Warmists lament

Scientists at Duke University claim global warming is not nearly so bad as it's been made it out to be.  The scientists, perhaps hoping to shift attention away from the legal controversy surrounding the Duke lacrosse team¹, estimate the chances the planet's temperature will rise by as much as 11 degrees is only about 5 percent.  This estimate is in line with less-alarming predictions by meteorologists made almost three decades ago.

"Our reconstruction supports a lot of variability in the past," said research director Gabriele Hegerl of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

Although her study found that the Earth is, indeed, warming, Ms. Hegerl discounts dire predictions of skyrocketing temperatures. The probability that the climate's "sensitivity" to greenhouse-gas levels would result in drastically higher temperatures is "substantially" reduced, she said.

Ms. Hegerl and her four-member team based their conclusions on thermometer readings over the past century, along with "ancient climate records," including tree-ring studies and ice-core samples that revealed hot and cold spells and airborne particulates over a 700-year period. In addition, they created 1,000 computer-based weather simulations for the past 1,000 years.

"Ancient and modern evidence suggest limits to future global warming," the study concluded. It was published in the journal Nature.

Global Warmists will undoubtedly lament the news, having promoted global warming as their moral authority to dictate policy on everything from automobile mileage standards to the food we eat.  Naturally, the United States is always cited as the largest contributor to global warming.

This month, a University of Toronto scientist predicted that a quarter of the planet's plants and animals would be extinct by 2050 because of rising temperatures. On Wednesday, two geophysics professors at the University of Chicago warned those who eat red meat that their increased flatulence contributes to greenhouse gases.

Expect rioting and demonstrations against Duke.

¹  This is an example of a time honored journalistic practice known in mainstream press circles as "balanced reporting".  The "balanced reporting" technique brings an almost completely unrelated event into a story to add "perspective".  Examples are most often found in stories about the Bush Administration or Republicans.