Princeton Physicist Tells Congress Earth in 'CO2 Famine'
-- Increase 'Will Be Good for Mankind'
Published: 2/25/2009 11:08 PM ET
By
Jeff Poor
When former Vice President Al Gore said the science was
settled on the issue of global warming before Congress in 2007, he might have
meant it was settled as far as people that he would allow to work for him.
Dr. William Happer, currently a
professor of Physics at Princeton University, was once fired by Gore at the
Department of Energy in 1993 for disagreeing with the vice president on the
effects of ozone to humans and plant life, also disagrees with Gore’s claim
that manmade carbon dioxide (CO2) increases the temperature of the
earth and is a threat to mankind. Happer appeared
before the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee on Feb. 25 and
explained CO2 is in short-supply in relative terms of the history of
the planet.
“Many people don’t realize that over geological time,
we’re really in a CO2 famine now. Almost never has CO2
levels been as low as it has been in the Holocene [geologic epoch] – 280 [parts
per million (ppm)] – that’s unheard of,” Happer said.
“Most of the time, it’s at least 1,000 [ppm] and it’s been quite higher than
that.”
Happer said that when
CO2 levels were higher – much higher than they are now, the laws of
nature still managed to function as we understand them today.
“The earth was just fine in those times,” Happer said. “You know, we evolved as a species in those
times, when CO2 levels were three or four times what they are now.
And, the oceans were fine, plants grew, animals grew fine. So it’s baffling to
me that, you know, we’re so frightened of getting nowhere close to where we
started.”
That directly conflicts with the line Gore has been
telling the media for years. In November 2007, Gore told NBC’s “Today” that
there was “as strong a consensus as
you'll ever see in science” that global warming was caused by mankind.
The chairwoman of the EPW
committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has long supported Gore’s “global
warming battle.” During Wednesday’s hearing, she was skeptical of Happer’s view, stating a lot had changed in the 80 million
years. But Happer explained that the laws of science
had not changed.
“Well, I don’t think that the laws of nature, physics and
chemistry have changed in 80 million year,” Happer
said. “Eighty million years ago, the earth was a very prosperous place and
there’s no reason to think it will suddenly become bad now.”
Happer claimed that
in fact, an increase in CO2 levels wouldn’t be a bad thing at all,
but a good thing for humanity.
“Increasing concentrations of CO2 in the
atmosphere will cause some warming of the earth’s surface,” Happer
said. “The key question is will the net effect of the warming and any other
effects of CO2 be good or bad for humanity?
I believe the increase of CO2 will be good.”
Happer explained to
the committee that the global warming movement mirrors the temperance movement
that led to Prohibition in the 1920s. He claimed the
movement has enlisted various elements of society, including the media, to
promote their cause. He noted his opinion that children are being misused to
spread the “climate catastrophe” movement’s message.
“Like the Temperance Movement a hundred years ago, the
climate catastrophe movement has enlisted the mass media, leadership of
scientific societies, trustees of charitable foundations, many other
influential people to their cause,” Happer said.
“Even elementary school teachers and writers of children’s books terrify our
children with the idea of impending climate doom. Children should not be
force-fed propaganda masquerading as science.”
Also accompanying Happer on the
Senate panel were Dr. R.K. Pachauri,
chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr.
Christopher Field director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie
Institution for Science, and Dr. Howard Frumkin,
director of the National Center for Environmental Health
Source:http://www.mrc.org/articles/princeton-physicist-tells-congress-earth-co2-famine-increase-will-be-good-mankind