Throttling Dissent

Stoat, AKA Belette, AKA that guy whose name I usually manage to misspell, takes Keyes Institute's Fred Hutchison by the throat over a column he wrote called Common sense on global warming. To be sure, Belette does manage to point out a few minor defects in Fred's understanding of the relevant science:

Although neither nitrogen or oxygen has an influence on the greenhouse effect, for some reason CO2 is assumed by environmentalists to influence the greenhouse effect so as to cause global warming. We are all waiting for an explanation of how CO2 differs from nitrogen and oxygen in its influence on the greenhouse effect. Until such explanation is forthcoming, it seems reasonable to suspect that the theorists are failing to differentiate between wholesome CO2 and poisonous CO1 (carbon monoxide) and other toxic gases that accompany CO2 in industrial pollution. (says Fred)

Belette points him to the explanation, but also puts it in a capsule:

The answer is given right up front at wiki:Greenhouse Gas so its rather odd that H has failed to find it: its because O2 and N2 are diatomic, so don't absorb in the infra red. Getting this wrong is so stupid it doesn't even make it ...

But enough of this minor stuff that Stoat gets right. Let's get to his big blunder:

It leads off, instead of with facts, by presenting us with the opinions of someone unknown. And why should we trust them? Aha, because they were "once an enthusiastic environmentalist" but have now seen the light

Someone unknown? William pulleeze! We are talking about Nicholas Kristof, resident saint of the New York Times. Oh, never mind - I guess you guys way over in the 53rd State may not be up on what's happening at the center of the civilized world. So what the heck did Nick say, anyway?

Liberal syndicated columnist Nicholas D. Kristof was once an enthusiastic environmentalist, but says, "I'm now skeptical of the movement's I-have-a-nightmare speeches." He said in a recent column, "The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that environmental groups are too often alarmists. They have an awful track record, so they have lost credibility." He recalls the warnings in the seventies that the Alaska oil pipeline would decimate caribou herds. The herds have increased five fold since then. Kristof also recalls panicky warnings in the seventies of global cooling and the disasters this would bring to the world. Allegedly, the meteorologists were nearly unanimous in their predictions of global cooling. Kristof mentions other scare warnings that did not come true, such as disastrous overpopulation in Asia, famines, nuclear winter, and radical changes in the weather. The things that disillusioned Kristof give us a simple smell test: 1) scare warnings of impending disaster; 2) assertions that scientists are unanimous; and 3) politicalized groups that have a bad track record in their predictions.

Well there you go. Nick is a heck of a guy, a lonely voice protesting African genocide, rescuer of Cambodian sex slaves, and a genuinely decent fellow - at least in print - but I'm not sure how much he knows about infrared spectra either.