Michael Brown reacts strongly to climate change video featuring storms

Michael Brown, Bush Administration FEMA chief and soon-to-be University of Denver law school instructor, has weighed in on climate change, taking the kind of stance you might expect from the man notorious for doing little to alleviate suffering as Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans. Mocking discussions on ways we might recalibrate the atmosphere being held at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, he writes dismissively at his blog today: “Humankind does not have the power to regulate climate.” In other words, if we’ve already changed it, we’re doomed. Just crawl into a fetal position, order in some “stiff margaritas” and wait for the disaster to hit!

Brown berated a Climate Change Conference promo video as alarmist. With its intentionally over-the-top dramatic music and scenes of storm-wrought disaster, it’s easy to imagine why it struck a chord with Brown.

Michael Brown
Michael Brown

Brown called the video “outrageous” saying it “demonstrates the lengths these people will go to instilling fear among the populations of the world, and loathing toward scientists, politicians, and individuals who do not believe mankind is causing global warming. This is a cult.”

Brown has a law degree and worked for two years at FEMA before resigning in disgrace. Previous to his abbreviated tenure at FEMA, he was Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association Arabian Horse Federation for 12 years. He also resigned from that position in controversy. He has had no scientific training of note.

Nevertheless, he writes confidently on the topic of climate science:

Humankind does not have the power to change climate, or in the words of the latest EPA pronouncement that it will ‘regulate the climate’ through limits on carbon dioxide. Ludicrous. EPA may think it’s powerful enough to regulate the climate, but I sure as heck don’t.

Scientists around the world continue to endorse research that climate change is real and caused primarily by human use of fossil fuels. Media Matters for America provides a list of scientific organizations that reaffirmed support for the research in the wake of “Climategate,” where emails ridiculing climate change deniers and eschewing their writings were leaked to the press.

From Media Matters:

Following the release of the reportedly stolen emails, more than 1,700 scientists from the United Kingdom signed a statement responding “to the ongoing questioning of core climate science and methods.” It said: “We, members of the UK science community, have the utmost confidence in the observational evidence for global warming and the scientific basis for concluding that it is due primarily to human activities. The evidence and the science are deep and extensive. They come from decades of painstaking and meticulous research, by many thousands of scientists across the world who adhere to the highest levels of professional integrity. That research has been subject to peer review and publication, providing traceability of the evidence and support for the scientific method.”

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