Weather Channel founder calls global warming a scam
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Weather Channel founder calls global warming a scam
Last update: November 12, 2007 - 4:58 PM
The founder of the Weather Channel cable network is getting some heat
over his contention that global warming is "the greatest scam in
history."
John Coleman, now meteorologist of KUSI-TV in San Diego, issued that
declaration in a lengthy blog posting on www.icecap.us.
Among Coleman's points:
· The campaign to assign a degree of human responsibility for global
warming was hatched by "dastardly scientists with environmental and
political motives" in the "late 1990s to create an illusion of rapid
global warming."
· From there, "friends in government steered huge research grants
their way to keep the movement going." Then, "environmental
extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie,
media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this
wild 'scientific' scenario."
Coleman then went on to try and separate belief from science: "Global
warming, i.e. climate change, is not about environmentalism or
politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you 'believe in.'
It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of
lifelong expertise."
Coleman's views have been circulated widely among like-minded blogs
and websites but has received scant attention otherwise.
Among those challenging him is Daniel Weiss, senior fellow and
director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress.
Weiss told the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin:
"We are seeing the impacts of global warming now that were not
supposed to occur until years from now."
Weiss cited as examples the melting of Greenland's ice sheets and a
higher level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than most scientists
had previously predicted.
"Whether or not the sea-level rise prediction is 3 feet or 7 feet, we
know that the phenomenon is real because it's happening today," Weiss
told the Bulletin.
The Weather Channel, following numerous media inquiries after
Coleman's blog posting went live, declined to directly respond to its
founder's views, but said, "The Weather Channel is an advocate for
environmental efforts and has adopted a broader initiative, called
Forecast Earth, which focuses on educating the public about climate
change and empowering people to make a difference."
As for how Coleman explains his conclusion, he wrote that he "read
dozens of the scientific papers. I have talked with numerous
scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am
correct when I assure you there is no run away climate change. The
impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in
peril."
He added that there are "hundreds of other meteorologists ... who are
as certain as I am that this global warming frenzy ... is not valid."
Along with founding the Weather Channel in the early 1980s, Coleman
has been a TV weatherman in central Illinois, Chicago, Omaha,
Nebraska, Milwaukee and New York. For seven years he was the
weatherman on ABC-TV's "Good Morning, America."
To read Coleman's blog, visit www.startribune.com/a3631.
--PAUL WALSH