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Louis asked: 'Who are those critics?' They are many and varied. For example the panel of Indian scientists appointed in 2007 to investigate the IPCC's Himalayan glacier claims. What this panel found out - after an exhaustive study - was that 'while Himalayan glaciers had long been retreating, there was no acceleration of the trend and nothing to suggest that the glaciers would vanish'. But when the IPCC chief, R K Pachauri, heard about these findings, he dismissed them as 'voodoo science' reminiscent of 'climate change deniers' (all this according to the Asia Times article I posted here originally). Now it turns out that the IPCC's own claims on this were unsubstantiated, and they've had to issue an apology. Gary wrote: 'But there is a problem in this whole debate and that is the consequences of the parties being wrong are not the same. If we global warmers are mistaken, there is no big deal ... [clip] ... But if the Global Warming Deniers are mistaken, then humanity is finished'. Gary, the problem with this logic is that we would always have to act in accordance with the most alarmist claims. Remember the 1970s, when many people were concerned about a coming ice age? Of course, they had a valid point - we are living in an interglacial period that will be eventually followed by a glacial one. But what if we had heeded the most extreme claims? A 1975 article in Newsweek warned about all sorts of disasters being imminent - famines, droughts, tornadoes, freezes, - blamed politicians for not taking action, and suggested alternative schemes to warm up the planet. Luckily those schemes weren't feasible at the time. You can read about this instructive episode in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling Paula ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
