Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global ...

Marine Biologist Daniel Botkin, President of the Center for the Study of the
Environment and Professor Emeritus in the department of Ecology, Evolution, and
Marine Biology at the University of California, authored the book Discordant
Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-First Century. Botkin also dampened global
warming fears in 2007. "Global warming doesn't matter except to the extent that it will
affect life -- ours and that of all living things on Earth. And contrary to the latest news, the
evidence that global warming will have serious effects on life is thin. Most evidence
suggests the contrary," Botkin wrote in an October 17, 2007 op-ed in the Wall Street
Journal. "Case in point: This year's United Nations report on climate change and other
documents say that 20%-30% of plant and animal species will be threatened with extinction
in this century due to global warming -- a truly terrifying thought. Yet, during the past 2.5
million years, a period that scientists now know experienced climatic changes as rapid and
as warm as modern climatological models suggest will happen to us, almost none of the
millions of species on Earth went extinct," Botkin explained. "We're also warned that
tropical diseases are going to spread, and that we can expect malaria and encephalitis
epidemics. But scientific papers by Prof. Sarah Randolph of Oxford University show that
temperature changes do not correlate well with changes in the distribution or frequency of
these diseases; warming has not broadened their distribution and is highly unlikely to do so
in the future, global warming or not," he wrote. "I'm not a naysayer. I'm a scientist who
believes in the scientific method and in what facts tell us. I have worked for 40 years to try
to improve our environment and improve human life as well. I believe we can do this only
from a basis in reality, and that is not what I see happening now. Instead, like fashions that
took hold in the past and are eloquently analyzed in the classic 19th century book
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, the popular imagination
today appears to have been captured by beliefs that have little scientific basis," he added.
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Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist and co-author with Physicist Henrik
Svensmark of a new 2007 book entitled The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate
Change, expressed his view that the UN rejects science it sees as "politically incorrect,"
and accused the UN of denying that "climate history and related archeology give solid
support to the solar hypothesis." Calder wrote in a February 11, 2007 op-ed in the UK
Times, "Twenty years ago, climate research became politicized in favor of one particular
hypothesis, which redefined the subject as the study of the effect of greenhouse gases. As a
result, the rebellious spirits essential for innovative and trustworthy science are greeted
with impediments to their research careers." Calder concluded, "Humility in face of
Nature's marvels seems more appropriate than arrogant assertions that we can forecast and
even control a climate ruled by the sun and the stars."
Ivy League Geologist Dr. Robert Giegengack, the chair of Department of Earth and
Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, believes Gore's understanding
of climate science is so poor that he told his undergrad students at University of
Pennsylvania in February 2007, "Every single one of you knows more about [global
warming] than Al Gore." According to the February 2007 edition of Philadelphia
Magazine, the Ivy League professor Giegengack voted for Gore for president in 2000 and
would probably vote for him again if given the opportunity. But Giegengack's support of
Gore faded when he examined the science presented in Gore's film: "The glossy production
[An Inconvenient Truth] is replete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and appeals to
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