Just so that somebody is saying it ... are we sure we all buy into this whole Global Warming thing? I'm still skeptical, there are still scientists out there - reputable ones from Yale and the like - who aren't so sure it's happening the way the politicians say it's happening ...
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It's funny, I've wondered the same thing. I had a class on meteorology, taught by a man who had his PhD in the subject, spent years storm chasing, taught at Baylor for the past decade or more, and was the local weather anchor on the local ABC affiliate.
He explained the patterns of climate over the past zillion or so years. And how the weather cycles naturally over time. He actually had some pretty big beef with the politicians who are scaring people for political gain.
He said that people to contribute to the warming of the earth, but it is far less that most people are led to believe. And that this contribution has actually been to our benefit, as we are long over-due for a new ice age and it has kept us from that.
Another thing I learned was that the 'hole' in the ozone is not man-made at all. It is a natural cycle of the earth's ozone shifting around during certain parts of the year. It is not at all what we are led to believe.
Serious climatologists, who have studied the data, and are apolitical about it, are in fair agreement that the global warming issue is not a premier one of our time.
This is what happens when ignorance is given a platform of the public and such issues are used for political gain and true science is completely thrown out the window. This is what happens when scientists don't stick to science and politicians don't stick to politics.
Pardon the tinge in my voice...
I'm told that one volcanic eruption actually puts more CO and CO2 into the atmosphere than every motor-vehicle on the planet does in a year. And the ozone thing, I heard that too. I've also heard that the warming of the earth is not an isolated phenomenon, but that other planets are doing it too, though which ones I can't remember (neptune and mars maybe?).
And I agree, I too am sickened by politicians. They distort the facts for their own gain, and that pisses me off.
Great Post Chris.
You might all like this:
http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speeches/index.html
The first speech: "Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century" - very good discussion of our inability to know anything of such a complex nature as the weather.
Crichton - 1 Human Hubris - 0
Thanks Don! Glad you like it. I actually have a friend who follows his writing more often and points out the interesting articles to me when he feels like it. I couldn't ignore the one today, it struch a chord for some reason. That's the thing with me, if I read something that bugs me, I always have to make a comment about it - gotta work on self-control, I guess.
Oh, by the way, I rather enjoyed some of the artwork I discovered on your webpage. I assume its yours, and so I say, good on ya!
I'm actually but a humble American living in Australia, and will be returning home shortly (in three weeks on the 17th actually) to then move again to Kentucky and start seminary. But it's a fantastic continent here and you should definitely come visit sometime!
The scientific consensus is overwhelming that humans are indeed causing changes to our atmosphere.
The National Academy of Sciences report, Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, begins: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise"
The American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) all have issued statements in recent years concluding that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling.
In an analysis of 928 abstracts containing the phrase "climate change" published in refereed scientific journals between 1993 and 2003, NONE of these papers disagreed with the consensus position. NONE of the papers argued the point that this might be a natural phenomenon.
“I study scientific disputes, this isn’t one of them,” says Naomi Oreskes, History of Science professor at UCSD, author of the analysis.
As for the "blessing in disguise - we are heading off the ice age" idea - tell that to the aboriginal canadians in the far north whose villages have to be moved back away from the banks where they have lived for centuries. The banks are eroding because the ice melts before the seasonal storms come in. Where the ice previously held held the shore in place for the storm season, there is no ice to hold it and the shore is eroding rapidly. Tell that also to the people who live in Tuvalu who already have plans to abandon their homes and evacuate to New Zealand. Switzerland is wrapping its glaciers with reflective foil. Nearly all the world's glaciers are shrinking.
How is it that a novelist like Michael Crighton has more credibility with you than the thousands of scientists spending their lives studying the atmosphere and documenting this phenomenon?
About the ozone hole:
One of my good friends is an atmospheric scientist PhD at Colorado State University. He says the ozone hole is most definately caused by flurocarbons released by humans! And it is a major environmental success story that we have been able to reduce the problem by banning the release of those chemicals from refrigerators and air conditioners and other sources.
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