On Fox News' Beltway Boys, Barnes denied that humans are a cause of global warming

Summary: On Fox News' The Beltway Boys, Fred Barnes again denied the broad scientific consensus that human activity is contributing to global warming.

On the July 29 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys, Weekly Standard executive editor and co-host Fred Barnes again denied that humans are a cause of global warming. Referring to the National Climatic Center's recent report that temperatures for the first half of 2006 were the hottest on record, Roll Call executive editor and Beltway Boys co-host Morton M. Kondracke stated that "[g]lobal warming is a fact." Barnes replied, "Yeah, but who caused it? You don't know." When Kondracke replied, "Humans," Barnes retorted: "No. You don't know that." In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented (here, here, and here), scientific organizations such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academies of Science (NAS) share the consensus view that, according to a June 2006 NAS report, "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming" of the planet.

As Media Matters has noted, during the May 23 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Barnes also ignored the broad scientific consensus that human activity is contributing to global warming, stating, "It's not known for certain or anywhere near certain whether the small increase in temperature over the last hundred years is caused by man or not."

From the July 29 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys:

KONDRACKE: Hey Fred, do you -- did you realize that it -- that the temperature hit 110 in Los Angeles last week, breaking all records?

BARNES: Mm-hmm.

KONDRCKE: The National Climatic Center, which is a federal agency, reported that the first six months of 2006 were the warmest six months in -- in history, since 1895.

BARNES: So?

KONDRACKE: Exceeding 2005, which was the warmest before that.

BARNES: So?

KONDRACKE: Global warming is a fact, Fred. Quit denying it.

BARNES: Yeah, but who caused it? You don't know.

KONDRACKE: Humans.

BARNES: No. You don't know that.

That's all for The Beltway Boys this week. Join us next week, when the boys will be back in town.

—B.J.L.