The Gazette Isn't Cowed

On Tuesday, we reported on what we thought was the "dumbest quote ever" by a politician who is actively seeking office. It came from Mark Udall's campaign site:

I believe that it is time for universal acknowledgment of what is already the scientific and public consensus-global climate change is occurring and human activity is a primary contributor to that change. The problem presents a major environmental challenge that requires an immediate response from our state and national government.

The scientific and physical evidence of global climate change is overwhelming. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global sea level."

Today, The Gazette not only did not bow to Mark Udall's superior wisdom, it called that "wisdom" into question with a long editorial debunking global warming (read the comments, too):

Growing numbers of global warming science skeptics are making their opposition known. They include experts in climatology, oceanography, geology, biology, environmental sciences and physics, among others. Contrary to alarmist claims, they’re not on the payrolls of the big oil companies. They are affiliated with prestigious institutions worldwide, including Harvard, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, MIT, the International Arctic Research Center, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and many others. Many shared a portion of IPCC’s 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (cowon with Gore), and others have won previous Nobel Prizes for their research.

A U.S. Senate report accumulated more than 400 of their views to refute Gore’s claim of “consensus.”

For example, physics professor emeritus Dr. Howard Hayden of the University of Connecticut said, “You think SUVs are the cause of glaciers shrinking? . . . Don’t believe what you hear out of Hollywood and Washington, D.C. . . . [C]limate history proves that Gore has the relationship between carbon dioxide concentration and global warming backward. A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not cause the Earth to be warmer. Instead, a warmer Earth causes the higher carbon dioxide levels.”