Lawrence Solomon is at it again…

First, here’s a science story from June 2003 that seems to conclude that increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are allowing plants to grow faster. I’m not a scientist, I haven’t read the full study, I don’t know where the authors stand on global warming, but I do know that it’s only one study and it certainly doesn’t lead me to the conclusion that global warming is a good thing. That’s all I’m going to say about this study.

Except to point out that Lawrence Solomon, noted climate skeptic and liar, uses it “and other more recent ones” to conclude that higher levels of CO2 are beneficial to the Earth, in his column “In Praise Of CO2″.

But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to reference a petition signed by 32,000 U. S. scientists who vouched for the benefits of CO2. Easy enough to find his original story, where he poses the question

How many scientists does it take to establish that a consensus does not exist on global warming?

then mentioning the original Oregon Petition’s 17,800 signatures

Then came the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine’s Petition Project of 2001, which far surpassed all previous efforts and by all rights should have settled the issue of whether the science was settled on climate change. To establish that the effort was bona fide, and not spawned by kooks on the fringes of science, as global warming advocates often label the skeptics, the effort was spearheaded by Dr. Frederick Seitz, past president of the National Academy of Sciences and of Rockefeller University, and as reputable as they come.

The Oregon petition garnered an astounding 17,800 signatures, a number all the more astounding because of the unequivocal stance that these scientists took: Not only did they dispute that there was convincing evidence of harm from carbon dioxide emissions, they asserted that Kyoto itself would harm the global environment because “increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

(the emphasis is mine, showing how he confers credibility just by his use of words)

What he didn’t mention is that Frederick Seitz, “as reputable as they come”,

has admitted to helping tobacco giant RJ Reynolds spread out million of dollars in health research grants during the 1970’s and 80’s. Seitz’s role was to assist Big Tobacco in creating the illusion that there was still some debate over whether tobacco was a proven danger to health.

(from DeSmogBlog). According to Wikipedia, Seitz has also published reports for the George C. Marshall Institute, and was chair of the Science & Environmental Policy Project, founded by none other than Fred Singer.

Solomon then mentions a renewed Oregon Petition, whose 32,000 signatories were “outraged at the way Al Gore and company were abusing the science to their own ends.” and concludes with,

At one level, Robinson, a PhD scientist himself, recoils at his petition. Science shouldn’t be done by poll, he explains. “The numbers shouldn’t matter. But if they want warm bodies, we have them.”

Some 32,000 scientists is more than the number of environmentalists that descended on Rio in 1992. Is this enough to establish that the science is not settled on global warming? The press conference releasing these names occurs on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington.

Apparently, the debate is over because, even if science shouldn’t be done by poll, the deniers got more signatures… I also find it interesting that Solomon is reporting on this before the press conference even occurred, is it possible that there’s some sort of network of these people?

The new Oregon petition has been thoroughly discredited. In short, it’s based on an article published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (what credibility do physicians and surgeons have in issues of climatology?), which is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, who among lots of other things, claims that HIV does not cause AIDS. Quackwatch lists the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons as “fundamentally flawed”.

Another attempt to distort the picture tries to compare celebrities with the 32,000 scientists, but leads to an entire website of disinformation, typical of this type of site.

American Thinker Blog, overtly Republican, praises Solomon’s “great piece”, then sums it all up quite revealingly:

Will today’s official announcement of 32,000 men and women of science who, by their physical signature, reject mankind’s guilt capture any media attention at all?

Or, for that matter, that of climate experts Gore, Boxer, Lieberman, Warner, Clinton, Obama, or, most despicably — McCain?

As the science no longer appears to concern any of them — don’t hold your CO2 polluted breath.

Yet their denials change nothing – the wheels continue to fall off the warmist dungwagon.

This is about old-style politics, Republican v. Democrat, and McCain is the most despicable of all, because he’s a Republican who claims to be concerned, but I’m not fooled.