On October 17, the EPW Majority issued a press release, Decorated Scientist Defects From Belief in Global Warming – Caps Year of Vindication for Skeptics http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=264777, citing Claude Allegre’s editorial on September 21, 2006 in the French newspaper L'Express titled “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” detailing his newfound skepticism about manmade global warming. In his editorial, Allegre accused proponents of manmade catastrophic global warming of being motivated by money, noting that “the ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!”
Claude Allegre, one of the most decorated French geophysicists, is a former government official and an active member of France’s Socialist Party, and is a member of both the French and U.S. Academy of Sciences. Allegre has authored more than 100 scientific articles, written 11 books and received numerous scientific awards including the Goldschmidt Medal from the Geochemical Society of the United States. Below is Allegre’s editorial translated from French to English.
L'EXPRESS
THE SNOWS OF MOUNT KILIMANJARO By Claude Allegre
The cause of climate change remains unknown. So, let us be cautious.
September 21, 2006
During the same fortnight, we have seen Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s stunning photographs showing the vanishing ice cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, and we have immediately heard the same old story about global warming and read in Science magazine an important paper co-authored by several distinguished glaciologists which showed that glacier mass balance in Antarctica has not changed during the past thirty years[1]. There is a general consensus among specialists on one point: if widespread global warming occurs, it will be experienced more intensely near the poles than at the equator. Yet, these authors explain that we can observe a massive retreat of glacial ice in some places on the Antarctic continent while there is also a thickening of ice sheets in other places.
So, the question that arises is whether there is climate warming or not? The argument that builds upon the retreating white cap of Kilimanjaro seems implacable. The retreating white cap is observable, tangible. Indeed, but things are not as straightforward as they seem. The gradual retreat of the snows of Kilimanjaro is often imputed to local phenomena, the main one of these being desertification in East Africa. In a recent issue of Science magazine, French researchers have shown that this desertification was in a large measure due to tectonic activities responsible for the gradual uplift of the African continent, thereby inducing a reorganization of atmospheric circulation. Greenhouse effect plays no significant role in these processes.
Following the month of August experienced by the northern half of France, the prophets of doom of global warming will have a lot on their plate in order to make our fellow countrymen swallow their certitudes. In all likelihood, there is a climate change, but the latter is characterized more by sudden shifts, both in space and time (the heat wave or the “rotten summer”, just like the violent tornadoes or the increased frequency of floods, are examples of these) than by global warming. The cause of this climate change is unknown. Is it man? Is it nature?
Glaciers’ chronicles or historical archives point to the fact that climate is a capricious phenomena. This fact is confirmed by mathematical meteorological theories. So, let us be cautious. But the exposure of man’s responsibility as regards global warming allows us to sit idly by (the effect of the measures advocated will be felt only in half a century!). On the other hand, the crusade against extreme theories can be led with tangible results! However, as this is not fashionable, we choose to remain passive. In the meanwhile, the ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!
[1] A. Monaghan et al., Science, vol. 313, August 11, 2006.
Click here for the Op/Ed (French): http://www.lexpress.fr/idees/tribunes/dossier/allegre/dossier.asp?ida=451670
Related Links:
For a comprehensive review of the media’s embarrassing 100-year history of alternating between promoting fears of a coming ice age and global warming, see Environment & Public Works Chairman James Inhofe’s September 25, 2006 Senate floor speech debunking the media and climate alarmism. Go to: (epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759)
To read and watch Senator Inhofe on CNN discuss global warming go to: (http://www.epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=264308 )
To Read all of Senator Inhofe’s Speeches on global warming go to: (http://epw.senate.gov/speeches.cfm?party=rep)
“Inhofe Correct On Global Warming,” by David Deming geophysicist, an adjunct scholar with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (ocpathink.org), and an associate professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. (http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264537)
