George Will on Cap & Trade and an Interesting Study

From George Will's Washington Post column today:

"When New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called upon "young Americans" to "get a million people on the Washington Mall calling for a price on carbon," another columnist, Mark Steyn, responded: "If you're 29, there has been no global warming for your entire adult life. If you're graduating high school, there has been no global warming since you entered first grade."

Then there is this: a peer reviewed study from the Journal of Geophysical Research. (NOTE: Peer review means that the article had to win approval before publication from a group of scientists that manage content in the journal).

Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.

The research, by Chris de Freitas, a climate scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, John McLean (Melbourne) and Bob Carter (James Cook University), finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a key indicator of global atmospheric temperatures seven months later. As an additional influence, intermittent volcanic activity injects cooling aerosols into the atmosphere and produces significant cooling.

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Now - does this "settle" the climate debate? Of course not. But it does show that, contrary to the fervent supporters of cap & trade, the debate on the fundamental science supporting the policy (is "climate change" man-made?) isn't settled either.

We should let that debate continue before we strap down the American economy with the cap & trade regime.