Al Gore: Catastrophe Salesman

Al Gore has a sincere investment in the theory of disastrous global warming: lots of money and his sizable ego. But when it comes to science, sincerity is no substitute for disinterestness, reports Holman Jenkins.

The truth is, evidence of man's impact on climate remains maddeningly elusive, in part because man's impact on climate is so small as to be hard to disentangle from natural variability. This is not Mr. Gore's position, of course. If anything, however, the case for action has become less closed since he pronounced it closed in 1989, if only because of the huge sums and manpower poured into the subject to little avail.

Read it all.

More here from George Will on the absurdity that is the Waxman-Markey climate bill.

(It's) goal is just slightly more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050. The last time this nation had that small an amount was 1910, when there were only 92 million Americans, 328 million fewer than the 420 million projected for 2050. To meet the 83 percent reduction target in a nation of 420 million, per capita carbon-dioxide emissions would have to be no more than 2.4 tons per person, which is one quarter the per capita emissions of 1910, a level probably last seen when the population was 45 million—in 1875.

Not since Steve Martin set the small goal of becoming the "All Being, Master of Space, Time and Dimension" has a goal been so laughably unattainable. But then, Martin was going for laughs. Vladimir Waxman and Karl Markey are going for something else.