Weather Channel founder calls emissions trading 'financial fraud' (OneNewsNow.com)

Weather Channel founder calls emissions trading 'financial fraud'

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 3/18/2008 4:00:00 AM

cash closeup big John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, believes that people who sell carbon credits could be committing financial fraud.

In a recent speech delivered in New York, meteorologist Coleman questioned the validity of alleged man-made global warming. He says that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was formed in 1982 has since then claimed that uncontrollable global warming is going to melt the ice caps, drive species to extinction, and make the earth uninhabitable.

Coleman disagrees whole-heartedly with the touted effects of global warming on the environment. He contends that the "media has jumped onto the frenzy; every environmentalist on the planet is yelling it; people seem to have adopted it like a religion. But [global warming is] not happening, and it's very clear it's not happening."

During his speech, Coleman also questioned the validity of a so-called "carbon credit" system, in which consumers would offset CO2 emissions by paying a set fee that would allegedly be reinvested into environmentally safe technology.

Again, Coleman has his doubts. He does not believe human-caused global warming, resulting from CO2 emissions, exists. The carbon credits, which are being sold for millions of dollars, "are based on CO2-forcing (as they call it) causing global warming; well, that's not valid. And they've got to know it. And if they know it, and they're selling those carbon credits, aren't they committing financial fraud?"

Despite recent media reports, the founder of the Weather Channel has no plans to sue Al Gore, the former Democratic vice president and noted environmental advocate. According to Coleman, if the global-warming debate went to court and the facts from both sides were argued, his side would win.

"Al Gore refuses to debate us," Coleman says. "The people who are the advocates of global warming say 'the debate is over.'" However, Coleman disagrees. "We know that science is on our side, and we're having trouble getting any attention in the media," Coleman reveals. "So maybe if we got it in the courts, the media would pay attention." Coleman said if his scientists and research studies took the global-warming advocates to court, his side would get a decided victory.