I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. A pet global warming theory of the environmental hardliners has been proven very shaky.
The theory: warming will melt the polar ice caps and swamp pacific island nations as sea levels rise 25 feet in 100 years. The fact is they haven't raised much, but the region has been hit by a decade of intense storms and fluctuations in sea temperature.
But, as reported in commentary magazine, the U.N. intergovernmental panel on climate change questions whether this has anything to do with global warming.
There's no clear trend in the tropical storms, meaning they aren't getting worse. Sea levels have risen at the same rate – 2 millimeters a year – for 100 years. There's no satellite evidence the Antarctic has warmed at all.
The worst-case U.N. scenario is that oceans will rise a foot over the next century. But the margin of error is so great, they may not rise at all. The islands are safe, and the warming alarmists have another blank in the chamber.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, summer reading.