Geologic Propaganda?

I recently received a bundle of information from the Petition Project, an organization out of California who's mission is to break the myth of Global Warming. They appear to be trying to accomplish this goal by sending scientists a letter containing a photocopy from an editorial posted in The Wall Street Journal and a printed article published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JAPS). The title of the journal article is: "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" by Arthur Robinson, Noah Robinson, and Willie Soon (all with the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine). Although I can't find Willie Soon anywhere on the site (I think he's at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory). Anyway, these are SMART guys, no doubt about it - but I question why their article was published in the JAPS rather than Science or Nature (I'm sure we'd hear things like "those journals are controlled by the liberal-minded academics who believe in global warming). Regardless, JAPS isn't a respected journal (I couldn't find it listed on the Science Citation Impact List!) nor is an editorial in the Wall Street Journal going to counterbalance the IPCC report or NUMEROUS other scientific journal articles published on the topic of climate change (one of the best I've read is Crutzen and Lelieveld, 2001. If you're REALLY interested in seeing my climate change bibliography, just shoot me an email and I'll post a condensed version (too irate right now). But here is a nice summary of the biased reporting associated with the JAPS.

I don't want to dive into the specifics of their argument, other folks are already picking it apart and that kind of critique isn't palatable for the masses (it's like when geneticists start talking about all their gene sites labeled with numbers and letters - yikes). I just want to look at their petition (read it here in full), which states:

"There is no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

Let's assume that statement is true - ok, NOR is there convincing evidence to the contrary! I know that many folks don't adhere to the precautionary principle, but these are DOCTORS, aren't they trained to err on the side of caution? So even if we throw out ALL the data that even remotely suggests the contrary to their thesis, isn't it in our best interest to be a little skeptical and concerned? Again, I don't want to debate the science (I'm just thinking logically here), I'll let the folks over at RealClimate.Org fight the good fight...

"Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

HUH? Seriously, these are doctors telling us that there too much of something can't potentially be dangerous or 'unhealthy.' Isn't there mantra, "everything in moderation?" Anyway, the American Academy of Family Physicians has a creed (read it here in full), which states:

"You and your family deserve high quality, affordable health care including treatment, prevention and health promotion... The specialty of family medicine trains me to care for the whole person."

It may be a little hokey, but I read between the lines here and wonder where our physicians turned climate experts have woven the concept of prevention into their beliefs and how they are focusing on the "whole earth" in context of climate change. I mean, do they have access to same supercomputing power that James Lovelock has access to? Are they REALLY experts on this topic? Don't they think an Earth Scientist might check up on a few of these details?

Sarcasm aside, I do wonder what they hoped to achieve. I imagine they will receive scathing criticism from earth scientists around the country and very little support for their cause - they do have an impressive number of folks signing on, however I did a small (n = 15) survey of a few of the names on their website and almost all of them are doctors... huh.

Sorry to rant, I prefer goofy comics and cool geology pics, but I just couldn't help myself. :)