Michael Ryan Knows Nothing about Climate Science

Re: "Skepticism is Warming Up," from the October 26th editorial page of the Augusta Chronicle.

Once again, Mr. Ryan is cherry picking polls, finding one that shows that only 36% of people think anthropogenic activities are causing global warming. I'm sure there are many polls out there that differ, but public opinion polls about this subject are completely irrelevant. The vast majority of people are scientifically ignorant.

What really matters is what climate scientists think. 97% of climate scientists who have published peer reviewed studies do believe that anthropogenic activities are causing the earth's climate to warm. These are people who actually study the science and know what they're talking about.

So the first part of the underheading of Mr. Ryan's title, "Like the science itself, public views on global warming are unsettled," is a total lie. The science is not unsettled, at least among scientists who actually study climate.

Source: http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf

Mr. Ryan stated, "Thus, if global warming is indeed influenced by humans, we've then taken the necessary steps to reverse it..."

This is a strange comment. The U.S. government or the "we" he's referring to have done very little about climate change.

Furthermore, Mr. Ryan falsely claims that cap and trade will cripple the economy. There's no evidence that cap and trade will cripple the economy. Again, Mr. Ryan is making an unsupported allegation.


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On today's editorial page, Mr. Ryan published yet another column, this one by E. Thomas McClanahan that cherry picked polls. The title of this editorial is "More Voters are Souring on Health Reform."

Mr. McClanahan used a recent Rasmussen poll, but ignored an AP poll that shows support for health care reform is on the rise.

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One more thing worth noting from today's editorial page, Re: "They're making opting out looking good."

Mr. Ryan writes, "The truth is, this country was founded on the notion that a central government would be convened to do the states' collective bidding--not the other way around."

This is not true at all. The debate between whether the U.S. should have a strong centralized government or one based on a weak form of federalism was the biggest controversy the framers of the constitution had. The constitution is full of plenty of examples that show federal supremacy over the states, including minting money and making treaties. The tenth amendment was merely a bone to be tossed to states righters when the constitution was being written. There's nothing in any of the health care reform plans that conflicts with the tenth amendment because judicial precedent has clearly allowed the federal government to take precedence over the states when it comes to issues like these.