Hume Highlights Fresh Studies Showing Global Warming 'Scare Vastly Overblown'

Citing recent peer-reviewed studies, Brit Hume informed viewers of his Fox News Channel program on Tuesday night that though “many media outlets...portray man-made global warming as a certified fact and those who deny it as conspirators,” several “skeptics are increasingly certain that the scare is vastly overblown.” In his “Grapevine” segment, Hume pointed to a study by a Brookhaven National Lab scientist who “contends that the Earth's climate is only about one-third as sensitive to carbon dioxide as the UN's recent climate study claims,” a Belgian Weather Institute report “that carbon dioxide does not have a decisive role in global warming,” a “study by two Chinese scientists” that discovered “CO2's role in warming is 'vastly exaggerated'” and “new research by University of Washington mathematicians” that “shows a correlation between high solar activity and periods of global warming.”

Hume was apparently relaying highlights from an August 20 posting, “New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears,” by Marc Morano of the minority staff of the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works. Morano's rundown summarized more than a dozen studies and reports.

Hume's lead “Grapevine” item on the August 21 Special Report with Brit Hume on FNC:

Many media outlets -- such as the recent Newsweek magazine cover story -- portray man-made global warming as a certified fact and those who deny it as conspirators. But skeptics are increasingly certain that the scare is vastly overblown. A new study by Brookhaven National Lab scientist Stephen Schwartz contends that the Earth's climate is only about one-third as sensitive to carbon dioxide as the UN's recent climate study claims. Schwarz's work will be published in The Journal of Geophysical Research.

The study is just one of several peer-reviewed scientific studies challenging global warming alarmism: The Belgian Weather Institute concludes that carbon dioxide does not have a decisive role in global warming and a study by two Chinese scientists says CO2's role in warming is 'vastly exaggerated.' Plus, new research by University of Washington mathematicians shows a correlation between high solar activity and periods of global warming.

For more on the Newsweek cover story Hume cited, check the August 8 MRC CyberAlert article: “Newsweek Cover Story Screed Against 'Denial Machine' on Warming.” Also see my August 16 NewsBusters item, “NBC Nightly News Joins Newsweek in Smearing Global Warming 'Deniers.'”