CO₂ Warming Myth

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S selection of Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy, Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and Carol Browner to be the White House energy "czar" is a disturbing indication that this Administration subscribes to the myth that human-made carbon dioxide is a major factor in global warming. While claiming that policy decisions will be "guided by science," the Administration seems to be unaware of the rising tide of scientific evidence that repudiates the conclusions of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and Al Gore's alarmist campaign.

In 2007, S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and one of the most distinguished scientists in the country, conceived and directed a project leading to the formation of a Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. The purpose of the panel was to provide an independent examination of all of the evidence available in the peer-reviewed literature free of bias and selectivity. This group of highly qualified scientists received neither grants nor contributions, espoused no political agenda, and was not commissioned by any government agency. Its recently released final report concludes that increasing carbon dioxide is not responsible for current warming, and nature, not human activity, rules the climate. They observed, "It is one thing to impose drastic measures and harsh economic penalties when an environmental problem is clear-cut and severe. It is foolish to do so when the problem is largely hypothetical and not substantiated by observations."

In a recent speech on the Senate floor, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, referred to a new 231-page Senate Minority Report that lists more than 650 prominent international scientists who dissent from the IPCC report.

To enter into exorbitantly expensive commitments like the Kyoto protocol, to embark on massive programs to capture and sequester CO₂, or to pervert the Clean Air Act to restrict CO₂ production from automobiles would be highly irresponsible in the current economic situation. Anyone who classifies CO₂ as a "pollutant" has left the realm of science.

Albert Z. Conner
Wilmington, Del.