Sunday, October 11, 2015

"The Pause" in Global Warming

A Forbes contributor reported that an exchange between Senator Ted Cruz and Sierra Club President Aaron Mair at the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts held last Tuesday led to the discovery of Mair’s incomplete knowledge regarding global warming and questions concerning the theory’s scientific validity. Despite his high activist position in this field, Mair and his accompanying staff were unfamiliar with the meaning of “the Pause,” when asked about the term by Cruz. Mair and his aides thought it referred to a decline in warming global temperatures throughout the 1940s—a decline that the journalist notes continued through the 1970s even though carbon dioxide was on the rise. As pointed out by Cruz, the term “the Pause,” made popular by former President Al Gore, is the name climate-warming enthusiasts use to describe the lack of any substantive global warming activity for the last 13 to 18 years, based on temperature data from NASA satellites by Remote Sensing Systems as well as data from scientists at the University of Alabama. Mair’s claim that 97% of scientists are in agreement about the “anthropogenic impact” of global warming was also refuted by Cruz, who stated that such an assertion hinges on “one bogus study.”

If the Sierra Club knew they would be testifying before a Senate Committee regarding global warming, one would expect them to be well-informed on their subject. In addition, there seems to be a need for total transparency regarding studies and findings concerning the much politicized scientific topics of global warming, global cooling, and global climate change. My suggestion would be to take these matters out of the national and international political arenas all together by eliminating any government/political funding and pressures of political correctness concerning the issues and allow scientists to hash things out in an open and scholarly manner. 
Amanda Zgonina

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