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Scientists Rally Around NASA Chief After Global Warming Comments
| Source: Science and Public Policy Institute
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - June 4, 2007) - Ewire -- "NASA's top administrator, Michael
Griffin, speaking on NPR radio made some refreshingly sensible comments
about the present global warming scare," said Robert Ferguson, Director of
the Science and Public Policy Institute. "Many rationalist scientists agree
with him, clearly demonstrating there is no scientific consensus on
man-made, catastrophic global warming," said Ferguson.
Griffin said he doubted global warming is "a problem we must wrestle with,"
and that it is arrogant to believe that today's climate is the best we
could have and that "we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't
change."
While NASA scientist, James Hansen, was sharply critical of his boss, other
scientists from around the world came to Griffin's support.
Said Dr. Walter Starck, an Australian marine scientist, "Griffin makes an
important distinction between the scientific findings of climate change and
dramatic predictions of catastrophic consequences accompanied by policy
demands. The former can be evaluated by its evidence, but; the latter rest
only on assertions and claims to authority. Alternate predictions of
benefits from projected changes have been proposed with comparable
authority and plausibility. For example, unless one chooses to define the
Little Ice Age as 'normal' and 'optimal' the net effect of any warming has
only been beneficial and any anthropogenic contribution very small indeed.
Dramatic predictions of imminent disaster have a near perfect record of
failure. Griffin's note of caution in the escalating concern over climate
change deserves sober consideration.
Another Australian, who testified before a Senate panel last year,
Professor Robert Carter, observed, "My main reaction to Michael Griffin is
to congratulate him on his clear-sightedness, not to mention his courage in
speaking out on such a controversial topic."
Dr. Tim Ball, a Canadian climatologist, responded: "Griffin's statement is
sensible because it allows time for the testing of the man-made global
warming hypothesis to continue as it should."
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