming trend.
Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor
by Roy Spencer
If you listen to the media, you would think that man-made environmental catastrophe was about to engulf the world and imperil civilization. From Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to nightly jeremiads about CO2 emissions and carbon footprints, we are bombarded around the clock with alarmist reports that disasterous global warming is on the rise and that it's our fault. In Climate Confusion, noted climatologist Roy Spencer shows that fears about global warming are vastly exaggerated and are driven by politics, not truth. He shows that a global superstorm has already arrived-but it is a storm of hype and hysteria. Climate Confusion is a ground-breaking book that combines impeccable scientific authority with great wit and literary panache to expose the hysteria surrounding the myths of global warming and climate change. Spencer shows that the earth is far more resilient than exopessimists pretend and that increasing wealth and technology ingenuity, far from being the enemies of the environment, are the only means we possess to solve environmental problems as they arise.
From the Author I wrote Climate Confusion for several reasons. In contrast to other works, I wanted it to be an entertaining and easily understood primer on how weather and climate works, showing why manmade global warming is unlikely to be a serious problem for humanity. Furthermore, I wanted to explore the political, philosophical, and religious underpinnings of beliefs in catastrophic global warming, helping the reader to better appreciate why scientific research in this area has become tainted and untrustworthy. Finally, and possibly most importantly, by using basic economic concepts I wanted to counter currently proposed policy "solutions" to global warming that will have devastating effects on the world's poor.
The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too fearful to do so
by Lawrence Solomon
Is The "Scientific Consensus" on Global Warming a Myth? Yes, says internationally renowned environmentalist author Lawrence Solomon who highlights the brave scientists--all leaders in their fields-- who dispute the conventional wisdom of climate change alarmists (despite the threat to their careers). Al Gore and his media allies claim the only scientists who dispute the alarmist view on global warming are corrupt crackpots and "deniers", comparable to neo-Nazis who deny the Holocaust.
Solomon calmly and methodically debunks Gore's outrageous charges, showing in on 'headline' case after another that the scientists who dispute Gore's doomsday scenarios have far more credibility than those who support Gore's theories. These men who expose Gore's claims as absurd hold top positions at the most prestigious scientific institutes in the world. Their work is cited and acclaimed throughout the scientific community. No wonder Gore and his allies want to pretend they don't exist.
This is the one book that PROVES the science is NOT settled. The scientists profiled are too eminent and their research too devastating to allow simplistic views of global warming--like Al Gore's--to survive.
Al Gore says any scientist who disagrees with him on Global Warming is a kook, or a crook. Guess he never met these guys
Dr. Edward Wegman--former chairman of the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences--demolishes the famous "hockey stick" graph that launched the global warming panic.
Dr. David Bromwich--president of the International Commission on Polar Meteorology--says "it's hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now."
Prof. Paul Reiter--Chief of Insects and Infectious Diseases at the famed Pasteur Institute--says "no major scientist with any long record in this field" accepts Al Gore's claim that global warming spreads mosquito-borne diseases.
Prof. Hendrik Tennekes--director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute--states "there exists no sound theoretical framework for climate predictability studies" used for global warming forecasts.
Dr. Christopher Landsea--past chairman of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Tropical Meteorology and Tropical Cyclones--says "there are no known scientific studies that show a conclusive physical link between global warming and observed hurricane frequency and intensity."
Dr. Antonino Zichichi--one of the world's foremost physicists, former president of the European Physical Society, who discovered nuclear antimatter--calls global warming models "incoherent and invalid."
Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski--world-renowned expert on the ancient ice cores used in climate research--says the U.N. "based its global-warming hypothesis on arbitrary assumptions and these assumptions, it is now clear, are false."
Prof. Tom V. Segalstad--head of the Geological Museum, University of Oslo--says "most leading geologists" know the U.N.'s views "of Earth processes are implausible."
Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu--founding director of the International Arctic Research Center, twice named one of the "1,000 Most Cited Scientists," says much "Arctic warming during the last half of the last century is due to natural change."
Dr. Claude Allegre--member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and French Academy of Science, he was among the first to sound the alarm on the dangers of global warming. His view now: "The cause of