Reality Check

(Fox News) - An environmental scientist and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Santa Barbara says that most scientific evidence suggests global warming will not have serious effects on life on earth.

Daniel Botkin writes on The Wall Street Journal's Web site that many scientists ignore evidence that contradicts alarmist dogma. Botkin says that while the United Nations suggests up to 30 percent of plant and animal life could become extinct because of climate change — the reality is that almost none of the millions of species have disappeared during the past 2.5 million years — with all of its various warming and cooling periods.

He says fears that warming will lead to fresh epidemics of diseases such as malaria and encephalitis are debunked by research indicating temperature changes do not affect distribution or frequency of these diseases.