Orrin Hatch Says Warming Unproven, Cites Michael Crichton

[hatrack]

Fucking dumbass.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch says he's not convinced that climate change is a serious problem, but he is keeping an open mind about it. "I don't know" if the dire predictions are true, he said during a visit to The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday. "And I don't think anybody does."

A consensus has grown in recent years among scientists that global warming is a reality even if it is not clear exactly how those changes will impact humans and the environment. But Washington policymakers have been reluctant to take steps on a nationwide basis to address the problem. Meanwhile, in Utah and more than a dozen other states, some political leaders have determined that the scientific evidence for climate change is strong enough that they have undertaken initiatives to reduce the pollutants that contribute to global warming, pollutants primarily blamed on burning fossil fuel. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson garnered international recognition for global warming reductions his city has undertaken.

Hatch, a Republican and 30-year veteran of Congress, spoke just as the political season begins to rev up and the senator asks Utahns to return him to Washington for a sixth term. Hatch said he has considered both sides of the climate change debate from the political and scientific perspectives. "I suspect there's a little truth to both."

EDIT

Hatch said he had read Michael Crichton's State of Fear, a novel about climate change, and took note of the scientific citations at the end of the book. He could not recall specific articles or authors he had read that confirm concerns about global warming but said he thought there was a lot of "non-science" around the issue. "In fact, let's call it science fiction," he said.

EDIT

http://www.sltrib.com/contentlist/ci_3729462

[marmar]

1. Perhaps Orrin Hatch believes...

there's an amusement park in Costa Rica with real dinosaurs in it. I think he needs to STFU.

[saltpoint]

5. I think Utah IS an amusement park with real dinosaurs in it.

And Hatch is living proof.

[marmar]

10. L-fucking-O-L

:rofl:

[El Supremo]

2. Another reason to give Utah back to Mexico!

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=976669&mesg_id=976669

[SaveElmer]

3. Put him in a room alone with Al Gore for 5 minutes...

That oughtta do the trick...

What a frickin bozo!

[rkc3]

4. Keep in mind - he's buddies with a doctor who analyzes patients

from a videotape and thinks you can get AIDS from tears.

[Montauk6]

6. Well, say what you will about the old (Wh)Orr.

At least he's up on his literature. Didn't he cite Blatty's The Exorcist as proof that Prof. Hill lied about the Coke can?

[depakid]

7. And we have Jonah Goldberg in Today's LA Times

How buffoons like him get published is beyond me (actually, considering the Tribune company, it's not- but still)

Seeing red over 'green scare'

EET AL GORE, scaremonger. In 2004, Gore denounced President Bush for "playing on our fears." Today, he is at the forefront of a "green scare" about global warming intended to terrify Americans into submitting to his environmental policies.

Consider the trailer for "An Inconvenient Truth," Davis Guggenheim's documentary about Gore's green crusade. It promises to be the most adept piece of scaremongering ever captured on film, making "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" seem like "Toy Story 2." The movie's poster shows penguins walking across a desert. The trailer says, "If you love your planet … if you love your children … you have to see this movie." In case you're thick in the head, the producers spell it out for you: "By far, the most terrifying film you will ever see!"

Of course, Gore is not alone. A host of new environmental scare books are out or on the way. Last month, Time magazine's cover warned, "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." Those renowned climatologists who make up Vanity Fair's editorial board have unveiled a "green issue" that informs us that "green is the new black" and that global warming is a "threat graver than terrorism." It says so right there on the cover, above Julia Roberts' hip. And she's dressed like a forest nymph, so it's got to be true.

Now, it's true that Earth has gotten warmer — one degree since the 19th century — and it will probably get warmer still. And it's probably true that human activity plays a significant part in all that. But it's also true that we don't have a clear picture of what's happening now, never mind what will happen. Just ask the 60 climatologists from around the world who wrote Canada's prime minister that "observational evidence does not support today's computer climate models, so there is little reason to trust model predictions of the future." But that's all beside the point to Gore & Co., who say the time for debate is over. And if you disagree, get ready for the witch hunt. Major news media have gone after scientists who argue there's still time to study global warming rather than plunge into some half-baked environmental jihad that could waste possibly trillions of dollars.

--------------

I for one, cannot help but feel at times that, of all nations, America most richly deserves its fate.

[redqueen]

14. I agree.

"I for one, cannot help but feel at times that, of all nations, America most richly deserves its fate."

[SnoopDog]

8. Hatch cites novelist for scientific information?

I am so fucking tired of these people...

[asthmaticeog]

9. Non-scientist says science is nonsense, cites fiction writer.

Ever wonder why we're fucked?

[bluethruandthru]

11. Scary to think this is the guy who's been on the short list

several times for the Supreme Court!

[Danieljay]

12. The media is to blame for the public deception on warming. Its about

perception. You get two scientists. One represents the 98% of all scientists who believe global warming is a fact and is leading to problems with our planet. The other scientist represents the other 2% of all scientists that don't believe it, or are somehow tied to the industries that would be the most affected by any change to policy regulating environmental emmissions.


It appears as if there is an actual debate where half believe and half don't. Its an illusion and Americans, even so called educated one's, are being duped.

[redqueen]

13. Oh how precious.

This idiot doesn't remember any actual FACTS which persuaded him... but he's to call the SCIENTIFICALLY-BASED theories science fiction.

Brilliant.

:banghead:

[politicaholic]

15. Hatch and science don't mix...until of course he gets sick(er)...

then science becomes the end all be all.

He has to quell his sciencephobic mormon voter base.

[phantom power]

16. I'd laugh, but these psychos really ARE in charge.

[stray cat]

17. Citing fiction as prove?

[phantom power]

18. Read it and weep. Chrichton was recently called as an...

expert witness in Congress. An "expert" on climate change. Because he wrote that goddamned sophomoric contrarian piece of shit State of Fear

Oh God, make the pain stop.

[IrateCitizen]

21. Who 'called' him? Sen. James Inhofe (Dumbass-OK)?

[phantom power]

23. I believe it was, based on this:

But I haven't found any unambiguous write-up of who actually called him to testify.

Throughout the hearing, Crichton attracted most of the Senator's initial attention, including that of Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-OK). Inhofe, who has described global warming as the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," praised Crichton's past work and said he had tried to make it "required reading for committee." Democrats on the committee were not as thrilled with Crichton's credentials. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) pointed out that his views were "at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists" and State of Fear is a "work of fiction even if it has footnotes."

http://www.fisheries.org/html/AIBS_updates_11-05.shtml

[Viking12]

24. You guessed the correct dumbass

:thumbsup:

[Dogmudgeon]

26. Expert witness? He's a physician!

We have wa-a-a-ay too much esteem for physicians in this country. They're not slouches (most of them, anyway), but many of them tend to have the bad habit of talking out of their field of expertise. I don't mean a proctologist talking about nasal polyps, I mean an internal medicine generalist talking about climatology.

That's what we get for relying on credentials instead of actual expertise.

--p!

[dweller]

19. what next?

*moron to cite Siegfried Engelmann and Elaine Bruner as 'terrarist tactics' experts?


dp

[OneBlueSky]

20. just when you think it can't get any more absurd . . . it does . . . n/t

.

[Zenlitened]

22. Crichton apparently doesn't understand the science he cites.

He's been debunked on many -- if not most - of his claims:

RealClimate.org: "Michael Crichton's State of Confusion"
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=74

San Diego Union Tribune: "State of Reason"
(Op-ed by two scientists Crichton cites in his bibliograph)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050121/news_lz1e21benford.html

CSICOP: "Bad Science, Bad Fiction"
http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/crichton/

Natural Resources Defense Council: "They Don't Call It Science Fiction for Nothing"
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fcrichton.asp

... just to name a few.

[NNadir]

25. Utah, I think, is one of those places that will feel the matter big time.

But focusing on reality is not the American way, confusion between fiction and reality is.

From Utah to Massachusetts, we all deserve what we are going to get.