| The human race is heading for ecological disaster | | | | atmosphere. After correcting for the "urban" |
| because of its increasing and all-pervasive assaults | | | | effect, a study by the National Oceanographic and |
| on our air, water, and land. Pollution is everywhere. | | | | Atmospheric Administration concluded that there |
| Our industrial civilization is heading toward | | | | was no statistically significant evidence of warming |
| environmental collapse, and mankind's fate hangs | | | | in the United States [italics added]. Andrew R. |
| in the balance. | | | | Solow, a statistician at Woods Hole, pointed out |
| Does this scare you out of your wits? It's | | | | that because monitoring stations tend to be |
| intended to do just that. This scenario from a | | | | located on land rather than oceans and more are |
| second-rate horror movie is passed off as | | | | in the Northern than in the Southern Hemisphere, |
| scientific fact by a new breed of doomsday | | | | temperature readouts are not really global at all. |
| prophet, the radical environmentalist. Read and | | | | Ten years of weather satellite data have also |
| take heed--the end is near. Here is an example of | | | | shown no evidence of global warming." |
| a typical environmentalist scare story: | | | | There's little valid evidence of global warming. |
| "The present course of environmental | | | | Instead, there's solid evidence that the Earth has |
| degradation, if unchecked, threatens the survival | | | | not been warming. Since 1978, a |
| of civilized man. Yet the evidence is overwhelming | | | | temperature-measuring satellite called Tiros II has |
| that the way in which we now live on the earth is | | | | been orbiting the Earth 24-hours a day. Guess |
| driving its thin, life-supporting skin, and ourselves | | | | what? The satellite's measurements showed no |
| with it, to destruction." | | | | significant increase or decrease in the Earth's |
| Environmentalists' doomsday predictions would be | | | | temperature. Scientific temperature |
| comical, if it wasn't for the fact that these scare | | | | measurements from Tiros II show no global |
| stories have frightened local, state, and federal | | | | warming trend in the last fifteen years. In other |
| legislators into creating a massive, poisonous layer | | | | words, global warming is a myth. |
| of regulations. Environmental regulations violate our | | | | Many eminent scientists agree that global warming |
| property rights, restrict our personal liberties, | | | | and other environmental scare stories are just |
| threaten our standard of living, and throw | | | | unproven theories. Prior to the Earth Summit |
| thousands of Americans out of work. | | | | meeting in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, scientists |
| Environmentalists concoct end-of-the-world | | | | from around the world issued the Heidelberg |
| scenarios all the time. These predictions are | | | | Appeal. In the Appeal, scientists asked |
| calculated to scare us, and usually turn out to be | | | | government leaders at the summit to be careful. |
| pure fantasy, exaggerations, or deliberate | | | | They asked the leaders not to make serious |
| distortions of the facts. | | | | environmental decisions based on pseudoscientific |
| The mother of all doomsday stories, of course, is | | | | arguments or false and non-relevant data. More |
| global warming. For over thirty years, | | | | than 250 scientists, including 27 Nobel prize |
| environmentalists have scared us with this one. It | | | | winners, issued the Appeal on June 1, 1992. |
| seems that car exhausts, forest clearing, power | | | | Today, 2,300 scientists from 79 countries, |
| plants, and other industrial activities increase | | | | including 65 Nobel prize winners, have signed the |
| carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Increased | | | | Appeal. |
| carbon dioxide will allegedly create a barrier in the | | | | Former governor of Washington state and |
| atmosphere that traps the Earth's heat, creating a | | | | former chairwoman of the Atomic Energy |
| "greenhouse effect" As a result, the Earth's | | | | Commission, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, also thought that |
| temperature will rise, causing glaciers to melt, seas | | | | global warming is nonsense. In her wonderful 1993 |
| to rise, worldwide flooding, and calamity to the | | | | book, "Environmental Overkill: Whatever Happened |
| human race. | | | | To Common Sense?," she said that it was unlikely |
| As expected, there are many reputable scientists | | | | that carbon dioxide would cause any significant |
| who think this theory is nonsense. Other scientists | | | | changes in worldwide temperatures. Jeffrey |
| have their own theories that totally contradict | | | | Salmon is executive director of the |
| global warming. | | | | Washington-based George C. Marshall Institute. In |
| "Kenneth E.F. Watt, professor of environmental | | | | the July 1993 issue of Commentary, he flatly |
| studies at the University of California at Davis, | | | | stated that he found no valid scientific evidence |
| theorized that an excess of carbon dioxide in the | | | | to prove that manmade gases are causing the |
| atmosphere should lead to global cooling, not | | | | Earth to warm from a greenhouse effect. |
| warming. Watt argued that carbon dioxide will | | | | In short, we are being conned. Government takes |
| heat tropical oceans, leading to additional | | | | billions of tax dollars out of our pocket to enforce |
| evaporation. This will produce denser and more | | | | massive environmental regulations that, in most |
| widespread clouds at high elevations, which will | | | | cases, protect you from nothing. |
| decrease the amount of sunlight that penetrates | | | | I could describe many other eco-scare stories, but |
| the atmosphere. Some scientists believe that the | | | | I think I've made my point. These doomsday |
| Earth is warming, but attribute the change to | | | | prophesies are either distortions or exaggerations |
| causes other than carbon dioxide production. | | | | of unproven facts. Unfortunately, radical |
| Frederick Seitz, past president of the National | | | | environmentalists and the liberal media spout this |
| Academy of Sciences, suggested that solar | | | | eco-nonsense so often that we start to believe |
| activity may have caused global warming, and | | | | them. That's the problem and the danger. |
| Reid Bryson, director of the Institute of | | | | Panicked, gullible Congressmen believe the scare |
| Environmental Studies at the University of | | | | stories and then pass environmental regulations |
| Wisconsin, Madison, believes that dust and smoke | | | | that strangle our economy and destroy our |
| are the primary causes of climate change." | | | | property rights. |
| There are also many scientists who question | | | | It is time that we see these environmental scare |
| whether the Earth has gotten warmer over the | | | | stories for what they are -- a tactic by |
| last hundred years. | | | | left-leaning environmental radicals to destroy the |
| "Temperature measurements may be biased by | | | | thing they hate most. What they hate most is |
| the effects of urbanization; weather stations are | | | | our liberty, property rights, and the free-market |
| located in urban areas, where heat-absorbing | | | | that can make life for human beings on this planet |
| buildings and pavement can raise the readings one | | | | a joy instead of a brutal struggle for existence. |
| to two degrees above the surrounding | | | | |