Fallout from the Climate Scandal

I've got some random thoughts after having read more on the global warming scandal whose secondary explosions are still ripping through the Internet and unsettling the "settled science."

First off, the stories are starting to find their way into the Mainstream Media. Love him or hate him, Glenn Beck's got a pretty big following and he's covering the story. So is the Wall Street Journal.

...more than 3,000 emails and documents from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have found their way to the Internet have blown the lid off the "science" of manmade global warming. CRU is a nerve center for many of those researchers who have authored the United Nations' global warming reports and fueled the political movement to regulate carbon.

Their correspondence show a claque of scientists massaging data to make it fit their theories, squelching scientists who disagreed, punishing academic journals that didn't toe the apocalyptic line, and hiding their work from public view. "It's no use pretending that this isn't a major blow," glumly wrote George Monbiot, a U.K. writer who has been among the fiercest warming alarmists. The documents "could scarcely be more damaging." And that's from a believer.

That bit from the WSJ could be the biggest thing of all. First, notice the scare quotes around "science" in the first sentence. That made it past the WSJ editors which means that the paper is now at least partially backing the skeptics. This is huge.

Subsequent stories on anything climate change-related may now contain paragraphs referring to this scandal. That means every time Obama makes a pronouncement on global warming, they'll cover that speech, but throw in references to the lies and fraud from these "scientists." Sort of like the way CNN would mention the casualty counts from Iraq during any discussion of the war by the Bush Administration. It will cut the legs out from under any message the warmers want to get out.

Second, what does this do to science in general? I started out as a scientist and did a bit of research in a previous life. I worked hard to make sure my data was accurate and it never occurred to me to massage it to get the results I was looking for. There was one time in particular where my research proved that a project I had proposed and been funded to complete was going to be a total waste of time. Ouch! I didn't "hide the decline" on that one, but these guys did. It wasn't on some minor research effort, either, they've been trying to remake the world in their image of perfection and have been doing it through bullying, lying and fraud. It is going to destroy public confidence in science.

Third, what happens to public figures who deny the magnitude of this scandal? President Obama is going to Copenhagen with a pledge to reduce American CO2 emissions by 17%, a figure unobtainable without huge costs in lifestyle and cash.

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen for climate-change talks, where he’ll offer to cut U.S. emissions about 17 percent by 2020 in an effort to help break a deadlock between rich and poor nations.

He looks like a credulous dunce when he doesn't question the "settled science" behind these reductions. His authority is undermined by the scandal. He won't be able to hold news conferences without this being brought up, unless he tightly controls who he invites and look how well that worked with his war with Fox News.

Fourth, the whole trading scam is being revealed as a massive con game. From the Bloomberg article linked above comes this gem:

U.S. legislation backed by Obama to cut greenhouse gases and establish a market for the trading of pollution allowances passed the House in June and then stalled in the Senate. Administration officials said they aren’t going to Denmark empty-handed and Obama’s attendance will send a strong signal.

Emphasis mine. Al Gore has picked up a cool hundred mil from this racket. As the bombs from this scandal continue to go off, someone is going to start following the money and it's going to lead to all kinds of major public figures. Thanks to the ignorant policies being pursued by this economically illiterate administration, we're going to see double-digit unemployment and financial problems for some time to come. Imagine how the public is going to react to story after story of hucksters like Al Gore making tens of millions scamming us all. There's tar, feather and pitchforks. You do the math.

My final thought is that as the story ripples through the public, all the electric car drivers and solar cell subsidies are going to look idiotic.

Symbolism.