Topic: WorldNetDaily
A May 17 WorldNetDaily article by Jerome Corsi promotes a claim by Russian scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov that a new "Little Ice Age" could begin in 2014. Corsi tries to boost Abdussamatov's credibility by writing:
In 2007, National Geographic published Abdussamatov's explanation that the global warming observed in the shrinking of the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mar's South Pole was caused by increased solar activity.
"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," Abdussamatov wrote.
But Corsi cagily ignored the fact that NatGeo essentially debunked the claim. From the NatGeo article:
"His views are completely at odds with the mainstream scientific opinion," said Colin Wilson, a planetary physicist at England's Oxford University.
"And they contradict the extensive evidence presented in the most recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report." (Related: "Global Warming 'Very Likely' Caused by Humans, World Climate Experts Say" [February 2, 2007].)Amato Evan, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, added that "the idea just isn't supported by the theory or by the observations."
[...]
Perhaps the biggest stumbling block in Abdussamatov's theory is his dismissal of the greenhouse effect, in which atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide help keep heat trapped near the planet's surface.
He claims that carbon dioxide has only a small influence on Earth's climate and virtually no influence on Mars.
But "without the greenhouse effect there would be very little, if any, life on Earth, since our planet would pretty much be a big ball of ice," said Evan, of the University of Wisconsin.
Most scientists now fear that the massive amount of carbon dioxide humans are pumping into the air will lead to a catastrophic rise in Earth's temperatures, dramatically raising sea levels as glaciers melt and leading to extreme weather worldwide.
(CNSNews.com and NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard previously touted Abdussamatov's claim without acknowledging criticism of it.)
Only a dishonest writer like Corsi can twist a citing by NatGeo into something positive, even though NatGeo is destroying it. But then, dishonest writers are the only kind of writers WorldNetDaily is interested in employing.
