THE PHANTOM PROBLEM OBAMA USES TO KILL OUR ECONOMY

Former Vice President Al Gore went on a profanity-laced tirade at the Aspen Institute Aug. 4 against the rising number of Americans who are skeptical about man-made global warming.

According to a Harris poll in July, only 44 percent of us now believe carbon dioxide emissions are warming the earth, down from 51 percent in 2009 and 71 percent in 2007.

Global temperatures peaked in 1998.  People have noticed winters are getting colder.

When evidence emerged in 2009 that scientists affiliated with the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Britain were "hiding the decline" by fudging data, few journalists paid much attention (see the section on "TreeRingGate" in the 12/09 HFR).

But a lot of Americans did, apparently.  In a Rasmussen poll Aug. 3, 69 percent of respondents said it was at least somewhat likely scientists have falsified research data.

According to global warming theory, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are trapping heat in the upper atmosphere, inexorably warming the planet.

The theory ignored inconvenient facts: 

* In the Medieval Warm Period (950-1250 AD), and the Roman Warm Period (250 BC-400 AD), there were no automobiles or factories, but temperatures were warmer than now. 

* In geologic history, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere were much higher, but temperatures often were lower.  In the Late Ordovician Period (460-440 mya), CO2 concentrations were 12 times higher than they are today (4700 ppm vs. 389 today).  The Late Ordovician Period was an ice age.

* The Vostok ice cores from Antarctica indicate temperature changes have preceded changes in CO2 concentrations by an average of 800 years.  This couldn’t happen if CO2 caused temperature changes.  It’s the other way around, as warmer oceans release more CO2.

* CO2 in the atmosphere has increased since 1998, but temperatures haven’t.

Now a peer reviewed study of NASA satellite data indicates the computer models warmists rely upon grossly exaggerate the amount of heat being trapped in the atmosphere.

Mr. Gore’s alarmist predictions have proved false.  Polar ice caps are larger.  The polar bear population is increasing.  The wildlife biologist upon whom Mr. Gore relied for his claim the polar bear is endangered, Charles Monnett, is suspected of fraud.  The rise in sea levels — which has been going on since the end of the last ice age — is slowing down.

Mr. Gore can respond only with curses, and ever more hysterical predictions of imminent doom.  His credibility is in tatters.  In the public mind, he’s gone from Nobel Prize winner to Chicken Little.

Anthropogenic (man-made) global warming is a "contrived phony mess that is falling apart of its own weight," says Texas Gov. Rick Perry.  It’s the most harmful hoax in history, because President Barack Obama bases job-killing policies on it.

Thanks to the new technique of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which makes it possible to recover oil and natural gas trapped in shale, the U.S. now has more reserves of oil, coal and natural gas than any other nation in the world, concludes the Congressional Research Service.

"Shale gas doesn’t change everything – it’s much more important than that," said British energy expert Nick Grealy.

If these resources were exploited properly, America could be energy independent very soon.  Millions of well paying jobs would be created.  New tax revenues would flood the Treasury.  The cost of gasoline and electricity would plummet.

But the Obama government forbids oil drilling in most of Alaska, most areas offshore, and much of the West.  Regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coal and electric power industries, and send electric bills soaring.

Mr. Obama’s efforts to force Detroit to build electric cars consumers don’t want (think a Chevette with a Cadillac price tag) may cost 220,000 jobs in the auto industry.

Our economically illiterate president prattles on about "green jobs."  But so-called "renewables" require massive government subsidies to produce little energy.  Studies in Spain, Britain and Italy indicate each subsidized "green" job costs, respectively, 2.2, 3.7, and 4.8 jobs in the private sector.

Fossil fuels are persecuted for their alleged contributions to a phantom problem.  To protect us from that phantom, Mr. Gore advocates and President Obama is killing our economy.

"I’ve heard Al Gore talk about man-made global warming so much that I’m starting to think that his mouth is the leading source of all that supposedly deadly carbon dioxide," says Rick Perry.  Asked about his support for Mr. Gore’s unsuccessful presidential campaign 23 years ago in 1988, he riposted, "I got religion.  He’s gone to hell."

So has Mr. Obama.  Then again, perhaps he’s been there all along.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.