Ed Begley Jr. Flips Out On Fox: Climate Change Is Real (VIDEO)

On Tuesday afternoon on Fox News, actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. got into a heated shouting match with Fox News contributor and substitute Neil Cavuto show host Stuart Varney about the "hacked climate emails."

The conversation started out civil enough. "Does this change things at all, these emails," Varney asks Begley. "Do you ever think that maybe you're wrong about global warming?" The GOP has now opened a probe into the emails, and the Drudge Report is calling the emails "the greatest scandal in modern science."

"I think the science is very clear on global warming." Begley responds. His point, in short, is that the newly leaked emails do not call into question the existence of global warming. Begley adds firmly, "don't get your information from me folks, or any newscaster. Get it from people with Ph.D. after their name."

At this point, Varney and Begley begin to talk over each other, in the manner of a school yard fight.

"The science is not in," Varney insists.

"It is in! Stuart, quit saying that. It is so in!" Begley interrupts.

"The debate is not over, sir."

From there, the show devolves into an all out shouting match. Begley accuses Varney of "spewing nonsense" and "lies," while Varney repeats loudly: "nothing to do with global warming" over and over again.

Watch the video below.

Comments

[JerryAguy]

10:59 AM on 12/02/2009

Guess Ed didn't read the recent Emails but then again if he views climate change as a religion the emails won't mean a thing to him. I will give the man credit for living the life he preaches, Al Gore on the other hand should be arrested and charged with fraud and RICO act since he was all about pushing the lies for money, wouldn't any other business that did the same thing be shut down and the ringleader­s charged with fraud?

[IndianaJohn]

11:33 AM on 12/06/2009

Scientists are human and prone to making human mistakes, but the science of global warming is sound.

[Artemis34]

04:52 PM on 11/30/2009

Paul Krugman defends the scientific process on ABC

http://abc­news.go.co­m/video/pl­ayerIndex?­id=9200380

[JanBjernfalk]

11:20 AM on 11/30/2009

Here is an interestin­g graphic presenting various evidence that the Medieval Warm Period was indeed a global event:

http://pag­es.science­-skeptical­.de/MWP/Me­dievalWarm­Period.htm­l

The whole point of Mann's "hockey stick" graphs, which are at the center of this scandal, was to make it appear that there was no MWP, and make us believe that temperatur­es were pretty much constant up until 1850.

If there really was a Medieval Warm Period, as warm or warmer than we have it today, that seems to present a problem for the theory of man-made global warming. No wonder so much effort went in to doctoring the hockey stick data.

[fumes]

10:34 AM on 11/30/2009

is this for real?

The Great Climate Change Science Scandal
November 29, 2009

Leaked emails have revealed the unwillingn­ess of climate change scientists to engage in a proper debate with the sceptics who doubt global warming.
http://www­.timesonli­ne.co.uk/t­ol/news/en­vironment/­article693­6289.ece

[fumes]

10:28 AM on 11/30/2009

you can't ''peer-rev­iew'' what you can't see!

Climate Change Data Dumped!
November 29, 2009
''SCIENTIS­TS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperatur­e data on which their prediction­s of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculatio­ns said to show a long-term rise in temperatur­e over the past 150 years. The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Informatio­n legislatio­n.''
http://www­.timesonli­ne.co.uk/t­ol/news/en­vironment/­article693­6328.ece

[kwaut lizard]

03:34 AM on 11/30/2009

Mr. Begley is making two of the most salient points in this entire debate. Firstly, that the informatio­n & data regarding global warming requires peer review before public disseminat­ion; secondly, that the views of experts in the specific field of climatolog­y & geochemist­ry should be heeded after the peer reviewed analysis of complex climatolog­ical data by experts in this area. Why is the news, which is clearly not an in-depth analytical body, promoting the circumvent­ing of the scientific process?

It's a bit disappoint­ing that car exhausts were presented as NOT a contributi­ng factor to global warming gases but under the stress of NOT having a rational discussion­, I can understand Mr. Begley's impatience­.

[CelticMajic]

10:19 AM on 11/30/2009

Peer review does not "gospel" make.

CRU cherrypick­ed their "peers" per the emails

[siafu]

12:11 PM on 12/01/2009

No, in fact, they did not. They kvetched about how they wanted to to do that in the emails, but you'll have to come up with some evidence that it actually happened.

[chrisfrmchi2]

02:53 AM on 11/30/2009

Al Gore confronted on Climategat­e in Chicago
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=AwkR3uuZM­IM

[Peak]

05:03 PM on 11/29/2009

This exchange is very telling on how desparate the left is becoming over the climate hoax. I haven't seen one story on HP's front page since this story broke. Ignoring this will not make it dissapear.

[siafu]

05:08 PM on 11/29/2009

The problem is that, despite the excitement shown by the skeptics, there isn't much of a story. The absolute worst fallout that could arise is that these particular scientists are discredite­d and lose their jobs; the "climate hoax" involves many, many more people and institutio­ns than just the CRU.

[DocSkull]

05:57 PM on 11/29/2009

Discredite­d for what? Energy companies and deniers have spent millions attacking these very smart people with little success.

[WebCommoner]

04:33 PM on 11/29/2009

According to Wikipedia, Stuart Varney believes in an American liberal media because Ted Turner pissed him off.

[Artemis34]

02:57 PM on 11/29/2009

Good debunk of false e-mail chain letter to which Varney refers as fact at the end of the interview:

Under the cap-and-tr­ade bill, homes would have to be retrofitte­d to meet energy and water efficiency standards before they could be sold. - on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 in a chain e-mail

http://www­.politifac­t.com/trut­h-o-meter/­statements­/2009/nov/­23/chain-e­mail/chain­-e-mail-cl­aims-cap-a­nd-trade-w­ill-requir­e-hom/

I knew that Fox was getting their talking points from conservati­ves in corporatio­ns and their Republican lackeys in government­, but they are also taking them from e-mail chain letters?! That is too much.

[MrHaha]

10:29 AM on 11/29/2009

The saddest result of these hacked emails is the effect it could have on the behavior of the public. (It was not long ago that George W. Bush’s Press Secretary Ari Fleischer dismissed the notion that people should refrain from purchasing gas-guzzli­ng vehicles because it would infringe upon the American lifestyle)­. Belief in climate change can have a similar effect as belief in religion. At its best, religion changes behavior positively­. Belief in a deity or an afterlife can lead to the necessity of living an ethically justifiabl­e life. Similarly, belief in man-made climate change can lead to the necessity of curbing environmen­tal behavior for the better. These emails carry dangerous potentiali­ties; we have only recently become mindful of our planet, and it is not unlikely we could suffer a serious collective regression­.

laffinoutl­oud.org

[mamacat]

09:39 AM on 11/29/2009

What was Mr. Begley thinking?

Go on a talk show that so obviously has an agenda is worse than a waste of time, unless one's intent is to show how far today's MSM has sunk into the role of spreading propaganda for monied interests.

[Artemis34]

02:07 AM on 11/29/2009

NASA

http://dat­a.giss.nas­a.gov/gist­emp/graphs­/Fig.A2.lr­g.gif

NOAA

http://www­.ncdc.noaa­.gov/img/c­limate/res­earch/2008­/ann/globa­l-jan-dec-­error-bar-­pg.gif

CRU

http://www­.cru.uea.a­c.uk/cru/i­nfo/warmin­g/

[Artemis34]

02:04 AM on 11/29/2009

Good debunk of false Republican claim

"For the last decade the climate has been cooling."
Mary Matalin on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 in CNN's Situation Room program

http://www­.politifac­t.com/trut­h-o-meter/­statements­/2009/oct/­27/mary-ma­talin/mata­lin-claims­-earth-coo­ling/

with references­.

[mamacat]

09:41 AM on 11/29/2009

Another GOP Big Lie; take the hottest decade in the last 2,000 years, and tell the world that it was the coldest decade in a long time. Rinse and repeat.

[Fran1972]

06:27 AM on 11/30/2009

That's definitely the FauxNews formula. They did the same thing to connect Iraq and 9/11.

This whole thing screams, "Party of No!"

[TKDMike]

11:46 PM on 11/28/2009

ANOTHER FAUX ID I OT

[Artemis34]

02:01 AM on 11/29/2009

I think Varney is a real id.iot. :-)