Sunday's New York Times magazine features Freeman Dyson, a scientist who questions the research on global warming. Today's paper has a full page ad from the Cato Institute; the ad says that the findings regarding global warming are greatly exaggerated and a list of scientist endorse the message. My dad forwarded me a link to Power Line post gloating about all this.
Global warming is one of those topics (and there are many) that I will never have the expertise to judge the data for myself. In these cases, I have to rely on people who are smarter than I am. Dyson's his main objections to global warming, at least how they are portrayed in the NYT, seemed to be political. Coal has enabled millions to make the transition from poverty to a middle class life style in Indian and China, he says, and therefore we should not eliminate its use. People in Greenland are happy with the melting snow. This blog post completely trashes his credibility.
It was impossible to judge the credibility of the scientists who signed the Cato advertisement, because many were from foreign colleges, local schools that I had never heard of before, or workers at companies that I have never heard of. Oddly, a number of them were retired or emeritus professors. I don't want to bash old people, but... well... The studies that are cited in the advertisement are authored by those who signed the ad. And this ad came from the Cato Institute and not an independent organization. The credibility here is very low.
It is possible that the numbers for global warming are wrong. It is possible (probable) that Al Gore is a moron. However, I would need much more credible experts to convince me of that fact. In the meantime, I'm going to keep recycling.