Scientists: Michelle Malkin is full of it

Malkin takes a stab at science blogging:

So, Paramount is gearing up to release an Al Gore documentary about global warming. But at least two scientists in the Philippines are rejecting Gore's hot air. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports

Gasp! Two scientists in the Philippines? Stop the presses, we have consensus!

The basic gist is that these two fine folks brought up their own pet projects about water usage in the city of Manila. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's quite admirable:

"While it is true that global warming could contribute to the rise, this is only in the millimeters, but the centimeters' rise could be attributed more to heavy groundwater extraction which results in subsidence, which makes it appear that the sea is invading land," he explained.

"I am not saying that we should stop helping control greenhouse gas emissions, but very, very few really know the real story about flooding in Metro Manila," he said.

"We could cry all day about greenhouse gases but if we don't regulate carefully our use of groundwater, we could be flooding faster than whatever could come from global warming."

From the little that I understand, flooding in Manila occurs mainly during the annual monsoons, though flooding has been observed earlier in the year recently and that's partially due to a lowering of the level of the city from water mismanagement, and also partially due to deforestation. Ironically, Gore did touch on the latter:

The population explosion is also causing the exploitation of valuable rainforests which, in turn, aggravates environmental degradation.

"I said I wouldn't meddle, but you're losing 2 percent of your forests each year," he said. "They're more valuable to you for ecological purposes than for wood."

Sounds to me like not meddling in the internal affairs of the countries Gore is visiting was a big theme for him. In light of that he might have felt more comfortable talking about the global aspects of global warming and foregoing mentioning local water usage issues. In other words, talking about the possibility of evacuating large sections of a region that might be affected by global warming was the issue he addressed. The issue addressed by the two Philippine scientists is a more immediate issue of sinking water tables; neither is less or more valid, it's just different issues and priorities, and Gore chose to talk about one while the two local scientists choose to focus on another. Hence, Malkin's bloviating

Unfortunately, warning about groundwater use won't get you a glitzy Hollywood movie contract or lucrative speaking engagements.

...is a bit off track. As usual. I mean, he presumably didn't also talk about wood voles...it's just not what his speach was about.