Fred Singer Says Warming Will Be Good For Us, And ABC News Gives Him A Megaphone

[hatrack]

His fellow scientists call him a fraud, a charlatan and a showman, but Fred Singer calls himself "a realist." Singer, an 84-year-old Princeton-trained physicist, is the grandfather of the global warming skeptics who dispute the established scientific consensus that global warming is real, that it is caused by the pollution humans are pumping into the atmosphere, and that it will be catastrophic if measures are not taken immediately.

"All bunk," Singer told ABC News in his characteristically blunt fashion. "I'm not really looking for popularity, you know."

Singer seems to enjoy being provocative. "I hate to tell you this, but polar bears like to eat tiny little seal pups," he told a conference of global warming skeptics recently.

Singer does not deny the planet is warming, but says man is not the cause, and argues, against overwhelming scientific evidence, that a warmer planet will actually be beneficial for mankind and other species on the planet. Polar bears, though, are not likely to benefit. They are starving because the Arctic ice cap is shrinking, which is cutting them off from seal populations, and some scientists have suggested they will be extinct in the wild before the end of this century if the warming trend is not reversed.

EDIT

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4506059&page=1

[Warpy]

1. Let's hope his NYC co op is above the projected new sea level

The dope is undoubtedly looking forward to having a pontoon dock with a yacht tied to it right outside his living room window.

[ORDagnabbit]

2. fred singer is a exxon hack "scientist" and would sell his soul for money..he previously worked for

phillip morris and used "science" to "prove" cigerettes were safe...


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fred_Singer


http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/01/what-if-you-held-a-conference-and-no-real-scientists-came/

[hatrack]

4. He's 84 and will be dead soon, and the world will be a better place

And no, I'm not sorry I said it.

[Maat]

3. Boy, the oil companies really want to eek out the last buck from ..

our dwindling oil supplies .... no matter how many people get killed, how many countries get decimated, or whatever ...

I'm getting more and more YAHOOs coming up to me and saying the their Hummers are better for the environment than my Prius. It's just stupid and disgusting.

I agree with Thom Hartmann - there is definitely a war on science, and those warring on it are shameless and completely conscience-less. They care not how many die or suffer serious harm as a result of their campaign.

[watrwefitinfor]

5. It was clearly a hit piece on Singer.

I saw it on the ABC news Sunday night, and it was without question mocking Singer, and exposing his ties to big oil.

They interviewed a Greenpeace activist (in a coat and tie no less) who laid out the case against Singer very clearly. The Greenpeace guy was not mocked, was not second-guessed, was just allowed to lay out the case against Singer. Singer's ties to big oil were exposed - shown in a chart. The fact that he supported the cigarette companies, and various other boondoggles against the American people was laid out in a very straightforward way. They even showed him lying, in that he told them he had never been on the payroll for big oil, but oh, yes, he finally admitted to being paid $10,000 by them, once.

I was frankly very surprised to see this piece on any network news show. It made a fool of Singer.

Wat

Edit to add: None of this is to gainsay what Hatrack was posting that he found online, merely to add to it. Of all the posters on DU, Hatrack finds and posts more important news on our impending climate catastrophe than anyone. I seek out Hatrack posts, and devour them. Hoping against hope he will find the article with the solution. :-) I just felt the thing about ABC news needed expounding upon, it was such a turnabout for them.

Serious accolades to Hatrack for all he does!

[Delphinus]

6. There was some

smartass on the news here locally (NE Indiana) a few days ago who I just wanted to reach through the tube and smack silly. We'd had a bit of ice, sleet, snow - and I agree, it's been a long winter - but she said "People keep talking about global warming and I say - BRING IT ON!" Hmm ... sounds like the boy king, doesn't it?

[jpak]

7. Fred Singer is an embarrassment

I read his letters in Science (he publishes short op-eds and "rebuttals" from time-to-time).

They made ME feel embarrassed for the guy - he's sold out to nonsense and psuedoscience...

[Viking12]

8. The Freepers are apoplectic in the comments thread at ABC

That in itself suggests the news report was right on the money :)