Warming to Cockburn and Vice Versa

While it was fascinating to interview noted scientists who have renounced some of their earlier support for global warming theory, my most memorable exchange was with Alexander Cockburn, the left-wing columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the Nation magazine. Mr. Cockburn has undergone blistering attacks since he first dissented from the global warming "consensus" in 2007. "I've felt like the object of a witch hunt," he says. "One former Sierra Club board member suggested I should be criminally prosecuted."

Mr. Cockburn was at the conference collecting material for his forthcoming book "A Short History of Fear," in which he will explore the link between fear-mongering and climate catastrophe proponents. "No one on the left is comfortable talking about science," he told me. "They don't feel they can easily get their arms around it, so they don't think about it much. As a result, they are prone to any peddler of ideas that reinforce their pre-existing prejudices. One would be that there is a population explosion that must be dealt with by slowing down economies."

I asked him how he felt hanging around with so many people who have a more conservative viewpoint than he does. "It's been good fun and I've learned a lot," he told me. "I think what they are saying on this topic is looking better and better."

Joseph D’Aleo: Heartland Meeting of Climate “Realists” a Huge Success

The alarmist blogs and media are doing their thing claiming the difference on opinion among the many attendees of the ICCC was proof we were without a consistent message and therefore without credibility compared to the alarmists for whom AGW has become a religion and whose bible is the IPCC report and who worship at the alter of the climate models. In reality with an issue as complex as science, there are many different factors and the fact that we are not monolithic in our beliefs and tend to rely much more on actual data instead of models is proof that we are the real scientists. We are in fact more energized and motivated than ever before.

Obama's strategy requires the perpetual crisis his economic policy produces

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel gave the game away back in November with his observation that:

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before. This is an opportunity…And this crisis provides the opportunity for us, as I would say, the opportunity to do things that you could not do before."