AFBF delegates hear from climate change critic

www.farmweeknow.com
Staff
2010-01-11

Much of current global warming theory is based on distortions of scientific evidence, blind devotion to simple notion and outright greed, according to a speaker at the American Farm Bureau's 91st annual meeting.

Christopher Horner, a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, contended that the theory suffers from problems with the measurement of the earth temperature and its interpretation. Comprehensive data collected since the Middle Ages reveal a natural process of fluctuation in average temperature. These data have been derived from studies of tree rings, ice cores and thermometer readings.

“The climate has always changed,” Horner said. “The question is, how does society respond to it—hysterically or rationally?”

Since the late 19th century the earth’s average temperature has increased by an average of one degree Fahrenheit.

“When it’s warm, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he said. Thus, the presence of higher concentrations of the gas, as detected in recent atmospheric samples, is not necessarily proof that the condition was created by human action.

Moreover, a careful assessment of late 20th century and early 21st Century temperature data contradicts global warming theory.


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