PLANET GORE
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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
I know that to be considered a respectable independent thinker, and not a partisan hack, I'm supposed to take conservatives seriously. And I try, really I do. But then sometimes they go and do something so ridiculous that makes it just too hard for me.
Case in point: National Review has started a special blog called "Planet Gore" (how clever!) devoted entirely to stopping any reasonable movement to prevent climate change. Sample post title: "The Admirable Crichton." Yes, they are seriously touting the novelist Michael Crichton as a global warming expert. This struck me as hilarious until I remembered that President Bush does too.
cross-posted on TAPPED.
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Here is the Link
And here is a portion of the post.
"So far I count six contributors on the blog -- none of whose credentials appear to be provided on the Web site. So I did some Googling. Here's whom NRO has tapped for their expertise:
1. The online editor of National Review.
2. A "Web manager and blogger" from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-free-market think tank.
3. A senior fellow at the Discovery Institute (best known for its work in defense of creationism), with a Ph.D. from the Princeton Theological Seminary.
4. An English "expat businessman," who writes a popular economics blog.
5. A senior fellow at the C.E.I., with a BA from Oxford, an MBA from the University of London, and a "Diploma of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine." (I'm not sure what this last is.)
6. A resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, with a doctorate in environmental science from UCLA and a c.v. filled with stints at pro-free-market think tanks.
I'll correct those descriptions if NRO decides to post more information. Everyone is reasonably smart and witty, and at least three of the bloggers appear to be have knowledge of economics and statistics, which is certainly relevant. But really: Not one climatologist or meteorologist? No one thought to call, say, a chemist who studies the issues involved?
Compare the above credentials with those of the contributors to Realclimate.org, whose views are more in line with Al Gore's.
I'd love to read a blog co-written by Lindzen and William Gray, of Colorado State, two of the best-known, best-credentialed dissenters from the global-warming CW. But NRO's contribution to the debate, so far, is awfully, awfully feeble."