Anti-science dominates Senate climate marathon

Speaking all night does not alter the inconvenient truth that science cannot yet forecast climate futures

by Tom Harris, International Climate Science Coalition

Albert Einstein once said, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

While the gods must consider the extreme confidence of this week’s Senate Climate Action Task Force all-night marathon the ultimate comedy, real climate scientists are crying over the event. This is not just because of the numerous basic science mistakes made by the senators. Scientists are also concerned that most of the media and public will fail to realize that many of the senators’ absolute assertions are simply science fiction.

The senators repeatedly argued that the science of climate change is ‘settled.’ Scientists supposedly know with certainty that our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing a climate crisis. There is no need to further investigate the validity of the theory or to consider alternative evidence. We must take action to stop the unfolding human-caused climate catastrophe, the senators asserted.

Like children frightening each other with ghost stories, senators seemed to be competing for the most alarming forecasts of eco-disaster. Senator Ed Markey (D, Mass), easily took first place with his warning that: “The science proves there is a danger…The planet is running a fever but there are no emergency rooms for planets.”

Professors Chris Essex (University of Western Ontario) and Ross McKitrick (University of Guelph) classify this sort of remark as part of the Doctrine of Certainty that has ruined the climate debate. In their book Taken by Storm, they explain, “The Doctrine is a collection of now-familiar assertions made about climate, all of which must be accepted without question.”

If one dares question the Doctrine, the reaction from true believers is immediate—you are a denier, an enemy of nature, a pawn of big oil and you must be silenced. The senators did not even consider the possibility that, as Essex and McKitrick say, “The Doctrine is not true. Each assertion is either manifestly false or the claim to know is false”.

Besides the Democratic senators who took part in Monday night’s event, America’s leading Doctrine of Certainty campaigners include former Vice-President Al Gore, Secretary of State John Kerry, and President Barak Obama himself. Following Obama’s assertion in January’s State of the Union address that “the debate is settled,” Kerry told Indonesians last month that the science backing what he called “the greatest threat that the planet has ever seen” is “something that we understand with absolute assurance of the veracity of that science.”

In reality, trying to unravel the causes and consequences of climate change is arguably the most complex science ever tackled. Essex and McKitrick explain, “Climate is one of the most challenging open problems in modern science. Some knowledgeable scientists believe that the climate problem can never be solved.”

One of the reasons the Senate Task Force can get away with their exaggerations is that the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the U.K.’s Royal Society (RS) and other national science bodies are not doing their jobs.

Rather than working to help to defeat the anti-science Doctrine of Certainty distorting the climate debate, the NAS, RS and others who should know better engage in propaganda, making absolute assertions concerning topics about which we have little knowledge.

The NAS/RS report, “Climate Change: Evidence & Causes,” released on February 27, is a prime example. In it there appear numerous unfounded assertions that cannot be supported by science. For example, they said, “If the rise in CO2 continues unchecked, warming of the same magnitude as the increase out of the ice age [i.e., 7 to 9 °F] can be expected by the end of this century or soon after.”

Not only does such confidence undermine the careful approach scientists normally take when addressing difficult fields of study, it is irresponsible since it encourage governments to prepare only for warming while ignoring the possibility that far more dangerous cooling is on the way as the Sun weakens into a ‘grand minimum’ over the coming decades.

Reports such as that of the NAS and RS provide political cover for developed country politicians to bring in draconian and unnecessary CO2 regulations, regulations that are destroying their most important source of electric power—coal. Ontario has already closed most of its coal stations because of our government’s blind adherence to climate change doctrine. This has led to soaring electricity prices, a major cause of our province’s decline from ‘have’ to ‘have not’ status within Canada.

With the Senate Climate Action Task Force’s help, the Obama administration appears determined to do the same in the U.S., ending America’s use of coal, your least expensive and most reliable electricity source. The President and his allies promote wind and solar power, the least reliable and most expensive options available, in the vain belief that this will stop the climate from changing.

No one knows if spending billions of dollars revamping your energy infrastructure to appease the climate gods will finally break America’s back. But, there are limits to how many blunders even a great nation can commit and still survive. Let’s not find out if bowing to the climate change Doctrine of Certainty is America’s final, fatal mistake.

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Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition (www.climatescienceinternational.org).