rising tides in Taiwan

AP is out with a story this evening describing in detail the many dangers that Taiwan faces due to global warming. The problem with the story is that no one can say with confidence if it has any basis in fact. We do know that the data gathered by the East Anglia University folks were "adjusted" so as to show global warming. We also know that other climate "scientists" rejiggered their results to emphasize that the global warming threat was real. But with all of the games played by these so called scientists, no one can say for sure what is actually happening.

It is time for President Obama to demonstrate some real leadership on this point. He should call for NOAA or NASA to undertake a program to determine what global temperatures have been for the last thousand years. Obviously, if the folks at East Anglia have already done this, there would be no problem in NASA doing it again. The methodology and results shold be published on the internet with progress reports and data dumps at least each week. That would allow climate sceptics to confront supposed errors as the work was proceeding. There should also be a mechanism for the sceptic to inform NASA or NOAA of problems perceived with the data or methodology.

At the same time, there should be an effort to find a demonstrable link between greenhouse gases and the temperature. It is not enough to say that both greenhouse gases and temperature have risen over the last two hundred years. there has to be some proof that there is a link. Clearly, during the Warm Period that ran from 900 to 1400 or so, there were no man-made greenhouse gases being spewed into the atmosphere, but temperatures were higher than they are currently. Some reason for this warm period needs to be determined.

The proposed remedies to man-caused global warming are severe. In essence, people like Al Gore want the world to give up most of its modern conveniences and to shut down much of the economy. (Of course, Gore also wants to make hundreds of millions of dollars, in essence, selling indulgences -- I mean carbon offsets. ) Before we destroy the world economy in the name of saving the planet, we need to have valid data on which to based our actions. Obama should make the commitment now to get the data. Otherwise, this is just a faith based initiative Obama style. It is just like Bush's faith based initiatives, just a different faith.