Climate skeptics grill Barack Obama adviser

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49772.html

Climate skeptics grill Barack Obama adviser

'These are folks who are denying the reality of a particular thing,' said John Holdren. | AP Photo CloseBy ROBIN BRAVENDER | 2/18/11 4:36 AM EST Updated: 2/18/11 11:13 AM EST

A senior member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee has no problem being labeled a climate skeptic, but he doesn’t want the White House or anyone else calling him a “denier.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) criticized White House science adviser John Holdren at a hearing Thursday for using the term “denier” when referring to those who question scientific assessments of human influence on global temperatures.

“The term ‘deniers’ is only commonly used in one other context, and that’s to question whether or not the Holocaust actually took place,” Rohrabacher told Holdren, who was testifying before the House science committee.

Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, backtracked on the term but not the science, saying he will “doubtless choose to use other words in the future.”

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What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. War and Peace Over Holdren's Climate Testimony

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/02/war-and-peace-over-holdrens-climate.html?ref=hp

War and Peace Over Holdren's Climate Testimony

by Jeffrey Mervis on 18 February 2011, 11:30 AM

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The occasion was Holdren's first appearance before the committee since the Republicans took control last month of the House. He came to defend the president's 2012 budget request for science, a document that called for spending billions more than Hall and other fiscal conservatives feel is prudent. The hearing itself was delayed for 2 hours as the House debated dozens of amendments to the Republican plan to cut current spending by $61 billion. And once it began, there were few surprises in either Holdren's staunch defense of additional investments in such priorities as energy research, nor in the Republican opposition to them.

When his turn to question Holdren arrived, Rohrabacher began by requesting permission to submit the names of http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/100%20Scientists%2017%20Feb%202011.doc">100 climate scientists who disagree with the consensus on global warming, including people Rohrabacher described as prominent academics. Then he asked Holdren to disavow previous comments in which he labeled such critics as "deniers," saying that the word is commonly used only to describe those who deny that the Holocaust occurred. Using it with regard to climate science impugns their motives, Rohrabacher suggested. "What purpose does it serve?" he asked.

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"I haven't seen the list," Holdren began. "But in the past, most of the names on such petitions have turned out not to be climate scientists, and one could assume that they had not spent much time reviewing the literature." Holdren repeated his earlier remarks summarizing the basis for the overwhelming scientific consensus on the topic, and ended his statement by asking why anyone would "bet the public welfare against the small odds that the vast majority of scientific opinion is wrong and the tiny group (of dissenters) is right?"

That was too much for Hall, who interrupted a line of questioning from a junior member of the committee to say that he felt obliged to speak on behalf of his absent colleague. "There might be some scientists on that list who know what they are doing. Don't pooh-pooh what you call the minority viewpoint," he chastised Holdren. "We need to get them in here to explain their views, and then we can take a shot at them."

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