MR. SCIENCE SPEAKS – AT 11:35 A.M. ET:  The last gubernatorial election in Virginia saw two clowns running against each other.  The Republican clown was, as usual, more clownish, so the Democratic clown won.  Republicans, also as usual, worked hard to lose a winnable election.

So Terry McAuliffe is now governor of Virginia.  A political hack, fixer, and close ally of Hillary Clinton, he is now in a position to help her carry Virginia in 2016.  But Terry has other things on his mind as well.  He's become, apparently, an admirer of high science.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Recently elected Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is warning that global warming could raise sea levels high enough to flood the Hampton Roads region, home to the world's largest naval base, without immediate and “smart decisions.”

Addressing an environmental summit this week at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., McAuliffe embraced climate change, blamed humans for causing it, and said action is needed now to protect Virginia's coast from rising ocean levels that will result from global warming.

“The first big decision of course is to accept that climate change is real,” he told the group. “I happen to believe in climate change. And I happen to believe that humans contribute to climate change.”

What’s more, he said, the science agrees with him. Scoffing at critics, including his former campaign foe, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, he said, “I think it’s pretty much settled. I think the impacts are being felt every day.”

The governor cited a recent NBC report about the growing threats of climate change and a government report that said the Hampton Roads area was second to only New Orleans in risk from rising sea levels.

“It is frightening what’s going on, so first and foremost we have to accept that climate change is real,” said McAuliffe.

COMMENT:  I take the Charles Krauthammer position on climate change.  I am neither a believer nor a denier.  I simply don't think we have enough proved information.  McAuliffe is one of the useful idiots who just accepts what he's given.  And please note that "belief" in climate change (as if it's a religion) often translates into demands that vast amounts be spent to "counter the effects" of said change.

It may well be that sea levels will rise.  But we will have ample warning to take practical steps long before the East Coast disappears.  I am concerned that we will commit trillions of dollars – funds that can be spent on health, education, infrastructure and worthy projects – because of a theory that is currently in vogue. 

This blog has long called for a Challenger-type commission to look into the whole subject of climate change, and tell us 1) what we know; 2) what we don't know; 3) what we need to know; and, just as important 4) the impact of money, including federal grants, on the whole discussion.

Note:  We recently saw a major research report from Cambridge University in England, one of the world's great universities, asserting that saturated fats have no serious impact on heart disease.  I don't know if the study is accurate.  I'm not a medical researcher.  But if it is accurate it reverses decades of "settled science" on the causes of heart attacks.  We have seen this time and time again.

Science is never "settled."  It's one of the exciting things about science.  Don't buy into "settled science" arguments.

April 12, 2014