Fox 'fair and balanced' debate: Global warming happens in 'fantasy world' of scientists

A Fox News on Wednesday brought on someone who had a "really long business card" to explain why scientists were living in a fantasy world if they thought the world was experiencing any negative impacts from climate change.

The morning after President Barack Obama likened climate change to global terrorism in a speech to the United Nations, host Steve Doocy announced that Fox News was having a "fair and balanced" debate between Bob Deans of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Myron Ebell of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

Although 97 percent of climate scientists acknowledge man-made global warming, Doocy promised that including Ebell would provide for a "good debate."

Deans began by pointing out that the science was now settled: Burning fossil fuels is causing the planet to warm.

"We just finished the hottest summer on record globally," he remarked. "The 15 hottest years on record globally, Steve, have all come since 1997. And we know that this is being caused by the carbon pollution that's coming from burning fossil fuels. So, that's the piece that's been settled."

Ebell, however, argued that climate science was not "settled" at all because the Earth had not warmed to the point that some computer models had predicted.

"We are in a fairly warm period right now," he agreed. "But for the last 17 or 18 years, there has been no warming. There has been no increase in the global mean temperature. So, this whole debate has really been answered. Global warming is not a crisis."

Deans reminded Ebell that "the National Academy of Scientists, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- the guys who put a man on the moon -- the Pentagon, the Commerce Department, the State Department, the most foundational scientists all over the world are telling us this is a serious problem, and we've got to do something about it."

"A couple of summers ago, 2012, we had the hottest year on record here in the United States," he added. "I talked to cattle ranchers in Colorado, all the way to the Ohio River Valley, they're having to sell off their herds because their pastures are burning. People with wild fires, we had 130 Americans killed, $65 billion worth of damage by Hurricane Sandy, 14 feet of water in downtown Manhattan. These things haven't happened before. This is what we're seeing before our very eyes."

But Ebell again insisted that the "scary predictions" of computer models had not come true.

"And the impacts that President Obama and all these national academies talk about simply aren't there," he opined. "We do not have more heat waves, we are not having more big storms. We haven't had any hurricanes this year, for example."

"So, I think that this is a kind of fantasy world that they're living in," Ebell concluded.

In the 2012 PBS documentary Climate of Doubt, Ebell explained why CEI "experts" would never admit that the science was settled on man-made climate change.

"We felt that if you concede the science is settled and that there’s a consensus, you cannot— the moral high ground has been ceded to the alarmists," he said.

According to The Washington Post, CEI is in the "persuasion business, fighting for the free market" by lobbying against government regulations.

"CEI relies on donations from individuals, foundations and corporations," the Post reported. "The most generous sponsors of last year's annual dinner at the Capital Hilton were the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Exxon Mobil, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and Pfizer. Other contributors included General Motors, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Plastics Council, the Chlorine Chemistry Council and Arch Coal."

Watch the video below from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Sept. 2014