Geoff Metcalf
Etherzone
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

ABC TV meteorologist James Spann has sparked a cyber-excrement-storm for having the unpardonable gall to be honest.

Actually, he didn’t start it. The escalation of angst was frankly started when a Weather Channel twit suggested that anyone not conforming to the gospel according Al Gore should be decertified and silenced.

Voltaire once said, "I may not agree with what you say, but to your death I will defend your right to say it." Apparently the Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen believes “If you don’t agree with me, you should be silenced, censured, and ostracized.”

The central point to all this brouhaha is the debate over global warming. And there in is the essence of the problem. It remains a DEBATE.

Notwithstanding the grandstanding of Nancy Pelosi and Arnold Schwarzanegger to pander to the eco-wacko lobby, global warming remains a question…

There is no irrefutable empirical data to support or refute EITHER side in the debate. Hence, the debate continues…notwithstanding Cullen’s efforts to declare victory and silence all critics.

Spann does not believe that human activity is contributing to global warming and contends, "billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon." Bull’s-eye!

"Well, well," Spann wrote on his blog. "Some `climate expert' on `The Weather Channel' wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent `global warming' is a natural process. So much for `tolerance,' huh?

"I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. ... I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global-warming hype. I know there are a few out there, but I can't find them." Spann said.

Spann said he just wants "an open marketplace of ideas" about global warming. "She (Cullen) suggested that anybody that didn't agree with her, that our AMS certification should be taken away," Spann said. "That was my biggest problem with it.” And he isn’t the Lone Ranger…

Meanwhile, House Speaker Pelsoi has created a special committee to address global warming and supposedly produce a bill by July.

The committee will hold hearings and recommend legislation on how to reduce greenhouse gases, regardless of whether any actual facts suggest a need.

Pelosi said, "I promise to do everything in my power to achieve energy independence ... and to stop global warming," which ought to be a neat trick given the routine warming and cooling cycles the globe has endured for millennium.

Despite the usual suspects tendency to abuse power to effect political agendas, not all Democrats have embraced the new committee.

Rep. John Dingell, usually a staunch partisan, said,” We should probably name it the committee on world travel and junkets…We’re just empowering a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs to go around and make speeches and make commitments that will be very difficult to honor," said Dingell.

I have had occasion to interview Dr. S Fred Singer, former director of the National WeatherSatellite Center a respected atmospheric scientist from George Mason University. Singer is the author of "Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming's Unfinished Debate,"

I asked Dr. Singer about the list of 2,500 ‘scientists supporting the concept of global warming and he said, “You hear about 2,500 scientists who worked on this report for the United Nations. First of all, the number is less than 2,000 and secondly, of these, perhaps 100 are qualified to say something about the climate -- and they have never been polled. We don't know whether they agree with the main conclusion or not. I would say a handful does agree with the main conclusions of the U.N. report, but, many of them do not.”

I also asked about the 17,000 scientists who say global warming is a hoax.

“That is absolutely correct.” Singer said. “17,000 have actually signed a petition against the Kyoto protocol -- But one shouldn't go by numbers. Science doesn't work that way. You can't take votes and say that this science is correct. “

But it is significant to realize that there is not unanimity within the scientific community about the concept of global warming. To which Singer said, “That is the point -- that there is a debate going on -- and the public is entitled to know that there is a debate and that the debate is not finished. It is still going on.”

Al Gore and Heidi Cullen are welcome to join the debate…they are not allowed to declare victory and silence opponents.

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