I'm proud to say that I'm leary of outrageous and supposedly scientific hype about global warming. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe global warming is occuring as a direct consequence of producing carbon dioxide. However, I doubt hype and shock.
Listen to this: Bjorn Lomborg via Jared's blog
I don't watch tv anymore (Heroes doesn't come back on until April 23), but I do occasionally (almost daily) read Wikipedia. Here are just a small portion of quotes from there:
Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "[T]he recent warming trend in the surface temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the air." [15] In 2003 Baliunas and Soon wrote that "there is no reliable evidence for increased severity or frequency of storms, droughts, or floods that can be related to the air’s increased greenhouse gas content." [16]
Robert M. Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia: "The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown." (Telegraph, April 9, 2006 [17])
George V. Chilingar, professor of civil and petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, and Leonid F. Khilyuk: "The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation ..., (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities ... . The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate [and] show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible." (Environmental Geology, vol. 50 no. 6, August 2006 [18])
William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist, Colorado State University: "This small warming is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood. Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." (BBC News, 16 Nov 2000 [24]) "I am of the opinion that [global warming] is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people." (Washington Post, May 28, 2006 [25]) "So many people have a vested interest in this global-warming thing—all these big labs and research and stuff. The idea is to frighten the public, to get money to study it more." (Discover, vol. 26 no. 9, September 2005 [26])
Zbigniew Jaworowski, chair of the Scientific Council at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw: "The atmospheric temperature variations do not follow the changes in the concentrations of CO2 ... climate change fluctuations comes ... from cosmic radiation." (21st Century Science & Technology, Winter 2003-2004, p. 52-65 [27])
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7 comments:
I don't want to sound like a broken record on your comments... but I think global warming is stupid. :)
Chris *last name omitted*, a good friend and incredible genius, is a fellow at KU and is one of the only in his fellowship that believes the same thing. All the other fellows are all "sold" on the global warming phenomenon.
One thing he points out is that they are basing this on around 100 years of data. These "global warming believers" (gwb) are mostly people who believe the earth is billions of years old. So that is like taking .00001 seconds of my life from the last year, analyzing it, and then determining what the rest of my future is going to be like. In any other scientific realm this would be laughed at!
And they make claims like, "It's going to just keep getting hotter." Well, how hot will it get? It can't get infinitely hot can it?
The whole thing is simply a bunch of "fear" driven illogical arguments. Vulcans would never fall into these type of things.
Thanks for sharing what your good friend points out.
It seems to me there are thousands if not more variables that need to be controlled to really test something of this magnitude. Just as it could "just keep getting hotter", it could also "just turn right around and start getting cooler". As if we could boil it all down to CO2 emissions.
I think you hit the nail on the head with "fear". Really it is more logical to fear being hit on the head with a nail, but that probably won't happen either.
I think global warming is stupid, too. I was actually looking forward to warmer weather and now I'm so disappointed that I just don't want to hear about it anymore.
I think we should make up a new fear and build up hype so that everyone stops talking about gw. How about "The world's ant population is increasing so quickly that they will cover the entire earth's surface by 2095". We have a lot of ants under or around our house and they are starting to come inside in increasing numbers, so I completely agree with and support the *fact* that the ant population is increasing so quickly that they will cover the entire earth's surface by 2095. I see evidence right here in my own house.
Spread the word.
As I stepped out into 40 degree weather this morning, I decided (as a scientist) that because It's colder than average today...an ice age must be on its way.
Hey "Whatbox", that was funny . . . cousin.
jason
I don't know if I buy all of it but I do think it is important to ask the question: Are we faithfully taking care of our planet. Whether the gasses warm or not, are they helpful for us? Then I look at toxic dumping in the water, and the over fishing of the seas. Maybe global warming isn't happening, but the smog isn't very helpful to asthmatics.
Let's imagine that you opened your fridge this morning and found a pint of ice cream that you bought 3 months ago. You took it out of the fridge and started eating it. Two minute later, your phone rang. It was your girlfriend. You forgot about the ice cream and talked with her for 3 hours.
Would you use that fact that the ice cream has lasted 3 months in the fridge to predict that it can never be melted? Or would it be wiser to use the last 2 minute info before you answered the phone to predict its state 3 hours later?
It's not the amount of data, but the quality and relevancy of data that is important.
Climate change is real. Nobody is trying to fool you -- except for those so called "climate skeptics".
Piak
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