Can Science be Trusted on Global Warming?

The Kyoto Protocol is a U.N. hand wringing exercise primarily supported by Europeans. The European economy as a whole is larger than that of the U.S. and thus the four greatest economic engines are the European continent, the U.S., India and China.

Pres. George W. Bush took us out of the Kyoto Protocol because he feels that it will damage the U.S. economy and that it is bad science. As I have written previously here and here, the world must recognize that there are additional large players in the equation who must be included, principally India and China. British Prime Minister Tony Blair concurs.

Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact.

Along comes a Russian astronomer who predicts not global warming, but an ice age:

A Russian astronomer has predicted that Earth will experience a "mini Ice Age" in the middle of this century, caused by low solar activity.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak…

Is the world on the brink of a global warming disaster or is it about to start another ice age? The conventional wisdom by the majority of scientists, or so we are told, is that it is going to be global warming. How can anyone doubt the majority of the scientific community?

In 1968, Stanford’s Professor Paul Ehrlich came out with his highly acclaimed book Population Bomb touting his theory that the world could not continue to increase in population with out catastrophic results. Ehrlich championed a philosophy of zero population growth. His theory was all the rage in the scientific community and now that theory is relegated to the scientific dust bin.

The whole concept of science is an evolving understanding of the nature of things. History tells us to take a second look and move slowly when applying public policy to current scientific “wisdom.”