An Environmentalist Applauds Trump | The Libertarian Institute
https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/blog/environmentalist-applauds-trump/

By Mencken's Ghost...

Twenty-five years ago I founded and headed a large and influential
environmental grassroots group in metro New York.

One of my biggest challenges was to keep my board of directors and
rank-and-file from embellishing, exaggerating and distorting the facts
in the heat of battle.  "The facts are on our side," I would say, "so
hyperbole and misstatements will only undermine our credibility with the
media and the public."

Sticking to the facts resulted in very favorable media coverage,
including a New Jersey daily honoring me on the Sunday front page as
"Public Service Volunteer of the Year," and another daily running a
front page photo of me and ally Senator Bill Bradley when he and eight
other members of New Jersey's congressional delegation testified on
behalf of our cause before a congressional committee.  The photo showed
the former professional basketball player towering over me in the
committee room.

Now 25 years later, when it comes to global warming, the media have
become a de facto propaganda ministry that parrots the party line and
disseminates exaggerations, misstatements, and outright falsehoods about
so-called climate change and its causes and fixes.

Curiously, this has happened in spite of the public now having more
years of college.  One would expect the opposite to happen—that the more
educated the public, the less that the government and media could get by
with brazen propagandizing.

On second thought, it's not so curious.  Academia has forfeited its
scientific objectivity relative to global warming, as it has on other
subjects, due to accepting government research grants that have the
implicit requirement that the grantees parrot the party line or lose
future grants.

For these reasons alone, I applaud President Trump's decision to back
out of the Paris Accords.  And having studied the counter facts about
global warming, I stand up and cheer the president.

This from someone who usually jeers, not cheers, Trump.

My suspicions about the propagandist nature of global warming began in
the mid-1990s with a visit to Biosphere II north of Tucson.  This was
during the time when the facility was run by Columbia University.  (It
is now run by the University of Arizona.)  In the exhibition section of
the visitor center was a cutaway slice of an ancient tree.  An
explanatory placard said that the gaps between growth rings showed how
the climate had warmed due to human activity.  But when I painstakingly
counted and examined the tree rings, it became evident that the climate
was warmer prior to the Industrial Revolution; that is, prior to the
exponential increase in the burning of fossil fuels.

Hanging from the ceiling of the exhibit hall was a cutaway of a Volvo
car, because Volvo was a sponsor of the exhibit center.  Apparently, the
Biosphere staff and visitors didn't see the irony and hypocrisy of a car
company being featured next to a display on global warming, as if Volvos
run on Perrier water and not carbon.

Nearby was a drop-box where visitors could write comments and questions
for the Biosphere staff and get answers in return.  I dropped a
respectful and courteous note in the box, describing my observation of
the tree rings and asking for an explanation.

After waiting a few weeks and not getting a response, I sent an email to
key faculty at Columbia University.  Again, there was no response.

Years later my son attended the University of Arizona.  In walking
across campus one day, I came upon a weather station in the middle of an
asphalt parking lot and near a large building.  The station is one of
the sources of climate data.  Early photographs of campus showed that
the weather station used to be in the middle of natural desert
vegetation, away from concrete and asphalt.  It doesn't take a scientist
to realize that temperature readings taken at the station today are
higher than readings taken a century ago, due solely to the heat-island
effect; that is, to how buildings and hardscape raise temperatures by
retaining heat.

On a similar note, the heat-island effect has probably increased
temperatures over the years at the official weather station at Phoenix's
Sky Harbor Airport, which has grown from a small, sleepy airport 40
years ago to one of the largest and busiest airports in the country.
Yet when the local news and the U.S. Weather Bureau cite record
temperatures at Sky Harbor, there is no mention that comparisons to
prior years might be misleading.

Global warming might be real, might be caused by humans, and might be
possible to be ameliorated without creating worse problems.  But there
is no doubt that the media and academia can't be trusted when it comes
to global warming (and other issues).  Hooray to Trump for sticking it
to them.