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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 17:32 |
By JOHN NORTH
Following his luncheon presentation titled ìAl Goreís ëAn Inconvenient Truthí: A Skeptical Tour,î Marlo Lewis fielded questions for about 20 minutes from an audience that appeared mostly sympathetic to his ideas at the Grove Park Inn & Spa.
About 150 people attended Lewisí lecture, sponsored by the John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh-based, conservative think tank. The event was co-sponsored by WWNC-AM (570), a news-talk radio station in Asheville. (An article about his presentation appears on Page 1.)
Bill Porter of Asheville began by stating, ìI canít believe Al Gore figured all this out. Do you know who figured all this out for him?î
ìWell, Al Gore claimed he did it all himself,î but, based on sources
Lewis did not cite, ìJim Hanson of NASA was one of the persons who
helped him,î Lewis said. However, he quickly added, ìThatís just my
guess.î
A man said, ìGore chooses to ignore that the last period of global warming was 12,000 years ago.î
ìGood comment,î Lewis said.
Another man asserted, ìSince you chose not to attack any of the central
theory of global warming ó you seem to believe thereíll be a 1.6
percent increase ... I wonder if youíll agree with the basic theory
that human emissions have increased over the past 50 or 30 years?î
ìYes, my reading of the science is that much of the warming in the past
30 years was the result of greenhouse gases increasing,î Lewis replied.
ìBut itís a real stretch to sayî that there is a clear-cut and
impending doom. ìItís all the sci-fi trappings and political useî of
the global warming issue ìthat I object to.î He said there were
warmings in the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.
A man noted, ìIím so glad to see someone come up and challenge this.
What weíre seeing, as you pointed out, is a lawyerís brief ó a
one-sided presentation.î
The man then asked, ìWhat is his (Goreís) motive?î
ìOnly God could say (anything definitive) about someoneís motive,î
Lewis replied. ìEnron was one of the key lobbyists for the Kyoto
Protocol ó many of you donít remember that. Enron then dealt in natural
gas and, if you kill coal (via the Kyoto pact), they profit. Also,
theyíre dealers, so they make moneyî any time there is an increase in
transactions caused by energy policy changes.
Lewis cited others, including Gore, with other interests and advised
the audience, ìSince there really are no honest brokers in this debate,
just concentrate on the merits of the (global warming) argument.î
Bill Fishburne, senior editor of The Asheville Tribune, asked if recent
reports of ice caps melting on Mars meant that an increase in CO2 on
earth might be related to sunspots.
ìIíve seen the reports, but I remain skeptical,î Lewis said. ìIím
waiting for somebody to connect all these dots and link this with the
sun.î
He added, ìIt may be there are planetary-specific causes ... I havenít
seen anything out there that shows it actually is solar-driven versus
planetary-driven.î
A man said, ìAl Gore felt he should have been president of the United
States. When he was vice president, he felt he should be Clintonís
spokesperson ... I donít think itís a coincidence for 18 months before
the presidential electionî that Gore is raising the global-warming
issue.
The man then said he is a General Electric shareholder and plans to
demonstrate at GEís annual meeting ó ìHow can I be effective?î
While GE is a huge company with many and far-flung enterprises, ìif GE
goes down the tubes, then thatís not good for the United States,î Lewis
said.
In addressing Lewis, Michael Heard of Asheville queried, ìGiven the
greenhouse-gas increase, which you accept, but with a longer term on
consequences, does it make sense just to sit back and await
consequences that will happenî sometime in the future?
ìI think we need real insurance, not phony insuranceî insofar as
dealing with global warming is concerned, Lewis replied. ìThe Kyoto
Protocol is phony insurance. You pay and pay ó and donít get much.î
Lewis added, ìWhat we really need to do is develop energy technologies
... I think the whole world needs to put out serious money to generate
power without these emissions.
ìBecause itís a long-term problem, I say letís invest now in better sourcesî of energy generation.
Furthermore, Lewis said, ìInstead of forcing a reduction of energy from
people who need it, and at a high price,î devising ó and investing in ó
new energy sources now would be the ideal option.î
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