Theories masquerade as science – Senator Jim Shockley’s thoughts on global warming

I am responding to a recent letter by Jon Garvin (See below). He heard me on the radio on the subject of global warming and believed it was an interview; in fact, it was my comments to the Environmental Quality Council and I was addressing what I thought was propaganda. The Earth is warming. The generally accepted increase in temperature is about 1.2 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. The increased temperature may be due in large part to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I suspect his knowledge of the subject is limited to the media and biased presentations by academics, often with little expertise in climate science.

By: Montana Senator JIM SHOCKLEY (R)
SD 45
Home Address
PO BOX 608
VICTOR, MT 59875-0608
Home: (406)642-3817
Bus: (406)642-3817
http://leg.mt.gov/css/sessions/60th/leg_info.asp?HouseID=2&SessionID=91&LAWSID=415

Many of the academics upon whom Garvin relies are not climatologists. One of the most noted local academics who is well spoken, and outspoken, on the subject is Steve Running, a professor at the University of Montana’s School of Forestry. Running implies it is settled science that the Earth’s warming is the result of an increase in CO2 and reputable scientists do not contest this conclusion. This is not the case. Noted examples of dissent are Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, the noted hurricane forecaster; Dr. Richard Linden, the Sloan professor of atmospheric science at MIT; and Dr. Roy Spencer at the National Space Science and Technology Center. These gentlemen are truly experts n climate study has been their life’s work.

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/04/07/opinion/guest/guest66.txt

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State senator should check studies

On the morning of March 11, I stood with my jaw agape, exposing half-chewed breakfast cereal to my radio.

Montana Sen. Jim Shockley of Victor was being interviewed about global warming and began by saying, “I’m a lawyer and a legislator,” and he therefore knows when “we’re getting propaganda, and not science.”

He stated, “There is a correlation between the temperature rise and the CO2. They’re both going up, [but] that doesn’t necessarily mean causation,” and he’s absolutely right. That is why an enormous number of scientists have studied this issue, conducted difficult experiments and published lengthy reports of their results.

The senator then asked why global warming “didn’t really manifest itself until the ’90s?” Apparently the senator is unaware that way back in 1949, the Nebraska State Journal reported that, “Human beings may have created worldwide warmer weather over the past 60 years by stripping land of forests and by burning ever increasing amounts of coal and oil,” referencing a report by professor G.S. Callendar of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Next, Shockley asked about a “cold period at mid-century when the temperature should have been going up.” No climatologist has ever claimed that world temperatures are increasing along a linear scale. Shockley, however, would like us to believe that is what the scientists are claiming, and that any downward blip is proof that global warming is an elaborate global hoax jointly concocted by every living scientist.

Shockley claimed to be a “lawyer and a legislator,” not a climatologist, and clearly demonstrated his lack of knowledge and understanding of climate change. If the senator expects people to take him seriously on matters of law and legislation, he would be wise to take climatologists seriously on matters of global warming.

Jonathan Garvin, Missoula