Global Warming: Where is the Science in the Inquiry?

Someone once wrote, and I paraphrase here, that a scientific conclusion is when two or more qualified individuals, who have no agenda other than to find truth based on facts, observe the same set of data and independently reach the same result. Moreover, the result should be repeatable and conclusive to all such qualified individuals.

According to the prominent and highly regarded scientist of the seventeenth century, René Descartes, everything should be doubted unless it can be proven to be true under all circumstances.

Albert Einstein wrote, "Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary."

In other words, a valid scientific conclusion is not a subject for debate. It is what is, not what we would like it to be.

The problem with the global warming debate is just that, it is a debate, not a scientific investigation. Positions are taken based on political beliefs and not necessarily on facts. Statements of cause and proposed solutions come from politicians, Al Gore and others, who have a political or philosophical stake in the issue. It is important to keep in mind that among these people there is no search for the truth, only a search for political advantage.

Scientists do agree that there has been a clear trend of increasing surface temperatures around the world over the last thirty years or so. Before that time, however, in the 1970's, there was a belief among many scientists, widely reported in the press, that we were headed into a new ice age. Here, too, there had been a clear trend of decreasing temperatures around the globe.

NEWSWEEK magazine, in its April 28, 1975 issue, presented a story entitled, "The Cooling World," in which they warned of, "... ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change," this based on data that showed "a drop of half a degree [Fahrenheit] in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968."

Well, it never happened. NEWSWEEK retracted that story in 2006. Now it's global warming.

Just how much of the Greenhouse Effect is caused by human activity?