The Week That Was December 23, 2000 brought to you by SEPP

Holiday greetings
from SEPP

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SO BROWSE AND ENJOY!

The Science & Environmental Policy Project began in late 1990 as a research effort by atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer and a handful of graduate students. The Project had two goals: (1) to gather material for a book on global environmental issues, and (2) to conduct a survey of scientists affiliated with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to determine the extent of what was, even then, being touted as scientific "consensus" on global warming.

What the graduate students discovered with their survey convinced Dr. Singer to set his book aside and instead to circulate among senior members of the American Meteorological Society a "Statement by Atmospheric Scientists" on greenhouse warming, which was quickly endorsed by 46 leading climatologists and atmospheric physicists (and eventually by nearly 100). That statement, issued on February 27, 1992, drew widespread media attention and was cited more than 150 times in the press. It was the first inkling journalists had that there was no scientific consensus on the reality of a global warming. Indeed, there has been raging debate.

SEPP was incorporated in the state of Virginia in 1992, and established as a nonprofit, 501(c)3 educational organization in late 1993. Today, having expanded from that core of 46 scientists, it draws on an international network of some of the finest minds in science who donate their time to promoting sound, credible, peer-reviewed research as the only basis for the health and environmental policies that affect us all.

You can help in two ways:

1. Download SEPP reports, press releases, and articles and pass them on to newspaper editors, journalists, educators, civic leaders, and others. Help stop the fear- mongering and the distortion of science. This is the most important thing you can do.

2. Support SEPP with your tax-deductible donations. The environmental pressure groups, which present so much wrong information, have a combined clout of more than $1 billion a year. The Science & Environmental Policy Project has had far-reaching impact on about one-hundredth of one percent of that figure. It's money well and effectively spent.

In response to inquiries about funding for SEPP, we issue again the following statement:

"SEPP does not solicit financial support from either industry or governmental sources. Proposals for funding are directed solely to charitable foundations and private individuals. Some income is derived from SEPP conference fees and the sale of its books and reports to the public.

As a non-profit educational and research 501(c) 3 organization, accepting tax-deductible contributions, SEPP is required to file an annual report with the IRS.

SEPP operates on a modest budget. Its officers and associated scientists do not receive salaries but contribute their services on a pro bono basis."

Please send your contributions to:

SEPP
1600 South Eads Street, Suite 712-S
Arlington, VA 22202-2907
Tel/Fax 703-920-2744

Please be generous. And thank you.

Larry Ephron, who holds degrees in clinical psychology and sociology, warns in his book, "THE END: The imminent ICE AGE & how we can stop it!," that, believe it or not, "we may stop eating in less than seven years" due to catastrophic global cooling. Scientific expert and now funny man, Robin Williams, thinks it is "one of the most relevant books since the last ice age."

Reactions to the predictions, however, are mixed. Victor Kovda, former President of the Scientific Committee for Environmental Problems, International Council of Scientific Unions, "consider this completely valid … requires immediate action," and Greg Watson, Office of Science and Technology, Commonwealth of Massachusetts and science adviser to Governor Michael Dukakis, thinks "we have absolutely no time to lose." On the other hand, Dave Foreman, Founder of Earth First!, "welcomes it as a much needed cleaning ... I see no possible solution to our ruination of Earth except for a drastic reduction of the human population."

Larry, who is also the founding director of the Institute for a Future, suggests that an icy future can be averted if we take drastic action NOW. We simply must plant billions of new trees and drastically cut our fossil fuel usage. A few skeptics, however, propose that the Earth might actually warm due to increases in carbon dioxide, and the government, go figure, has actually warmed to the idea. Scientists have received the hint, wink wink, that "warming research would be funded by the government and cooling would not,"

What in the world can we do in the face of these cooling naysayers? In the words of Patricia Ellsberg: "Don't polarize hope and despair. . Just be open, fully aware. That is the scariness of this time. If you let it flow, if you let that flow - those impacted feelings of despair - you'll see that the energy starts coming."

YEAH!!

''Twas the day before Christmas, though no one could tell;
Not a snowflake was falling, a humid rain fell.
The warm clothes were stored in the attic for good,
High CO2 blessed us with a surplus of wood.

The children were sweating on top of their beds,
While visions of water-skiing danced in their heads;
And mamma in her tank top, and I with my fan,
Had just settled down for a long winter's tan,

The sun fried us both with UV radiation,
Like rotisserie chickens we baked in rotation,
When, what in my tortured hot daze did I see,
But a huge 18 wheeler, flanked by 12 SUV's.

With a little old driver, so lively and glib,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Lib.
More rapid than eagles his tankers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Wojick! now, Idsos! Baliunas and VIXEN!
On, Michaels! on Daly! on, Balling and Lindzen!
Keep lying, you Freds, Palmer, Singer and Smith,
We need more propaganda to confuse them with!"

I leaned out the window and perched on the frame.
"St. Lib!", I called out, "Where got you your name?"
"My people", he cried, "form a sturdy cabal.
We gum up the research,
LIBERTARIANS ALL!"

ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS!