Walter Russell Mead has been giving us a lot to think about lately — especially on global warming scandals. My hat is off to him for some thoughtful writing — especially given that he claims he personally accepts anthropogenic global warming as fact. He is however disappointed by sloppy science and sloppy reporting on the issue. Aren’t we all.
In the spirit of Mead’s “let’s be reasonable approach,” allow me to offer a few observations.
I am admittedly a climate skeptic. Like Mead I think skepticism is healthy — especially in someone who wants to be taken seriously as a journalist. I think skepticism is a survival instinct honed over many generations of human existence. Gullible types tend not to survive in the long run.
Here are a series of really basic questions I think any healthy skeptic ought to have about climate change — questions that our so-called journalist protectors should have insisted on being settled long ago, instead of playing cheerleaders for climate alarmism.

The latest issue of Foreign Policy includes an “FP Guide to Climate Skeptics” as compiled by Christina Larson and Joshua Keating. It’s an interesting collection both for what it says and what it leaves out regarding the current climate debate — the perfect candidate for an old-style fisking.
Let’s begin at the beginning:
January 11, 2010 – 12:51 am
Are we going to start subsidizing carbon emissions now?
December 20, 2009 – 2:59 pm
“A crushing disappointment.”
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Carbon Tax, Climate, climate change, Climate Policy, Copenhagen, Dwight Eisenhower, Environment, Environmental Policy, Obama Administration
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December 19, 2009 – 12:14 pm
Yesterday, Fred Barbash of the Arena asked those of us who are contributors what we thought of the President’s address in Copenhagen.
December 15, 2009 – 10:42 pm
I think that it is worth noting that a split has occurred in Copenhagen over the existing Kyoto Protocols.
December 15, 2009 – 9:44 pm
Bjorn Lomborg–who is not a climate skeptic by any stretch of the imagination–reminds us that there are a whole host of pressing concerns to worry about if we are interested in improving the quality of life for others:
December 7, 2009 – 11:57 am
Because the Left provides greater scope than the Right for the exercise of power over civil society in the name of what science says is good for us — and because it denies the sources of moral remonstrance that can stand as a bulwark against scientific hubris — it will continue to offer the greatest temptations for scientists to be seduced by power.
By Dan McLaughlin
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Posted in Features, Politics
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Also tagged AGW, Barack Obama, climate change, Climategate, Copenhagen, hockey stick, Junk Science, science, Science and its Enemies, Stem Cells
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December 5, 2009 – 3:16 pm
Here is a good statement of the problem raised by the e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit:
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Anthropogenic Global Warming, climate change, Climate Change Policy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Phil Jones, Possible Scientific Fraud, science, Scientists Behaving Badly, University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit
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December 5, 2009 – 12:57 am
If we get the oceans to rise, there will be beachfront erosion. That will leave less sand for Democrats to stick their heads in when confronted by inconvenient scandals.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Anthropogenic Global Warming, climate change, Climate Change Policy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Jon Stewart, Phil Jones, Possible Scientific Fraud, science, Scientists Behaving Badly, University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit
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December 2, 2009 – 9:11 am
As a consequence of the leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia, Phil Jones, the director of the university’s Climate Research Unit, has been forced to step aside.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Anthropogenic Global Warming, climate change, Climate Change Policy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Phil Jones, Possible Scientific Fraud, Ronald Bailey, science, Scientists Behaving Badly, University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit
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November 29, 2009 – 1:50 pm
Possibly. Scientists in New Zealand are alleged to have cooked the books as well. Whether this turns out to be the case or not, it is clear that the leaked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have caused significant credibility problems for the climate research community.
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
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Posted in Blogs, Chequer-Board
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Also tagged Anthropogenic Global Warming, climate change, Climate Change Policy, Environment, Environmental Policy, George Monbiot, Judith Curry, New Zealand, Possible Scientific Fraud, science, Scientists Behaving Badly, University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit
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