During the December 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show, host and president of the conservative Independence Institute, Jon Caldara, responded to a caller's criticism of Democratic former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth (Rodale, May 2006), by declaring that “global warming is not so much a science as it is a religion. And the idea that man is creating global warming is a religion.” Furthermore, Caldara jokingly dismissed the topic of global warming by referring to Colorado's recent blizzard, saying, “It is hard to talk global warming when I can't get my car out of my garage.”

Following his comments about global warming being “a religion,” Caldara agreed with the caller's assertion that “there is some evidence that we are having some warming, but there's a much stronger case that it's due to solar, solar activity -- solar cycles, which has caused the global warming and cooling in the past than human-caused global warming.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its 2001 “Third Assessment Report” -- which cites multiple studies that provide “evidence for an anthropogenic signal [indication of human influence] in the climate record of the last 35 to 50 years” -- stated, “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.”

The IPCC also examined whether changes in solar activity might be responsible for recent warming. The IPCC found that all the studies it analyzed suggested a substantial “rise in solar forcing during the early decades of the 20th century” but not in recent decades. According to the IPCC, “Such a forcing history is unlikely to explain the recent acceleration in surface warming, even if amplified by some unknown feedback mechanism.” The IPCC's reports are issued by several hundred climate experts representing “universities, research centers, business and environmental associations and other organizations from more than 100 countries.”

Similarly, a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report commissioned by the Bush administration found that greenhouse gases are “causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise” and that "[t]he changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities." Media Matters for America has also noted that a June 22 National Academy of Sciences report affirmed the “scientific consensus regarding human-induced global warming,” based on multiple lines of evidence supporting “the conclusion that human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming” of the Earth.

Contrary to Caldara's assertion that “the idea that man is creating global warming is a religion,” Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented organizations representing thousands of scientists stating the consensus view that, according to a June 2006 National Academies of Science report, “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming” of the planet.

Furthermore, Caldara's apparent joke that a December blizzard in Colorado casts doubt on the scientific evidence of global warming is a simplistic view of the scientific findings. As Media Matters for America has also noted, the National Climatic Data Center reported in its preliminary 2006 report, “Following the warmest year on record for the globe in 2005, the annual global temperature for 2006 is expected to be sixth warmest since recordkeeping began in 1880.” That report also noted that “the 2006 annual average temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) will likely be 2°F (1.1°C) above the 20th Century mean, which would make 2006 the third warmest year on record.”

Colorado Media Matters has documented other instances of Colorado media personalities making false claims about global warming, including Newsradio 850 KOA radio host and Rocky Mountain News columnist Mike Rosen, Rocky Mountain News media critic and Independence Institute research director Dave Kopel, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi, and Boulder Daily Camera columnist Bob Greenlee.

From the December 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALLER: You were talking about Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth, and he said something just incredible when he was challenged about -- about that book. He makes a real critical error, and I'm not sure this is in the movie but I know --

[Background vocal]

CALDARA: Lenny, take down that other mike. OK, keep going, [caller].

CALLER: He -- in the book, he posits like what is called a linear relationship between the amount of greenhouse gases and the amount of global warming. So he says that if there's, like, 10 percent increase in greenhouse gases, there's a 10 percent increase in the temperature -- and that's, you know, that's just not true. There's been no, no research that's ever found that. That's just off the charts, even people that are supposedly on his side can't defend it. Anyway, he's been challenged about this, because his whole premise of his book -- all of these disaster scenarios -- were, you know, left on this -- on this, you know, incorrect linear relationship between greenhouse gases and the amount of temperature increase. So anyway, somebody said that he was challenged and that Al Gore said, “Well you know, there's going to be a study, a research study done in 2007 whose results will, will reveal that I am right about this.” So OK, if the study's going to be done, how does he know the results already?

CALDARA: Because global warming is not so much a science as it is a religion. And the idea that man is creating global warming is a religion. Now, I am willing to say that right now temperatures seem to be rising. Global ocean temperatures seem to be rising over -- over that of 50 years ago. But, you know what, we've had ice ages before; we've thawed out of ice ages. Climatic changes happen. It is hard to talk global warming when I can't get my car out of my garage.

CALLER: Yeah -- well, there is some evidence that we are having some warming, but there's a much stronger case that it's due to solar, solar activity -- solar cycles, which has caused the global warming and cooling in the past than human-caused global warming. There's a name for that -- anthropogenic, I believe. I'm butchering that --

CALDARA: Right. All right. You got it? I gotta go to traffic.