Doctors are medical school graduates, and are considered scientists. Certainly by the rules of that global-warming-is-a-farce organization they are scientists, since many of the petition signers are doctors. They are used to reading complex research studies and forming conclusions. I do not hold them out to be climatologists, obviously, but I do think it is significant to point out that not all doctors are tax avoiders without social consciences.
I have found something interesting about global warming, which I will share with you!
Global Warming Will Cause Dramatic Changes to Our Climate
As we burn oil, coal and natural gas, in our cars, trucks, power plants and factories, we are causing a dramatic buildup of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is accelerating the naturally occurring greenhouse effect, causing global temperatures
to rise much more quickly than they would under natural conditions.
In reaching their conclusion that global warming has begun, the world's 2500 leading scientists examined the available data
(IPCC, 1995a,b). Some of this evidence is now familiar to many Americans: concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the
primary greenhouse gas, have risen nearly 30% in the last 100 years. The average global temperature has risen 1 degree
Fahrenheit over the same period. The ten warmest years in the past 100 have occurred since 1980. Glacial ice is retreating on
five continents due to rising temperatures. Other evidence includes "increased evidence of drought, above-normal
temperatures, winter-time precipitation and heavy rainstorms in many areas of the United States" since 1980 (Stevens, Sept.
26, 1995). The midwest heat wave during the summer of 1995, which killed 669 people (Star-Ledger Wire Services, July 19,
1995) came during one of the hottest summers on record. In fact, 1995 was the hottest year on record.
Climatologists project that temperatures will rise 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3.5 degrees Celsius) by the end of the next
century, and the planet will continue to warm well beyond the year 2100 (IPCC, 1995a, p. 5). While an average temperature
change of only a few degrees Fahrenheit may not seem like much, consider by comparison that in the depths of the last ice age,
when mile-high sheets of ice reached as far south as the Great Lakes, the Earth was only 5 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than
it is today (Stevens, Jan. 14, 1996).
Global warming will disrupt regional temperature and precipitation patterns, cause a rise in sea level, and is predicted to cause
more severe tropical storms. The potential impacts of global warming and associated climate change on society and the
planet's ecology are staggering. Severe droughts in some areas could lead to massive crop failures and widespread forest fires.
Rising sea levels will cause substantial flooding of coastal areas. Changing climate patterns will contribute to the spread of
deadly vector-borne diseases such as malaria, cholera and dengue fever. Some of these effects will have identifiable costs;
others, however, are difficult or impossible to quantify.
Some opponents of actions to curb global warming argue that it will cost more to prevent global warming than it will to let it
occur. They cite studies that, among other problems, fail to paint a complete picture of the problem. They place dollar values
on some of the effects of global warming and ignore those effects that cannot be quantified.
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