Banned in the USA

Imagine, if you will, an article so shocking to the sensibilities of Americans that Newsweek refused to publish it in their American edition, even though it was published in their International edition. Your first impression would be that it had something to do with the American Media being fearful of offending the Mullahs once again. You would be correct of course, but these Mullahs are of a different sort:

Why So Gloomy?

Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the warming trend we've seen will amount to anything close to catastrophe. What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week.

In an entirely too-sensible article, consensus-bucking Professor Richard S. Lindzen gives us his take on the pitfalls and perils of Global Warming. Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so he is obviously a no-talent hack and shill for corporate interests (except for the fact that he isn't.)

Seriously, it is great reading for anyone interested in the issue.