April 04, 2011 11:10 PM UTC

See, Global Warming is Nonsense! Wait...What? Awww, Crap

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Here’s the thing about science — it’s sorta hard to fake. As The Los Angeles Times reports, a massive effort to debunk Global Warming is actually coming up with the same results showing that the earth is indeed getting warmer:

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched by physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime critic of government-led climate studies, to address what he called “the legitimate concerns” of skeptics who believe that global warming is exaggerated.

But Muller unexpectedly told a congressional hearing last week that the work of the three principal groups that have analyzed the temperature trends underlying climate science is “excellent…. We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups.”

The hearing was called by GOP leaders of the House Science & Technology committee, who have expressed doubts about the integrity of climate science. It was one of several inquiries in recent weeks as the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to curb planet-heating emissions from industrial plants and motor vehicles have come under strenuous attack in Congress.

Whoops! Sorry about that last witness, House Science and Technology Committee Republicans. Who’s your next guest? A polar bear?

And how’s this for delicious, scrumptious irony? Take a look at who is paying for this new study:

The Berkeley project’s biggest private backer, at $150,000, is the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Oil billionaires Charles and David Koch are the nation’s most prominent funders of efforts to prevent curbs on the burning of fossil fuels, the largest contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gases.

The $620,000 project is also partly funded by the federal Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where Muller is a senior scientist. Muller said the Koch foundation and other contributors will have no influence over the results, which he plans to submit to peer-reviewed scientific journals.

We’d imagine that Muller isn’t likely to receive another large grant from the Koch family. Perhaps the Koch Foundation can fund some 6th grade science fair winner to build a non-global warming model of a dried ice volcano.