Horner I: some wonderful quotes on global cooling

Time to review another book I read in preparation for the Congressional campaign: Christopher Horner's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism.

I was anticipating more questions about global warming (at least in the debates). My response on this topic had been one of my two weak answers in the Bloomington debate. I gave a measured-- and it turns out correct-- response. But Hill was either ignorant in his avid advocacy or smart in playing poker. He came out swinging and I was neither sure enough nor prepared enough to provide a tight rebuttal.

I also read Singer & Avery's Unstoppable Global Warming-- Every 1500 Years. (I reviewed it earlier.) By way of comparison, as you probably can tell by the title, Horner's book is less academic, more cynical and sound-bitey of the two. Horner's book is funny and clever-- and a nice intro for those looking for a lighter (but still effective) touch on a serious subject.

I'm going to divide this review into four parts: some lovely quotes on global cooling (below); his discussion of global warming and cooling; "the debate" including the tactics of those in the "consensus" view; and the political and economic responses.

Betty Friedan in 1958 Harpers: "Certain signs, some of them visible to the layman as well as the scientist, indicate that we have been watching an ice age approach for some time without realizing what we are seeing...Scientists predict that it will cause great snows which the world has not seen since the last ice age thousands of years ago."

Hmm...This may explain this week's snow storm! And it's good to see Betty expand her horizons from feminism to climatology.

Nigel Calder (1975): The threat of a new ice age must now stand alongside nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.

I guess he was right in that neither happened. That was very clever-- to compare the probability of two events to each other.

Reid Bryson (1971): The continued rapid cooling of the earth since WWII is in accord with the increase in global air pollution associate with industrialization, mechanization, urbanization, and exploding population.

A beauty of a quote, huh? And of course, I hate when my population explodes. We all know how painful that can be.

Douglas Colligan (1975): The world's climatologists are agreed...Once the freeze starts, it will be too late.

Absolutely. So when is it going to start, Doug?

Newsweek on global cooling (1975): "this trend will reduce agricultural productivity".

OK, I'm sure they were glad to hear about global warming!

Fortune (1954): Despite all you may have heard, read, or imagined, it's been growing cooler-- not warmer-- since the Thirties.

Wow, maybe they were correct after all?

Horner has a few nice lines too:

Cooling does paint a far more frightening picture given that another ice age would be truly catastrophic, while throughout human history, warming periods have always ushered in prosperity. Maybe that's why the greens tried "global cooling" first (p. 62).

If, like the greens, we are willing to cite a short period of time in order to claim a long-term trend, then a possible cooling trend began in 1998, despite further, massive, worldwide increases in fossil fuel use (p. 116-117a).

Horner also notes a Business and Media Institute report, finding that the New York Times "has engaged in at least four separate campaigns about climate change...since warning of a new ice age in 1895" (p. 182-183). It was cooling in 1895, a concern reinvigorated in 1924 and 1975-- with warming articles starting up in 1933 and over the past 15 years or so.