For a number of years, I have tried to provide our politicians or would-be politicians with solid scientific information on the climate controversy to enable them to talk about the science of climate intelligently. A few are already well-informed, like Republican State Senator Doug Whitsett, a veterinarian from Southern Oregon. Others are receptive and generally aware that the paradigm of rising atmospheric CO2 driving rapidly rising temperatures is false and being greatly misused for corrupt politics. Those who will listen are almost entirely Republicans. Democrats want nothing to do with credentialed scientists whom they call “deniers” and “flat-earthers.” Portland Commissioner Nick Fish, a Democrat, looked at me like I had some sort of disease that he might catch if he continued to talk with me after a city council meeting. His demeanor was hilarious.
The only local Democrat to listen was Senator Ron Wyden, but only through a junior staffer in his Portland office. He was too busy with a “sleep-over” at the US Senate to protest Global Warming! One of those who came with me to brief Wyden was a prominent attorney for the Oregon Democrat Party during the Clinton-Gore years. He pleaded with the junior staffer to pay attention to real climate science, because he was worried that the Democrat Party would suffer serious harm, if they did not wake up. Their deep involvement in the scam is a Faustian Bargain, where they enjoy many short-term political benefits until the devil comes to collect. We heard nothing more from Wyden.
After Salem physician Bud Pierce won the Republican nomination for Governor in May, I approached him to see if he would be interested in talking with us about climate. To my surprise, he was immediately receptive, and we made arrangements to meet two other physicians for dinner at ‘Dar Essalam,’ a small Moroccan restaurant in Wilsonville. Oregon Health Sciences University Professor of Medicine Miles Novy and University of Cincinnati Professor of Environmental Health Dan Nebert have both been active combating the climate scam. Dr. Nebert and I have written numerous newspaper Op-Eds on this subject.
What did we discuss with Dr. Pierce? I asked him what he did the day after he won the Republican nomination, thinking that he probably dove into the next stage of his political campaign. But what he really did was go back to work serving the cancer patients who really needed him. I was impressed.
When the conversation got around to Global Warming, I explained that, as scientists, we were not particularly good political allies, because we had to follow the science wherever it took us. We were not seeking any sort of political deal where we would offer political support in exchange for his support of our perspective on Global Warming. All we asked was that he listen to what we had to say.
Pierce then explained that he approached Global Warming the same way he approached medicine, following the best practices outlined by the governing agencies in Washington, DC, namely the US National Academy of Sciences for Global Warming. That meant that he generally supported the prevailing paradigm. I agreed that his approach worked in medicine but not in other sciences that have become heavily politicized. I invoked Galileo’s assistance to explain that science is based on logic and evidence only: “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” And I mentioned the British Royal Society’s motto that was adopted to head off the political and religious domination of science that swamped Galileo: “Take nobody’s word for it.”
When I asked Dr. Pierce how we knew that the world was round, he saw where I was going. We do not consult the National Academy of Sciences to see if they have a policy to that effect. We look at the evidence, for instance, a photo of the Earth taken from the Moon!
His comment was right on target: “Yes, I know how science works!” It was a comment that he repeated several times that night. Most politicians and a physician I remember (John Kitzhaber) have no clue.
I then proceeded through the logic and evidence for and against Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. Pierce was a very good listener, asking many questions to make sure he understood what I was saying. I was impressed. This was no Dr. John Kitzhaber. This was no Democrat, pretending to be a Republican.
This was a man who could and would think for himself on complex issues. That was all I asked. While the other physicians offered Pierce suggestions as to how to handle the nasty Global Warming politics that he was likely to encounter from his true-believer opponent, I realized that Pierce could easily handle that in his own way once he knew the facts.
With Portland overrun by homeless people, with our economy suffering from years of mismanagement, with taxes and utility bills rising rapidly to satiate the ruling party’s appetite for ever more cash, Global Warming is hardly a hot election issue. It is only a rallying cry for the Far Left, and one of their chief financiers, billionaire Tom Steyer All others seem to realize that it is a hoax or minor problem.
On the national scene, even Hillary Clinton backed off of her militancy on this issue once she got an endorsement from Bernie Sanders. There are no votes to be gained from middle-of-the-road voters by ringing the climate alarm. They realize nothing untoward is happening. Only the heavily indoctrinated young are big supporters. And of course, Donald Trump has no trouble seeing through the climate nonsense either. Should he be elected, we will make sure that he gets a competent science advisor, not one of the climate zombies.
Although we continue to hear the din of climate propaganda, that propaganda has a monotonous ring that attracts little attention anymore. And of course, claims of record warmth every month during this Super El Nino year are far from universally true. We did have a mild winter that was characterized by record global temperature anomalies, especially in February. But as we approached the hottest time of year globally in July and August, the El Nino waned and the normally hottest months turned out to be notably cooler than the record warmth of 1998. That year we also experienced a Super El Nino that drove July and August to their highest level in the NASA satellite record.
Meanwhile back to dinner: Was the food any good? Yes, it was excellent, and the restaurant let us talk until closing time. Who picked up the tab? To my astonishment, Dr. Bud Pierce insisted on paying for dinner. As we were leaving he turned to me and said “Thank you, Dr. Fulks.” That seemed a bit out of place in a group of physicians, since I am a doctor of the philosophy of physics. But he explained that those of us with PhDs are more properly called “doctors,” because of our academic rather than professional educations.
It turns out that Bud Pierce is both an MD and a PhD, a remarkable achievement for a remarkable man. In my opinion, he far outshines the disgraced former Governor Dr. John Kitzhaber and the hopelessly inept ideologue pretending to be our Governor today. He will certainly get my vote on November 8th.
Gordon J. Fulks lives in Corbett and can be reached at gordonfulks@hotmail.com. He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago’s Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research and has no conflicts of interest on this subject.
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