Al Gore: The real Flat Earther

By Les Kinsolving

How many times in history has any scientific theory had as much dissent from scientists as global warming?

Six hundred and fifty scientists from all over the world have challenged the global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and by former Vice President Al Gore.

  • Canada’s Financial Post on Oct. 20, 2000, noted: “The number of climate change skeptics is growing rapidly.”
  • New York Times environmental writer Andrew Revain on March 6, 2008: “As we all know, climate science is not a numbers game (there are heaps of signed statements by folks with advanced degrees on all sides of this issue).”
  • Washington Post’s Julie Eilperin in 2007: “Climate change skeptics appear to be expanding rather than shrinking.”

A new report issued by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works office of the GOP’s ranking member features the following scientists:

  • “I am a skeptic. … Global warming has become a new religion.” – Nobel Prize winner for physics Ivar Giaever.
  • “Anyone who claims that the debate is over and the conclusions are firm has a fundamentally unscientific approach to one of the most momentous issues of our time.” – Solar physicist Dr. Pal Brekke, senior adviser to the Norwegian Space Centre in Ohio.
  • “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” – U.S. government atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.
  • “After reading (U.N. IPCC Chairman) Pachauri’s asinine comment (comparing skeptics to) Flat Earthers, it’s hard to remain quiet.” – Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs.
  • “All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.” – Geophysicist Dr. Phil Chapman, an astronautical engineer and former NASA astronaut, serving as staff physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • “The (global warming) scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” – Award-winning paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata.
  • “Earth has cooled since 1998 in defiance of the predictions by the U.N.-IPCC. … The global temperature for 2007 was the coldest in a decade and the coldest of the millennium … which is why ‘global warming’ is now called ‘climate change.'” – Climatologist Dr. Richard Keen of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado.

By striking contrast to these 650 scientists:

“Former Vice President Gore has claimed that scientists skeptical of climate change are akin to Flat Earth Society members’ and similar in number to those who ‘believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona.'”

But by striking contrast to Mr. Gore:

  • Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history. … When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” – U.N. IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, award-winning Ph.D. environmental physical chemist.
  • “For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” – Geologist Dr. David Gee, chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress, who has authored 130-plus peer-reviewed papers and is currently at Uppsala University of Sweden.
  • “CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another. … Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so. … Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” – Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University of Japan.


Les Kinsolving

Les Kinsolving hosts a daily talk show for WCBM in Baltimore. His radio commentaries are syndicated nationally. His show can be heard on the Internet 9-11 p.m. Eastern each weekday. Before going into broadcasting, Kinsolving was a newspaper reporter and columnist – twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his commentary. Kinsolving's maverick reporting style is chronicled in a book written by his daughter, Kathleen Kinsolving, titled, "Gadfly." Read more of Les Kinsolving's articles here.