Winter Blast Puts a Chill on Global Warming

"The Coldest Temperatures in a Decade" was a lead story on the Fox News Channel this morning, describing the weather in the Midwest and Northeast. Later the announcer described the freezing temperatures in the New England area as "deadly."

The big discussion, when it comes to the environment, is that Global Warming is a "fact" and should not be disputed. Furthermore, the ones who caused it are the "industrialized nations who continue to use carbon fuels as we move rapidly to our demise." These are the stories we see and hear daily and the message our children get in the classroom as if it were gospel. However, a few decades ago, these same forces were concerned about Global Freezing. They claimed we were facing a future ice age, unless we turn around our energy and environmental policies.

The truth is, no one appears to know definitively what is happening and what needs to be done to "stop" it. Some scientists, like Richard Lindzen of MIT believes the changes of temperature are cyclical and have gone on for centuries. Many scientists who are pushing global warming make a living off of their alarmist announcements, because every study that scares people justifies funding of another study that will scare people more. Imagine if a group of scientists received a grant to study the "problem" and came back with, "it isn't a problem." How likely will they be to get more funding?

The United States has seen a huge improvement in its environmental situation and energy usage over the last few decades. The real sources of pollution are the emerging economies of India and China that are building factories, but their technologies lag far behind. The "solution" to "global warming" being advocated by experts are policies that will make countries, including the US, more poor by excessively taxing and regulating industry. Such policies will damage both the economy and the ecology. We need to be very careful about how we "solve" this problem and make sure the cure isn't worse than the disease.