This is by far the most effective, all encompassing, and academic response to the recent blitz of "left-wing global warming alarmist" propaganda we've been seeing recently. Bottom line, no one can come up with scientific results that indicate anything other than the consensus opinion on climate change. The only scientific opinion out there is by - you guessed it - an advisor of President Bush and his theory is problematic and "would most likely occur as a result of a major volcanic eruption that would put up enough stratospheric aerosol dust to cool the climate for a few years". These are the words of atmospheric scientist and owner of the weather underground website and the editor of his wonder blog, Dr Jeff Masters. At this link he lays out the situation, addresses the lead scientist’s opinions, highlights the current PR campaign, and notes several other historical myths passed around conservative circles that misrepresent science and unjustly defame scientists.

This PR war is laid out brilliantly by Dr. Masters below, notice how coordinated this latest assault was:

Dr. Lindzen's article appeared at about the same time as similar op-ed pieces by syndicated columnists Robert Novak (April 3) and George Will (April 2). A large number of additional anti-global global warming editorials have appeared in the opinion pages of many newspapers in the past week, including the Washington Times, Detroit News, and Arizona Star. Given Dr. Lindzen's history of accepting consulting money from the fossil fuel industry, it would be no surprise if his article was paid for by the fossil fuel industry as part of an orchestrated public relations campaign that included the appearance of all these op-ed articles. I am sure the industry is very concerned about the recent media attention on global warming that has hurt their position. Scientific studies published this year showed unexpectedly large amounts of melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. A cover story last month in Time magazine headlined, "Be Worried. Be Very Worried", warned that we may be at the "tipping point" for uncorrectable climate change. A episode of 60 Minutes reported that scientific reports on climate change written for Congress were being modified by a White House chief of staff, who changed key phrases of the reports to make climate change appear less threatening (the staffer in question has since resigned to go work for Exxon Mobil). James Hansen of NASA and many scientists working for NOAA and NASA have complained of being gagged by the Bush Administration on climate change issues in recent months. It would be an obvious move for the fossil fuel industry to mount a PR campaign this month to try to push back.

Please read Dr. Masters' entire post, I can't do it justice. You're invited to read my thorough debunking of the George F. Will article of 2 April here.

What you've been hearing from the ever-so-gullible mainstream media and the resident pseudo-scientists - slash - conservative columnists is pure nonsense. They have abused the media to push unpopular scientific theories on an unsuspecting public at the pleasure of the elite and their corporations. Along the way they have soiled the credibility of atmospheric scientists and, in addition, the only publication willing to push their agenda. I suggest you consider this in your own analysis and remember that it is not our future in question but our kids and their kids.