An open letter to environmentalists

John Coleman 

A guest post by John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, and Chief Meteorologist of KUSI-TV in San Diego.

( Note from Anthony: I know John from way back. He’s a true pioneer in meteorology. I shared a table with him and Joe D’Aleo at the ICCC in New York in March, and I was there when you made his now famous challenge to Al Gore. I agree with John wholeheartedly when he says “do your good work” and “but don’t use scare tactics”.  )

Thank you for your dedication to protecting our environment. Clean air and clean water are essential to preserving life on planet Earth. Protecting all species and natural lands and forests are admirable priorities. Recycling and a green lifestyle are wonderful. Making the environment the most important thing in your life is a good thing, not a problem. I support you.

But we do have a problem. You have vigorously embraced the Global Warming predictions of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and are using the warning of uncontrollable warming and a resulting environmental calamity to campaign for elimination of fossil fuels. Your environmentally conscious friends in politics and in the media have united with you to create a barrage of news reports, documentaries, TV feature reports, movies, books, concerts and protest events to build support for your goals. The war against fossil fuels has become a massive scare campaign that is giving children nightmares.

Here’s what’s wrong with that: the science is not valid. There is no Global Warming underway and the science on which the computer projections of weather chaos are based is wrong.  Dead wrong.

I know many scientists are part of your movement and they have tried hard to give your uncontrollable climate change panic a scientific basis. The UN Climate Change Panel has a large staff, a big budget, a headquarters in Geneva and a strong champion in Al Gore to lead the charge. And thousands of well-intentioned politicians and the media of the world have supported your movement. It must seem to you that there can be no doubt: fossil fuels are destroying the environment and will lead to uncontrollable global warming unless we act now. With all that powerful support for your anti-fossil fuel movement, and with the worthy goal of saving the planet from the disastrous consequences of runaway Global Warming, how can you fail?

Here’s how: The science behind your global warming scare is bad and no anthropogenic global warming is happening. Dissenting scientists have now produced convincing evidence that the cornerstone of your scientific argument, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide forcing a rapid, irreversible rise in temperature, is invalid. All of the various “signs of global warming” you have so widely publicized have been proven wrong. They are normal variations in climate that result mostly from the cycles of the Sun. As the Sun cycle has changed in the last three or four years, they have reversed themselves. Arctic ice melting and polar bears dying, shrinkage of glaciers and the rise of ocean levels, increased intensity and number of hurricanes and intensified droughts have all been touted as signs of global warming. They are not. They are part of this natural variation in climate. The intensified hurricane claim never happened.  Katrina was an isolated, random event. The droughts are part of the natural cycle and are reversing at this time. Glaciers are stabilizing. The Arctic ice cap is already back to normal.

Here is what I am suggesting you do. Campaign for your environmental goals on the basis of their own merit. Let go of the global warming frenzy before it leaves you discredited and embarrassed. Stop screaming, “The sky is falling.” It is not.

Do your good work. Devote your lives to our environment. In many ways you will succeed. We are all grateful for your love of the planet. But, don’t use scare tactics.

Most of all I urge you not to become extremists.  And, may I encourage you to live your lives in a loving way, love your fellow human beings and our wonderful advanced standard of living and way of life as much as you love the Earth.

My very best regards,

John Coleman

P.s. – If you will read my briefs on the science that debunks the global warming frenzy and follow the links there, you will begin to realize the folly of Global Warming.

Go to ICECAP.us for a starter.JC

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Arch Stanton
May 7, 2008 4:33 pm

Dell, I can agree with everything you said.
Off topic but vaguely related to our conversation:
Some folks here may be interested in these reviews of a paper that came out in Geophysical Research Letters this week concerning the poor performance of climate models in Antarctica.
I provide 2 spins on it (neither of which are harsh. I am sure some blogger will rant about it):
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2008/antarctica.jsp
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bromsnow.htm

Arch Stanton
May 7, 2008 4:41 pm

Dell, I can agree with everything you said except for your use of “excuses” in the last. Personally I think they are possible explanations.
Off topic but vaguely related to our conversation:
Some folks here may be interested in these reviews of a paper that came out in Geophysical Research Letters this week concerning the poor performance of climate models in Antarctica.
I provide 2 spins on it:
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2008/antarctica.jsp
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bromsnow.htm
(If this is a duplicate post I apologize. My last post seemed to disappear. I have not been here long enough to know if I should just be patient.)

Pamela Gray
May 7, 2008 5:13 pm

Arch:
Please discuss the icecaps on other planets in light of our own icecaps and your understanding of the cause of recent thinning on these other planets. Mars would be a good place to start.

Arch Stanton
May 7, 2008 5:26 pm

Dell, I can agree with everything you said except for your use of “excuses” in the last. Personally I think they are possible explanations.
Off topic but vaguely related to our conversation:
Some folks here may be interested in these reviews of a paper that came out in Geophysical Research Letters this week concerning the poor performance of climate models in Antarctica.
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2008/antarctica.jsp
(If this is a duplicate post I apologize. My last posts seemed to disappear. I have not been here long enough to know if I should just be patient. Or a spam filter is blocking my links.)

Arch Stanton
May 7, 2008 6:17 pm

Pamela Grey,
I’m not really qualified to discuss ice caps on other planets in depth, (not that I’m qualified to discuss much of anything in depth) but I will comment that concerning Mars I have read that the recent south polar melting has been accounted for by observed albedo change.
(sorry about the multiple posts above I will know to be more patient in the future.)

Arch Stanton
May 7, 2008 6:35 pm

Pamela,
What do you know about Martian ice caps?

An Inquirer
May 7, 2008 9:30 pm

Recently I read the AP artricle in which Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University and others were provided opportunities to take uncontested free shots in regards to polar ice trends. One quote that has gotten some attention here:
Francis added: “Over this entire fall, winter and right up ’till today the ice
concentration, the amount of ice that’s floating around on the Arctic, has
been below normal every single day.”
As has been suggested, Francis is taking quite a bit of liberty in determining what is “normal.” Implicitly, she is saying that normal is what the satellites measured between 1979 and 2000. She would not be correct if we took the years 2000-2006 to be normal. Plus, we have enough ancedotal evidence to suggest that 1979-2000 levels have not been consistently normal over the past couple of centuries.
When I hear John Coleman say that “The Arctic is back to normal,” I understand that to be an approximate statement that in essence reflects the general conditions. I believe everyone who follows global ice realizes that the much of the ice is new. It is reported not to be thinner in all places. Also an interesting note: there are places around the Bering Sea now covered in ice that were actually ice-free in 1980.
Let us remember that some scientists have said that Artic Ice will be gone by 2013. Let us see whether Coleman’s statement turns out to be more accurate than that projection.
For those that take hope in news of Southern Hemispheric ice is expansion: a a colder climate most likely not a desired outcome for the human race.

Pamela Gray
May 8, 2008 6:03 pm

re: ice caps on Mars
I do know that NASA has determined that these icecaps grow and shrink on a regular basis showing both short term and long term cycles (the icecap edges show these changes much like old shore lines do). What could possibly be causing these cycles? I am wondering if there is a correlation between temperature signatures and icecap cycles on Mars with what has been measured here on Earth. I sure wish we had a rover that would head over there to collect ice core samples. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we find correlations all over the place? If correlations are found, it would be very hard to continue the argument for man-made causes re: temperature change.

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