31,000 Scientists Refute Global Warming


Or so says retired meteorologist John Coleman in a bit of spam (as seen on Snopes.com), forwarded to me by some dear friends. After a little reading on this claim, I sent this reply...

Hi guys! I had trouble reading your email; its text kept skewing way to the right. :)

So a retired weatherman, who once had an idea about a round-the-clock weather channel, doesn't believe a little extra CO2 can produce a significant greenhouse effect. And he's backed by 31,000 scientists, among them 9,000 PhDs, right? Wow. Okay, that really did surprise me. But it's always interesting to read from both sides:

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1654/
http://lefthandpalm.blogspot.com/2008/05/lurgees-paradigm-iii-31000-scientists.html

Well, those commies would say that, now, wouldn't they?

And yet: 

From the petition's own breakdown, only 3,697 scientists are "trained in specialties directly related to the physical environment of the Earth." How many in atmospheric science and climatology, the two fields most directly related to the study of the problem? 154. 154! On the other hand, 2,075 electrical engineers signed the petition, and gee, they'd know, wouldn't they?

http://www.petitionproject.org/gwdatabase/GWPP/Qualifications_Of_Signers.html

I'm not taking sides on the global warming debate, as I actually have read interesting arguments on both sides, and suspect the truth of the matter lies somewhere between the extremes... but visit petitionproject.org, read the actual petition and signing requirements, and it calls into doubt the credibility of anyone who cites it. For someone who claims to have "dug through thousands of pages of research" and worked through the theories and math, this Mr. Coleman seems to be awfully gullible himself.

Mr. Coleman isn't doing science, here; he's voicing his opinion. He presents no math of his own, nor has he proposed any new computer models. God bless the first amendment, he's just out there telling us what he thinks. Unfortunately, invoking the 31,000 scientists of the Petition Project does more to undermine his credibility than to establish it.

This smacks of politics once again posing as science. One of my professors at MSOE warned me about crap like this...

Posted: Tue - June 24, 2008 at 01:01 AM          

©