Former astronaut scoffs at global warming - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Former astronaut scoffs at global warming - SantaFeNewMexican.com:

'As a geologist, I love Earth observations,' [Harrison Schmidt] wrote in his Nov. 14 resignation letter. 'But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a 'consensus' that humans are causing global warming when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise.'

"We're very skeptical about the crisis that people are proclaiming in global warming," [said Dan Williams, publisher with the Heartland Institute, which is hosting the second International Conference on Climate Change in New York]. "Not that the planet hasn't warmed. We know it has or we'd all still be in the Ice Age. But it has not reached a crisis proportion and, even among us skeptics, there's disagreement about how much man has been responsible for that warming."

[Schmidt] said he is heartened that next month's conference is made up of scientists who haven't been manipulated by politics, possibly because they are not dependent on government funding.

The debate continues about the causes of global climate change. (See also Dr. John Theon's expression of skepticism.)

What interests me most about the debate is its effect on U.S. energy policy. If it spurs us to improved energy efficiency — e.g. in home heating and cooling and reduced contention for foreign oil — it seems beneficial to act as though climate change has some human causes, whatever the uncertainties in our understanding.

On the other hand, if the debate leads us to cover the wilderness with wind turbines, solar farms, and superconducting transmission lines [update: lucky timing - here's an example], then maybe we should start demonizing termite methane emissions :)