Would you believe that scientists looking into Jim Inhofe's bogus global-warming "Minority Report" find it "not credible"?

In his extended 2006 survey of Senator Inhofe's career, Dr. Steven Best observed of the "eco-barbarian": "To appease a handful of large energy and oil companies, Bush, Inhofe, and others in government have mortgaged the future of life on this planet."

"We think it is highly unlikely that a growing fraction of top climate scientists are becoming increasingly skeptical of human causation of global warming."

-- from the Center for Inquiry's report on its

"Credibility Project" (see below)

by Ken

If you were to draw up a list of Things We Survived While the Country Was Under Total Republcan Control During the Bush Regime, somewhere on that list -- I don't say necessarily in the Top 10, but somewhere on the list -- has to be:

We survived four years (2003-07) during which James Inhofe chaired the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Because Inhofe is not only a crusading global-warming denier but a rampaging fundy loon who believes the earth is man's playpen to befoul and exhaust while awaiting the Rapture. (It's actually an insult to God to try to extend the life of the planet longer than He means us to be here.) He has devoted his life to the promotion of ignorance and the forcible destruction of knowledge and honest inquiry in all known forms. He is a savage and a bully. And while he has championed pretty much the full range of dangerous and psychotic Far Right causes, he is known above all for his unwavering devotion to the pillaging and plundering of the environment.

And for four years he was chairman of the Senate EPW Committee. He remains ranking minority member. This God of his has one kinky sense of humor.

Perhaps the senator's most famous quote in the field of environmental "science" is:

"With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it."

For some time now, at taxpayer expense, the senator has had a pet project, which our environmental go-to guy A Siegel described in a recent Get Energy Smart Now post ("Scientific inquiry concludes: Inhofe list "not credible . . .") as --

the various incarnations of a “report” cobbling together statements from scientists that supposedly dissent from the scientific consensus on humanity’s role in driving accelerating global warming. This is a quite favorite ‘denier’ citation, the supposed 400 or 600 or 700 (depending on which version) number of scientists who have, supposedly, gone on record against the Theory of Global Warming. And, they like to cite this as from the “Senate Environment and Public Works Committee”, without mentioning that this is a Minority Report from global-warming denier, fossil fool James Inhofe’s staff.

Once upon a time, a senator named Joe McCarthy became famous for brandishing lists, usually lists of Communists in High Places, which unfortunately weren't subject to verification because he only brandished them -- for all anybody knew, they could have been his grocery list, or a quick-noted account of What the Voices Tell Me. Well, somebody has finally taken a look at Senator Inhofe's little list. On Friday, the Center for Inquiry issued a report based on what it calls "The Credibility Project," which declared the latest version of Senator Inhofe's list, in the form of a "Minority Report" from the EPW Committee, "not credible."

In its press release, the CFI reports:

In this Senate Minority Report, almost 700 individuals with implied scientific credentials are offered as evidence that measures to address climate change are premature, and that further research is needed. Sen. Inhofe has used this report to support the claim that there is an ever-increasing international groundswell of scientific opposition to the position of approximately 2,000 scientists whose work is the basis of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Science Report (IPCC) released in 2007. The Center for Inquiry maintains that the Senate Minority report fails to make a credible case that a large number of actual climate scientists take exception to the near-universal consensus of the research community.

“It is beyond question that the work of the U.N. scientists has survived the scrutiny of their colleagues, and that they constitute a significant majority of active researches addressing this problem today. This led us to take a careful look at the broad conclusions of the Senate Minority Report,” said Dr. Stuart Jordan, science policy advisor to the CFI Office of Public Policy and retired emeritus senior staff scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

“As a result of our assessment, Inhofe and other lawmakers using this report to block proposed legislation to address the harmful effects of climate change must face an inconvenient truth: while there are indeed some well respected scientists on the list, the vast majority are neither climate scientists, nor have they published in fields that bear directly on climate science.”

However,

After assessing 687 individuals named as “dissenting scientists” in the January 2009 version of the United States Senate Minority Report, the Center for Inquiry’s Credibility Project found that:

• Slightly fewer than 10 percent could be identified as climate scientists.
• Approximately 15 percent published in the recognizable refereed literature on subjects related to climate science.
• Approximately 80 percent clearly had no refereed publication record on climate science at all.
• Approximately 4 percent appeared to favor the current IPCC-2007 consensus and should not have been on the list.

Further examination of the backgrounds of these individuals revealed that a significant number were identified as meteorologists, and some of these people were employed to report the weather.

The CFI has published a brochure, downloadable as a PDF, summarizing the work and findings of "The Credibility Project." In his post, which provides a splendid summary of the report, A Siegel writes, "I have now read this multiple times and am more impressed, with each read, with how well done it is, powerful in how it is thoughtfully understated." He thinks that "every educated American should read and absorb" the brochure. "It is that thoughtful and that important."

The report concludes with a statement from the authors that they have "double-checked our results and are prepared to offer the following three conclusions":

1) We think it is highly unlikely that a growing fraction of top climate scientists are becoming increasingly skeptical of human causation of global warming.

2) We think that the title “Senate Minority Report” is technically appropriate, but grossly understated. That report’s list does contain the names of some outstanding scientists, including at least one distinguished meteorologist. However, when weighted against the much larger number of equally outstanding climate scientists, there is no doubt where the great majority of experts in this field stand.

3) Absent hard evidence that another likely candidate drives global warming, it is highly unlikely that man-made greenhouse gases do not play a significant and probably a major role in causing global warming. The authors of this Credibility Project assessment are not qualified to assess the engineering and economic questions associated with proposed legislation addressing climate change. However, we are disturbed by any document that may misrepresent the state of the global scientific effort to address this problem.

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