FATHER KNOWS BEST – AT 11:49 A.M. ET:  James Lovelock, one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement, and a real scientist, will probably be purged from the movement after some statements he's made recently.  From the Toronto Sun:

Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.

Unlike many “environmentalists,” who have degrees in political science, Lovelock, until his recent retirement at age 92, was a much-honoured working scientist and academic.

His inventions have been used by NASA, among many other scientific organizations.

Lovelock’s invention of the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement.

Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.” Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century.

Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.

He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he’s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that’s how science advances.

COMMENT:  An important interview.  In his farewell address to the nation in 1961, the famous "industrial-military complex" speech, President Eisenhower warned about the impact of federal grants on science, and even scientific results.  That warning was, of course, ignored.  Today, to get a grant in certain areas of science, you have to toe the party line.  Money is driving at least some of the "research" in global warming, and money is being made in companies set up to answer the "challenge" of something that may actually not be there.

I'd still love to see an audit of Al Gore's business interests.

June 24, 2012