In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.In July 2006, while still a relatively young columnist at the Denver Post, I published a piece headlined, “Chill out over global warming.”The column was exceptionally unpopular with readers. Rewardingly so. Yet, I hadn’t merely been mouthing off. In it, I interviewed meteorologist Roger Pielke Sr., a professor at the University of Colorado, and Colorado State University’s Bill Gray, perhaps the world’s foremost hurricane expert at the time. Both were skeptical of the doomsday predictions offered by climate change activist Al Gore in his recently released film, An Inconvenient Truth.
“They’ve been brainwashing us for 20 years,” Gray told me. “… This scare will also run its course. In 15-20 years, we’ll look back and see what a hoax this was.”
Well, here we are. Gray might not have been right about everything, but he looks like a prophet compared to Gore. It has never been more obvious that the pseudoscience and emotional manipulation of An Inconvenient Truth were, as Gray promised, little more than agitprop.
