S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist and professor emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and a former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service says that the drive to regulate CO2 and effectively control energy appears to be based on ideology rather than science or any real concern about climate. His studies led him to believe that most of the warming is of non-greenhouse origin and therefore part of a natural climate cycle.

Singer also disputes predictions of rise in sea levels by the end of this century in terms of several feet, but around 7 inches per century.

Mark Steyn, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times cites the work published in the Journal of Atmospheric And Solar-Terrestrial Physics of Cornelis de Jager of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Ilya Usokn of the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory in Finland concluding that tropospheric temperatures are more likely affected by variations in the solar radiance

Rep. John Linder (R, Georgia), member of the House Ways and means Committee, writing for the Washington Times points to a recent study at UC Davis concluding that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere 300 million years ago was around 2,000 ppm. Our current CO2 level is about 380 ppm. Experts predict that CO2 levels will rise to 2,000 ppm at the end of the century as remaining fossil fuels are burned. I wonder if there were coal plants and SUVs that caused the rise in CO2 levels to 2,000 ppm 300 million years ago.

Kevin Trenberth, chief of climate analysis at the national center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado was cited by the Associated Press expressing doubts about how permanent the melting in Greenland, wondering if some of this might just be temporary. The same article by the AP also cites Professor John Christy of University of Alabama at Huntsville who says that Greenland did not melt much within the past thousand years when it was warmer than now. While he believes that global warming is real and man-made, it is not worrisome as advertised.

Richard S. Lindzen, an MIT climate scientist believes that and water vapor will counteract greenhouse-gas emissions.

 Suppose America were to heed Al Gore, John Kerry and Hollywood and sign up on the Kyoto Accord, an international treaty mandating reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, will we be happily living in comfort ever after?

Freed Zakaria of Newsweek cites scientific estimates that just to keep greenhouse gases at current levels would require slashing carbon-dioxide emissions by 60 percent. Considering current and foreseeable technology, that would mean cutting back on industrial activity on a scale that would make the great Depression look very small.

Robert Samuelson, an economic columnist for Newsweek decries alarmist predictions by Sir Nicholas Stern, former World Bank chief economist, of worldwide depression and flooding of coastal cities unless global warming is curbed . According to Samuelson, the danger of that is “we’d end up with the worst of both worlds: a program that harms the economy without much cutting of greenhouse gases.

Should we ignore Al Gore’s sermons? I’ll try to, if only to avoid a nightmare. But global warming or not, I strongly believe that America should wean itself from fossil fuels for reasons of national defense. For as long as the engine of our prosperity depends on resources beyond our control, we will not be secure.