Coalition (GCC) waged a campaign against mainstream science. But
its corporate membership has hemorrhaged. At the end of 2000, the
GCC collapsed after it was abandoned by Shell, BP, Ford,
DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, the Southern Company, and Texaco.
The very few independent scientists who still question whether
global warming is caused by human activity focus on discrepancies
between satellite temperature readings in the upper levels of the
atmosphere and on the ground. But those discrepancies were elimi-
nated several years ago when researchers discovered that the satellite
temperature readings were incorrect because scientists had failed to
accommodate a natural decay in the orbits of satellites. When that
decay was factored in, the satellite readings snapped into focus with
ground measurements.
In fact, the argument of the naysayers has proved a moving target.
Initially, the tiny band of greenhouse skeptics told us that climate
change was not occurring. Then they told us it was so minimal as to be
insignificant. Then they declared it is good for us. Recently, several of
these skeptics have said, “Ooops, it’s happening but there’s nothing we
can do about it.”
Their position is mirrored by President George W. Bush who has
declared that we will simply have to adapt to climate change. Bush has
been especially antagonistic to the climate issue—perhaps because of
his ties to the oil industry. Soon after his inauguration, he reneged on
a campaign promise to cap emissions from power plants. He then
released his energy plan—calling for thirteen hundred to nineteen
hundred new power plants—which would be a prescription for climate
chaos. Finally, Bush withdrew the United States from the Kyoto
Protocol negotiations on the grounds that the treaty is unfair to the
United States because it exempts developing countries from the first
round of carbon fuel cuts. (Ironically, it was Bush’s father, President
George H. W. Bush, who approved that developing-country exemption
back in 1992.)
But a number of commentators believe that, in addition to block-
ing U.S. action on the climate, the actions of George W. Bush may also
be compromising America’s traditional political role in the world. They
argue that given the immensity of the climate issue and the imperative
Introduction 7