People who are sure of what they believe usually handle opposing opinions well. People who are unsure of their facts tend to want to silence opposition. That is something to remember as you listen to some of the people claiming that climate change is going to kill us all in two years (or five years, or ten years, or whatever the latest claim is). As you listen to the hysteria, remember that in 1985, the cover of TIME magazine warned us about the coming Ice Age.
Well, one fear mongering climate change proponent has a new idea–bar global warming skeptics from high public office. So much for free speech and the right of the people to choose their candidates.
Investor’s Business Daily posted an article yesterday about John Kerry’s speech at the Climate and Clean Energy Investment Forum.
The article quotes John Kerry’s speech:
“But when I hear a United States senator say, ‘I’m not a scientist so I can’t make a judgment,’ or a candidate for president for that matter, I’m absolutely astounded. I mean, it’s incomprehensible that a grownup who has been to high school and college in the United States of America disqualifies themselves because they’re not a scientist when they’ve learned that the Earth rotates on its axis, but they’re not a scientist; where they’ve learned that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and it does so 24 hours a day; and you can run the list of things that we know science tells us happens, and we accept it every single day.
“And to suggest that when more than 6,000-plus peer-reviewed studies of the world’s best scientists all lay out that this is happening and mankind is contributing to it, it seems to me that they disqualify themselves fundamentally from high public office with those kinds of statements.”
The authors of the article’s response:
As is often said at children’s parks all over the country, two can play this game. So we propose here that no climate change alarmist or uncritical believer in the man-made global warming story should hold high, medium or even low public office. It makes sense. Almost all of those who meet these descriptions are either: 1) political opportunists who are simply saying the right things to a voting bloc or some other group whose support they’re courting, or 2) the sort of folks who haven’t given the issue enough thought, in most cases because they don’t want to.
Spare us the nonsense about “6,000-plus peer reviewed studies” and the new perennial favorite “97% of scientists say man is warming the planet.” The first is either a poorly done study or con job, and the second is … either a poorly done study or con job .
Actually, we don’t mind if those who believe in man-made global warming hold office, as long as they came by their views honestly. What we do mind is believers using office to hector us all incessantly about our prosperous lifestyles, and enact policies that won’t change Earth’s temperature one bit but sure will overwhelm developed economies. The rest of us shouldn’t have to pay the price of their opinions.
For the best scientific information on the truth in climate change, I recommend wattsupwiththat.com.