Liberal, Irreverent

Thursday, December 10, 2009

FactCheck.org: CLIMATEGATE DEBUNKED

Climategate"

December 10, 2009

Summary

In late November 2009, more than 1,000 e-mails between scientists at the Climate Research Unit of the U.K.'s University of East Anglia were stolen and made public by an as-yet-unnamed hacker. Climate skeptics are claiming that they show scientific misconduct that amounts to the complete fabrication of man-made global warming. We find that to be unfounded:

* The messages, which span 13 years, show a few scientists in a bad light, being rude or dismissive. An investigation is underway, but there's still plenty of evidence that the earth is getting warmer and that humans are largely responsible.
* Some critics say the e-mails negate the conclusions of a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but the IPCC report relied on data from a large number of sources, of which CRU was only one.
* E-mails being cited as "smoking guns" have been misrepresented. For instance, one e-mail that refers to "hiding the decline" isn't talking about a decline in actual temperatures as measured at weather stations. These have continued to rise, and 2009 may turn out to be the fifth warmest year ever recorded. The "decline" actually refers to a problem with recent data from tree rings.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site www.factcheck.org


Friday, December 4, 2009

The way to reduce health care cost inflation

The way to reduce health care cost inflation is by curbing inflation on the supply side. The way to do this is by controlling the arbitrary price setting power that medical providers, manufacturers and drug makers currently have. And the best way to do this is by using Medicare allowances as basis for provider reimbursement.