Here are some reactions to my last week's commentary on "Climategate," he massive scandal that erupted when a hacker leaked thousands of verified emails and documents proving that the bulk of the "data" in support of Man Made Global Warming is in fact "cooked", i.e., fraudulent. Looks like eco-billionaire Al Gore has his own "Inconvenient Truth" to stand up to.
 
 
Dear Arnie,
 
This is how religions are born. Global Warming became a religion just as much as Islam. Facts became incontrovertible because mir toor nisht freigen, mir toor nisht zoogen (one may not ask, one may not speak). Once it steps across that boundary, sketpticism is justified and people like Al Gore become the Shabtai Zvis of our time. Everyone knows about the weakest link. In Copenhagen the chain will come apart. One thing though, the skeptics may not believe the "science" but few would question that good ecological practice should be the rule, if not the law. Unfortunately, what we were getting was not ecology but eco-fascism; very destructive.
 
Marshall Shapiro,
Vineland ON

 
Dr. Gotfryd,
You are endorsing illegal hacking? Your sensationalizing the hacked data is in as poor taste as Al gore's doom and gloom.
I do not buy the extreme climate change but I also take issue with the deniers. Even if climate change is totally natural, what do you propose we do about the impacts? Cutting use of carbon based fuels is good for the envornment even without climate change and good for the Jews as we get out from under Muslim oil. That is change I endorse.
Rick W.
 
 
Arnie, The climate is definitely getting hotter in the scientific community at large. See this one.
Craig F.
WOW!

 
 
Arnie:
I am horrified that you may think anthropogenic global warming is a myth! I think going about saying that is appallingly irresponsible. Millions (if not billions) of people are looking for an excuse to carry on with "business as usual", yet business as usual is seriously threatening to destroy biodiversity and make the planet earth much harder to live on. I feel like we are living in times like those preceding those of Noach and the Great Flood!
Michael B.
Vancouver BC
 
Michael, I'd like to address your points one by one. First about myths and facts, let's define our terms. Using a standard dictionary, we find that a myth is "an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution." On the other hand, a fact is: "A truth known by actual experience or observation."
 
Try googling "global warming fraud" and then hit the "news" filter. You should see at least 1300 articles on the fallout from the leaked emails in virtually every major paper. No one except political activists and government spokespeople are playing this one down.
 
For example, today's Wall Street Journal says that top climate researchers planned to block scientific dissenters, quoting how they 'will keep them out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!' Hmm. Doesn't sound like fact finding activity to me.
 
Forbes Magazine reports that the unadulterated data demonstrates that there hasn't been any global warming at all for over a decade. The very same scientists who publicly claim that the evidence is "unequivocal" that global warming continues, privately admit that "it's a travesty" that we "can't account for the lack of warming at the moment."
 
I've read some of those emails (you can download them here) and you can actually learn exactly how they 'transform' the data to hide both recent global cooling and historic global warming in order to get the 'right' answers to 'support' their theory. Plus you can read for yourself quotes from Phil Jones like "We also have a Data Register Act, which I will hide behind," and source code comments to the premiere data set of the 'warmists' that include, "We can have a proper result but only by including a load of garbage."
 
The most informative and insightful of all the articles I've seen is this one from "The Register." The following graphs were taken from there.  
 
 
 

 
In light of these developments, the rational man must seriously entertain the possibility that anthropogenic global warming is "an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution." Does that make it a "fact"? Saying so may be hard for some. But that's okay. There may be some newly unemployed climatologists who are up to the challenge.
 
You raise another issue - biodiversity. Now there's something to defend. So are air and water quality, and concerns about genetically modified organisms. We also need more renewable energy and better recycling facilities and protection for tropical rain forests. But that's not because global warming is going to get us. It's because we have a mitzva, a moral obligation placed upon us by our Creator to take care of this planet.
 
You conclude by lamenting our times as reminiscent of the years leading up to the Noahide Flood. In a way, I agree. The Torah portion about Noah describes the years before the Flood as full of hamas, violence. Rashi says it refers especially to robbery. The Me'Am Loez describes a typical pre-flood scenario where a fruit vendor goes bankrupt because several people would sample  the fruit regularly without buying. The judge threw the case out of court on the grounds that "It's only a little bit and everybody does it."
 
Isn't that a parable for our times? A little more carbon dioxide, a little more greenhouse effect, a little rise in temperature and before you know it, boom - melted polar ice caps and rising sea levels. And what's the famous excuse? It's only a little bit and everybody does it.
 
As in the days of yore, one could say it's robbery that is creating instability in the global ecosystem. In this case it's a special kind of robbery, genaivas daas, deception that's at fault.
 
Noah, the prototypical global conservationist, had it right. By excelling in the ethical dimension, he saved the world environmentally as well. Perhaps it's time for those grasping at the helm of the global ark to take note, lest they inadvertently miss the boat.

Dr. Aryeh (Arnie) Gotfryd, PhD is a chassid, environmental scientist, author and educator living near Toronto, Canada. To read more or to book him for a talk, visit his website at www.arniegotfryd.com.