IPCC defense

After spending some time investigating Climategate and the allegations of controlling data within IPCC I have to agree that members of the IPCC have lost their authority.

However, despite the problems at IPCC global warming has not been refuted. From my personal experience as a 61 year old man living in Massachusetts and a snowboarder for the last 15 years, winters seem to be warmer with less snow both in Boston and in the slopes in New England. I took a trip to Park City in Utah this year and the residents told me that snow falls were off and conditions were not as good as they usually experience. The situation at Whistler Mountain where the Olympics took place and the lack of snow is more evidence. Though these accounts are anecdotal and incidental, I feel they are indicative of a trend. Despite recent global temperature measurements indicating temperature stasis, Arctic Ice is melting and Glaciers are retreating. Weather has also been more violent with stronger thunderstorms dropping record levels of rain and more incidences of tornados. Global Warming skeptics argue that Global Warming is not a slam dunk, which is true, but there is an overall consensus among scientists that Global Warming is happening and that human contribution to carbon in the atmosphere is contributing. Global Skeptics most definitely have a political agenda and the skeptic's studies are usually funded by energy companies that have a desired outcome from their research. As a layman I can't come to a conclusion other than my personal observations and sense of the climate, and my beliefs are with Global Warming advocates.

My two recent trips to Nairobi, Kenya has shown me that environmental regulations are important. In Nairobi there is no regulation of auto exhausts and they use lead additives. The consequence is dank, dark air that you can see, making it hard to breathe. You can see soot over their buildings and building material disintegrating. The eyes sting. This is in contrast to my home, Boston that is just as congested from automobiles, but has much less auto pollution because of the use of catalytic converters as required by the government. There is no doubt in my mind that Nairobi's lack of environmental regulation is detrimental to the health and well being of that city's residents. I could name numerous other places in the world where lack of building code regulation and environmental protections make living unhealthy.

In the sixties and seventies in Boston, the lack of waste and discharge regulations made the Charles River a disgusting smelly un-swimmable river. It was an embarrassment. My father used to take my family swimming in the Charles when I was growing up. Until very recently you had the chance of getting sick from just putting your hand in the water. That we as a society allowed our industries to contaminate such a great natural resource was a disgrace. After the State passed regulations and made efforts to clean the River it no longer is the disgusting smelly body of water it used to be and is now a source of recreation for the cities and towns that abut the river. There's a lesson there, and it's that we need regulation to CONSERVE our natural resources and that well planned conservation and regulation works for us. That government has a role and small government isn't necessarily a virtue. This is not Socialism nor is it a growth in government that is contrary to the intent of our Founding Fathers. It's an example that our Founding Father's foresaw in forming a Federal government and is specifically noted in the Commerce Clause. The Founding Fathers determined that interpretations of the Constitution were to be adjudicated by the Supreme Court, of which the Court has a history.