The Day the Debate Died (With Apologies to Don McLean)

Several years ago there was an Intelligence Squared PBS debate on global warming. On the skeptics' side was Richard Lindzen, Philip Stott, and Michael Crichton and on the warmists' side was Gavin Schmidt, Richard Somerville, and some lady from the Union of Concerned Scientists. They polled the audience before and after and it was (and, please, keep in mind here that this is a PBS audience) 29% (global waring isn't a crisis) - 58% (global warming is a crisis) - 13% (not sure)  - before and 46% - 42% - 12% - after................................................................................Yep, folks, the skeptics made the more compelling argument and even in a setting such as PBS were able to significantly sway the audience. Of course, it was also the beginning of the end in terms of these warmists actually wanting to defend their "science" and positions publicly. At the recent International Conference on Climate Change 7, for example, the event coordinator there, James Taylor, invited 57 warmists to speak and not a single one consented to...................................................................................It's kind of like with Gore. The dude refuses to debate Bjorn Lomborg. He refuses to debate Lord Monckton. He refuses to debate John Coleman. He even refused to debate his erstwhile friend and supporter, Michael Crichton. It's like, yeah, of course the debate is over if you refuse to sit down and debate people.