The most recent announcement by skeptics came during a panel discussion Tuesday evening in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. As reported by the Plain Dealer (emphasis mine throughout):
It's not that Mark Johnson, Dick Goddard, Mark Nolan, Jon Laufman or former Cleveland weatherman Don Webster disbelieve the data entirely.
But they're skeptical, and they don't believe that it's necessarily our fault or that we should panic over it.
The article explained why they’re skeptical:
"We have maybe 100 years of data on a rock that's 6 billion years old," said Johnson, a WEWS Channel 5 weatherman. "Mother Nature tends to even herself out, and the fact is, the Earth is cyclical."
Goddard, WJW Channel 8 meteorologist, said scientists have flip-flopped on the matter: "I have a file an inch thick from 30 years ago that says the planet was cooling," he told the crowd of several hundred.
They cautioned listeners not to put too much stock in what they said was an insufficient history of warming.
"The term global warming' strikes fear in the heart of people every time you say it, but it's simply a rise in temperature over time, and it's happened before," said Nolan, meteorologist at WKYC Channel 3. "I'm not sure which is more arrogant for humans: to say we caused it or to say we're going to fix it."
Well said. The article continued:
Laufman, who has free-lanced for WOIO Channel 19 and taught meteorology courses at several local colleges, including Case Western Reserve University, also referenced history.
"There was also a significant spike in world temperatures during the 1400s -- and that was well before the Industrial Revolution," he said "We haven't studied it long enough to know what causes global warming."
Of course, no discussion about global warming can be complete without a reference to the former vice president and the nation's chief fear-monger:
Even Webster, who now lives in Hilton Head, S.C., but flew in this week to moderate the discussion, was flippant.
"Where's Al Gore now?" he joked with the audience, referring to the former vice president and his documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth," which argues the case for global warming. "You can bet he's not in New York, where they've got nearly 12 feet of snow right now."
No. Remember, Don, recent weather events are only important to these charlatans and fear-mongers if they support a warming trend. You should know that by now.
Update 11:34 by Matthew Sheffield. Is it just me or is this article seemingly tinged with contempt for the meterologists?
I also couldn't help but notice that it has no byline and at the end has an off-topic tribute to a late scientist who lived in Switzerland. It almost seems as if the last graf was added in to assure lefty readers that the Plain-Dealer has not strayed from the faith of global warming and environmentalism.
