I'm not Johnny-on-the-spot with climate change issues, normally leaving that work to the estimable Brad Plumer, but I have rather enjoyed the excitement on the right as hacked e-mails from a British university's climate change research center have prompted wild misreadings and driven thoughts of a global conspiracy theory to hoodwink everybody into thinking global warming is real when it isn't. (Fact Check Alert: global warming is real!) Judging by most of the commentary I've read on the topic, the whole thing is overblown. This morning, Jim Manzi does me one better by not even doing the basic background research. Instead, he offers this lovely bit of commentary on the subject:I have not read the full set of e-mails, nor have I seen authoritative evidence of their provenance, but for the sake of argument let’s assume the allegations are correct.Responsible! Manzi goes on to deduce from this fantasy evidence that "the scandal is obviously a PR disaster for those who believe that climate reconstruction is 'science' in the sense we normally use the term." Hrm. I would say instead that the wide scientific consensus around the fact of global warming is a PR disaster for those who believe we should do nothing about the problem.More broadly, the idea that there is a world-wide conspiracy of people who want to manufacture the idea of global warming and then create laws to solve this fake problem requires a tremendous leap of faith. Here in the United States, for instance, Cap and Trade is a huge pain in the butt for liberals who would much rather be doing other things with their legislative time. No doubt someone will argue that this is just another way to raise revenue off of business, but almost all of the revenue in Cap and Trade goes to ease the transition costs. Believe me, we'd much rather be passing health care, reforming financial regulations, fixing labor law and improving the labor market than dealing with global warming, but those pesky facts have gotten in the way and somebody has attempt responsible governance.
-- Tim Fernholz
