Robert C. Whitten
Robert C. Whitten holds a Ph.D. in physics from Duke University and an M.S. in meteorology from San Jose State University. He is a research scientist, NASA-retired, author or editor of five books, and author or co-author of 117 papers in the archival literature on various aspects of atmospheric science, and is a commander, U.S. Navy Reserve-Retired.
ClimateGate, by Brain Sussman. World Net Daily, Washington, D.C.: 2010, pp. 224, $25.95.
Climate Coup, by Patrick Michaels. Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 270, $24.95.
"The Emperor has no clothes." That is the message emanating from the emails hacked from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University, UK. For over twenty years we have been assured by the science establishment of the U.S. and Europe that catastrophic global warming resulting from human caused emissions of "greenhouse" gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) is imminent unless we drastically reduce them. However, the whole thesis has increasingly come into question by the lack of supporting empirical evidence as well as by the fraud demonstrated by the hacked emails. The only "evidence" is the output of general circulation computer models that are extremely limited for prediction purposes.
The two books reviewed here address the controversy in varying and complementary ways. Brian Sussman who is currently a talk show host on KSFO, San Francisco, is a trained meteorologist and was earlier a weather forecaster on a San Francisco television station. In his book ClimateGate he goes all the way back to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring of the 1960s and the ensuing ban on DDT, the origin of Earth Day in 1970 (Lenin's centennial) and Al Gore's movie that led to a Nobel Prize. He then discusses the steady self-organization of the global warming movement, based on greed (the quest for research grants, and "crony capitalism" by big business), thirst for political power as well as a peculiar "religious" belief. The author explains in considerable detail the "hockey stick" global temperature history proposed by Michael Mann and associates, which shows a steady temperature record for a thousand years until the late 20th century when it shows a sharp rise (the blade of the hockey stick). The Medieval Warm Period (1000 to 1250 AD) and the "Little Ice Age" (1500 to 1850 AD) were carefully omitted by Mann et al. The hacked emails clearly demonstrate the concern of Mann and other scientists of the global warming cabal as to how they would get rid of the embarrassing Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. Sussman also reviews the efforts by the cabal to censor the opposition, and to influence the reports of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as the attempts by the Congress (Waxman-Markey) and the Obama administration to enact legislation and regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Michael's volume, unlike Sussman's, is a multi-author book dedicated to exposing the invasion of the rights of American citizens by government in the name of protecting the environment. The basis for the invasion was born over seventy years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court under pressure from the Roosevelt administration when it authorized Congress to delegate its legislative authority to executive agencies. Not much was done about regulating environmental issues until the Nixon administration, when the EPA was established with broad regulatory authority. Since then the EPA, in true bureaucratic fashion, has steadily expanded its reach into every aspect of the lives of the citizenry.
Extension to control of greenhouse gas emissions began in 1992 with the Rio de Janiero conference. Since then several more meetings have been convened, most notably in Kyoto, Japan, and Copenhagen, Denmark. The first conference set definite goals for reduction based on 1992 emissions and embraced "cap and trade," in which those with reductions in excess of the 1990 base, such as the recently united Germany, could trade their credits on an international market. Some individuals such as former Vice President Al Gore took advantage of the emission credit trade opportunity and amassed vast fortunes. The second conference experienced no such "success," collapsing before any agreements could be reached, despite entreaties by President Obama.
In the meantime a growing number of atmospheric science skeptics (of whom this reviewer is one) began to analyze the temperature data used to advance the global warming (GW) agenda. In response, the GW alarmists circled the wagons and made all out efforts to block publication of dissent. Statistician Ross McKitrick, recounts his own frustrating experience in publishing his papers on the subject. In November 2009, internet hackers who may have been located in Russia, hacked into the email storage at the CRU at East Anglia University. As mentioned in the review of Sussman's book, the emails revealed a vast conspiracy to silence dissent by controlling science journals and the peer review process.
Additional articles discuss the signing onto the GW/climate change agenda by the Department of Defense, the effects on developing countries of switching agriculture from food production to growing bio fuels, the erroneous claims that GW will lead to disease epidemics such as malaria, and finally the efforts to indoctrinate school children with environmental propaganda.
As a combination, these two books provide an excellent introduction to the science and politics of environmentalism in its climate change cloak. The interested reader may also wish to consult the website of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP): http://www.sepp.org/.
