Interested in science, not political fiction? Visit www.Icecap.us, www.Climateskeptics.org or www.Co2science.org. Websites like these may be one reason Al Gore seems unwilling to debate anyone who holds a global warming (or climate change) viewpoint different from his.

As reported in an April 2, 2007 Heartland Institute media release, “Lord Monckton of Brenchley, a former advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is the latest to challenge Gore to debate.” This he did March 14, seeking a “a head-to-head, internationally-televised debate upon the question ‘That our effect on climate is not dangerous,’ to be held in the Library of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at a date of the Vice-President’s choosing.”

Perhaps Gore refuses to debate because a scientific consensus seems less certain than proclaimed. Clearly, sheer numbers do not make something true. That said, it is interesting, as reported on the Heartland website, “More than 17,100 basic and applied American scientists, two-thirds with advanced degrees, have signed the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine's Global Warming Petition, which says in part, ‘There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate.’"

To bring this blog to closure, below are brief descriptions of the websites mentioned in the opening paragraph.

ICECAP is the acronym for: International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project. Icecap states its website is “the portal to all things climate for elected officials and staffers, journalists, scientists, educators and the public.”

Climate Skeptics bills itself as ”a resource for healthy questioning of mainstream opinion on the state and future of earth's climate.”

CO2 Science magazine is a weekly publication of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. The Center states it was created “to disseminate factual reports and sound commentary on new developments in the world-wide scientific quest to determine the climatic and biological consequences of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content.”

Seek Halloween-like horror stories about global warming, or global cooling? Look elsewhere. These sites do not consider scare-mongering a suitable substitute for sound science. The ball is in your court, Mr. Gore. And, you, the reader, can encourage him to return volley (that is, debate).