I’ll try to wrap up my thoughts about global warming before a future column gets into the inevitable military showdown with Iran.

Have faith, common-sense people. More and more responsible scientific experts, with distinguished credentials to back them up, are speaking out against the man-made global-warming hoax being shoved down our throats.

In addition, there are plenty of good books out on the market, two of which I found to be very informative.

The first is "Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years," by Fred Singer and Dennis Avery. The book includes some essays by those scientists who are not part of the group claiming to be the "entire scientific community." They disagree with the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it groupies who attempt to stifle any debate to the contrary. The other is "Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media," by Patrick Michaels (too bad he didn’t add the Hollywoodites). This book presents tons of scientific evidence that debunks Al Gore’s sensationalism and fear-mongering.

Yes, there is global warming. I said this in my previous column. No, it is not caused by man. There is plenty of research out there that shows solar activity as the possible main cause.

Please remember that the sun is about the equivalent of 330,000 Earths and emits heat at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Do we really believe that our miniscule output can in any way match the sun’s ability to warm or cool the global temperature?

Other relevant factors include the tilt and inclination of the Earth’s axis, ocean circulation and plate tectonic shifts. Darn, we can’t blame President Bush for these causes, can we?

The current warming trend lies within the range of normal, naturally caused variations. The media, however, want and thrive on hysteria and alarmism and so do the politicians.

Man causes pollution. But here again, it will be hard for the "hate America crowd" to lay the blame on the United States.

China is expected to overtake the United States as the largest creator of greenhouse gasses sometime during 2008. But at the same time Gore wants us to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which applies only to the most advanced industrial nations (read the U.S).

Do you really think that Gore has considered the economic impact that will have on America? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that if the United States signed the Kyoto Treaty, it would end up costing us between $100 billion and $400 billion annually in lost Gross Domestic Product.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the treaty doesn’t apply to the largest greenhouse-gas emitters such as China, India and Brazil.

Now let’s talk about the esteemed United Nations and its creation, the IPCC _ The International Project on Climate Change. First of all, anything to do with the U.N. shouldn’t be taken seriously, and second of all, you can’t ignore the anti-United States bias evident everywhere within that organization.

The original report claimed that more than 2,000 of the world’s leading scientists had endorsed the report. However, this claim included the names of scientists who did not agree with the commission’s conclusions. They neglected to mention this.

As a matter of fact, there was one Professor Reiter who had to threaten a lawsuit to have his name removed from the report. Really makes you feel comfortable with the integrity of this group, doesn’t it? Its latest report is due to be out this May, but anyone can read an advanced summary on the Internet. It is 20 or so pages in length, but there is some significant pullback from its initial findings about the extent of man’s responsibility for global warming. Hmmmm.

So what it all boils down to is that Gore and his environmentally wacko friends simply want to control the way you and I live our lives.

He said in his skit to Congress that he really didn’t have anything against nuclear energy. It simply took too long and was too expensive an investment.

That’s right, Al, and the only reason it takes 20 or more years to construct a nuclear power plant is because of the blocking tactics you and your environmental leftists create to prevent any progress being made.

Would all you negative people stop your whining and do something productive? You know full well that the path to a clean environment is nuclear and wind energy. Why don’t you be leaders of that movement? If you can’t do something constructive, go live in the woods and leave us alone.

You people out there with a degree of common sense, the facts are on our side. Tune out the unbalanced individuals and stay strong. I want you all to sit back and enjoy all the nasty vitriol about to be spewed my way.

___

Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.