Rhetoric vs. research at legislative hearing on climate change

Rhetoric and research clashed during a hearing Tuesday at the State Capitol called "Climate Change: Fact or Fiction?"

Georgia Tech scientist Robert Dickinson pointed to mounds of data showing acceleration in global warming.

"The present warming is consistent with greenhouse gases and there has been no other explanation that's at all close," he said.

But Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute said global warming was not that big of a deal and there was no reason to rush into policy making.

"I believe this issue is being driven by hysteria right now," he said.

Georgia lawmakers are not in a hurry to do anything. Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White), who chairs the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, says other states are moving too quickly to pass pollution-control legislation and could be jeopardizing their economies. He says Georgia will not do the same.

Legislative hearing: "Climate change: fact or fiction?"

A House committee is drawing proponents and skeptics together for a knock-out debate over whether climate change is really happening. They are calling the hearing "Climate change: fact or fiction?"

Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Lewis (R-White) says the matter is far from clear. He thinks other states in the Northwest and the Northeast may be crippling their economies by setting policies to counteract climate change.

"They're setting policy based on what is probably a limited scientific theory," White says. "We want to make sure that if and when the time comes for the state of Georgia to enact--whether it's energy policy, environmental policy, or manufacturing and economic development policies--that it is based on real science and not so-called 'junk' science."

Meanwhile, environmental groups are up in arms. They have sent e-mails to their members and journalists telling them that climate change is, indeed, fact, and not fiction.