"We know that the climate is warming faster than anybody anticipated five or ten years ago," said renowned climatologist, Barack Obama, this past May at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee meeting in Chicago.

But, as usual, he's wrong.

The UN's own "Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change" (IPCC) – you know; the one that was discovered falsifying data in 2009 and attempting to exclude any conflicting views from the relevant scientific periodicals in a scandal dubbed "Climategate" – consistently predicts temperature rises that do not come to pass.

In fact, this sort of bad prediction has been the standard for environmental extremists of all kinds including the late 19th century doomsday folks who predicted that there would soon be a major wood shortage because forests were being cut down to power steam engines and manufacture railroad ties.

We really ought to be careful about taking people like this seriously, especially when they try to buttress their arguments with highly politicized "science."

Actual measured temperatures, using IPCC's own datasets over the last two decades show either much lower than predicted temperature rises, no warming at all, or even decreases in temperature. Indeed, Climategate's own main culprit, Dr. Phil Jones, the University of East Anglia scientist who was caught falsifying the data, admitted in 2010 that there is, in fact, no evidence for any statistically-significant warming since 1995.

Let's not forget the much-ballyhooed melting of the Arctic ice cap complete with heart-rending photos of swimming polar bears. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its 2012 "State of the Climate" report that Arctic sea ice is melting at record levels, but then had to retract that statement when the melt rate was found to be less than usual. We can easily guess whether it was the statement itself or the retraction which got the most press. And so far in 2013, Arctic temperatures are colder than usual despite higher levels of greenhouse gases. Anyway we look at it, the polar bears are fine.

NOAA also noted in the same 2012 report, though again with much less media attention, that the Antarctic ice cap is growing fast and has "reached a record high of 7.51 million square miles." So even if the Arctic is warming up, which is disputable, the Antarctic is indisputably getting cooler.

Is climate change real? Yes. Changes happen over time. Is it man-made? Probably not for the most part. The earth is warmer now than it was a hundred years ago thanks, we are told, to man's industrial endeavors. But global temperatures now are at approximately the same levels they were during the "Medieval Warm Period" centered around 1000 A.D. and the "Roman Warm Period" centered around 200 A.D., neither of which could have been caused by human activity (and neither of which caused sea levels to rise).

Mother Earth has been cooling for well over a decade. She naturally goes through short cooling or warming cycles of 30-50 years anyway. The Chicken Littles know this and have dubbed the latest cooling trend to be a mere "pause" in global warming. Indeed, they don't call it "global warming" at all anymore, now preferring the more generic "global climate change." They're probably tired of having to cancel global warming demonstrations because of the snow.

Professor Judith Curry of Georgia Tech recently noted that "attention in the public debate seems to be moving away from the 15-17 year 'pause' to the cooling since 2002." That is, fewer people are being taken in by the alarmist hype.

Ideologically-driven "science" and deliberately falsified data do not make a good foundation for government policy though they do fit the "progressive" game plan of ever more government control over our lives. At the very least, it is clear that Al Gore, Mr. Carbon Footprint himself, was wrong (again) when he declared the discussion to be over.

Congratulations