Competitive Enterprise Institute: Where's the global warming, Al?

Global Temperatures Don't Justify Energy Restrictions

Washington, D.C., February 25, 2008—CEI’s new online video spot, Where’s the Warming?, challenges global warming alarmists to justify their calls for restrictions on energy use. Carbon dioxide from man's energy use has continued to increase in the atmosphere in recent years, but recent studies show that average global temperatures have not.

The two-minute video, which can be viewed on YouTube, pays tribute to the famous “Where’s the Beef?” ads of two decades ago. It contrasts clips from Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, with actual temperature data.

The basic alarmist contention is that we must restrict affordable energy use because CO2 is the most important determinant of global temperatures. But this year’s unexpectedly cold winter and, more importantly, the temperature trends of the last few years tell a different story. There has been practically no global warming in the last five years or more. Even prominent climate modelers have admitted natural factors are coming into play.

CEI Senior Fellow Iain Murray commented, "Temperatures ought to be at a peak, but instead they've held steady for at least the last five years and by some accounts, they've actually dropped. The case for urgent action to restrict energy use is getting weaker, not stronger. Given that affordable energy is the best hope of escape from poverty for billions around the globe, politicians need to ask themselves "where's the beef" before pushing their anti-energy policies."

View the Where’s the Warming? video

View CEI’s video collection on YouTube.

See also:
· Global Warming? It’s the Coldest Winter in Decades
· Data on steadily rising CO2
· Data on global surface temperatures

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at http://www.cei.org