 May 6 , 2009
Dear Friend, As you read this week's WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin, please be thinking of friends who would benefit from it, and then forward it to them. Thanks for your support! Congresswoman challenges Gore's objectivity
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) challenged Al Gore's objectivity when he appeared April 24 before the House Energy & Commerce Committee to testify in favor of cap-and-trade legislation to fight global warming. Blackburn pointed out that Gore (whose net worth increased from about $2 million in 2001 to about $100 million now) is a partner in the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, whose Green Growth Fund invests in green technology that would profit from climate change legislation. "Is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?" she asked. Gore replied that "the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it but every penny that I have made I have put right into a nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge." But Gore is also co-founder, with Goldman Sachs partner David Blood, of Generation Investment Management, a carbon offset seller that also stands to profit from cap-and-trade legislation. Goldman Sachs, which is part owner of Chicago Climate Exchange, is also lobbying for climate legislation. And as Investors Business Daily reported April 29, Gore also invested $35 million in Capricorn Investment Group, a for-profit business that "directs clients to green investments and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products."Global temperature continues to decline Contrary to all the expectations of global warming alarmists and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global average temperature is in significant decline. The graph below, produced by Drs. Roy W. Spencer and John Christy of the University of Alabama using data from the NASA Aqua satellite with near-constant readings at all levels of the atmosphere between latitudes 84S and 84N, shows running averages in the smoothed line from January, 1979, through April, 2009, with a clear downtrend starting around late 2004, with the end point a mere 0.09 degree C (0.16 degree F) above the mean for the whole period. Warming alarmists will protest that four-and-a-half years are too short to establish a long-term trend. True enough. But they didn't hesitate to claim a trend in 1988 based on under two years' data, and for that matter, in a climate system as old as Earth's, thirty or even a hundred years aren't statistically representative enough to establish a trend. Spencer, a fromer NASA scientist and enthusiastic supporter of the WeGetIt.org campaign, posts monthly updates at www.DrRoySpencer.com, an excellent site for scientific information on global climate change.
Congress proposes pain, but where's the gain? A proposal currently making its way through the House Energy & Commerce Committee calls for eventual 83% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would, by 2050, achieve only 0.09 degree F (0.05 degree C) reduction in global average temperature. By 2100, the reduction would grow to 0.112 to 0.195 degree C (0.2 to 0.35 degree F). That's the conclusion of environmental scientist Chip Knappenberg, of Master Resource, a free-market energy blog. Knappenberger, who brings 20 years as a climate researcher and 10 years with the Virginia State Climatology Office to the task, points out that this would set back warming by only two years as of 2050, and five years by 2100. Knappenberger reached his conclusions using a standard climate model designed for use by the EPA for this very purpose and data provided by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--a model and data embraced by climate alarmists. For a program costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year--probably around $20 trillion over the century--that seems a pretty small payoff. It's certainly too small to have any observable impact on human life or the rest of the environment.Now, please forward this message to your pastor, other Christian leaders, and friends and urge them to sign the WeGetIt.org Declaration, too! The more people sign, the stronger the message our leaders will hear that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about speculative fears like global warming, should guide our care for the environment and the poor.Gratefully, We value your privacy. If you received this from a friend, you can join the campaign at www.WeGetIt.org. This message was originally sent to [email address suppressed] because someone signed the WeGetIt.org Declaration as "fullname." Edit your name | Bulletin Archives | Unsubscribe | Inquiries |
