Global Warming: A Call to Cool the Hype
H/T to Tedintheshed for the link to this NYT article discussing fallacies in the Global Warming debate:
“I don’t want to pick on Al Gore,” Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, told hundreds of experts at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. “But there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to temper that with real data.”
Mr. Gore, in an e-mail exchange about the critics, said his work made “the most important and salient points” about climate change, if not “some nuances and distinctions” scientists might want. “The degree of scientific consensus on global warming has never been stronger,” he said, adding, “I am trying to communicate the essence of it in the lay language that I understand.”
Although Mr. Gore is not a scientist, he does rely heavily on the authority of science in “An Inconvenient Truth,” which is why scientists are sensitive to its details and claims.
Criticisms of Mr. Gore have come not only from conservative groups and prominent skeptics of catastrophic warming, but also from rank-and-file scientists like Dr. Easterbook, who told his peers that he had no political ax to grind. A few see natural variation as more central to global warming than heat-trapping gases. Many appear to occupy a middle ground in the climate debate, seeing human activity as a serious threat but challenging what they call the extremism of both skeptics and zealots.
Kevin Vranes, a climatologist at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, said he sensed a growing backlash against exaggeration. While praising Mr. Gore for “getting the message out,” Dr. Vranes questioned whether his presentations were “overselling our certainty about knowing the future.”
Typically, the concern is not over the existence of climate change, or the idea that the human production of heat-trapping gases is partly or largely to blame for the globe’s recent warming. The question is whether Mr. Gore has gone beyond the scientific evidence.
I think all of us agree that we need to preserve our planet. I would bet all of us agree that there is a warming trend. Where I believe that the debate falls apart are the attributes to the warming, the cycles of the earth, and the degree to which there is a threat. I won’t even go into my thoughts on CARBON CREDITS!
March 13, 2007 - 07:54 AM on March 13th, 2007
Al Gore the wealthy liar eco-wacko and hypotcrit this fool produces more HOT AIR just by keeping his mouth constantly flapping he realy needs to have some duct tape put over his mouth to cut off all that HOT AIR and his own big ego:razz:
March 13, 2007 - 08:15 AM on March 13th, 2007
Al Gore dares to speak the truth and predictably, many can’t stand it because they are afraid of the truth!
March 13, 2007 - 08:22 AM on March 13th, 2007
2, Al Gore is a hysterical liar who is unhinged because he wasn’t elected President like his daddy programmed him.
Real scientists are now debunking the AlGore myths.
March 13, 2007 - 03:13 PM on March 13th, 2007
Re 2 (Lenny):
I find the whole global warming debate to be wide open at this point. The problem I’m having is finding a legitimate arguement from either side. Neer impossible, as politics have tainted the debate horribly. The leading advocate for human casued GW is a politician, as an example. I trust Al Gore no more than I do any other politician, so I have to ask myself “What’s in it for him?”. That question was answered quite some time ago, so he is not a legitimate resource to consider AFAIC. By many accounts, his claims are specious at best- hyperbole at the worst.
But algore and the Un aside, I’d like to see a legitimate argument from either side.
I remember the 70’s and the cancer scare. Everything caused cancer. There was even a study that showed water caused cancer. This reminds me of that hysteria.
March 13, 2007 - 04:10 PM on March 13th, 2007
Best way to stop global warming? Tape Gores mouth shut, that’:grin:s the world’s biggest source of hot air.
March 13, 2007 - 06:38 PM on March 13th, 2007
Lenny is simply another seriously mentally ill Liberal/Socialist/Communist. Much like militant Islamofascists, it is a waste of time to argue with him.
The groundswell of opposition to the Global Warming massive fraud is just beginning. It won’t be long and the Church of Global Warming zealots here are going to be feeling/looking pretty stupid (well they already look stupid). Real scientists (defined as those who don’t have a vested interest or have been peer-pressured) are coming out against the GW fraud in increasing numbers. They are making their voices heard in the public forum.
March 13, 2007 - 06:56 PM on March 13th, 2007
Robert; what the hell is wrong with you? The debate here is Al Gore. How dare you leave him out of this discussion to bring up something as trivial as that other issue?
March 13, 2007 - 07:08 PM on March 13th, 2007
7,
Actual Zelda, your rapier tongue aside, Al Gore is a large part of the issue.
March 14, 2007 - 07:48 AM on March 14th, 2007
Ted, in the late 60s and early 70s the “intelligentsia”, read Liberals and teachers, were doing their chickenlittle shouts about the coming ice age. I remember well the articles the teachers passed out in Jr. High School with cartoons on them of domed laser cannon tanks fighting off advancing glaciers, and ordering us students to write letters to our Congressman to stop pollution and the companies causing it.
March 14, 2007 - 08:24 AM on March 14th, 2007
Lunitic Lenny is probibly the type who belives the world is balanced on the back of a large turtle which walks slowly around the sun and the stars are little lamps lit by the sky people at night and blew out by them in the day i mean rediclous fool:razz:
March 15, 2007 - 01:05 PM on March 15th, 2007
#7 Sorry; I forgot about the Prophet, Messiah, and Savior: Al Gore. And you’re right; without Al, the Global Warming Con would be jut a faceless, unknown group of scientists spewing esoteric data that the masses would be unable to process.
But Al brings the light of Hollywood to the campaign! No longer is there the need to translate and extrapolate data to show conclusions. Al made it very easy with his summary pronouncement: The Science is all in, the debate is over! Follow me! Turn your rights, money, and ultimate control of your life over to the authorized Church of Global Warming reps, and in turn the planet (and you) will be saved!!! And as a side benefit, you can feel good about what you are doing, being part of the solution! (this last part is especially important for liberals: feeling good, even though nothing really changes/it’s all bullshit anyway.
Thanks again for pointing out my failure to discuss (and properly credit) Al Gore. Al Gore inventor, pseudoscientist, prophet, messiah, savior!!!
March 16, 2007 - 12:26 PM on March 16th, 2007
The debate is over; the facts and the immediacy of the threat posed by global warming is of such magnitude that it is time for the Left, those of us who care about the future, to ignore the protestations of those who are too ignorant or corrupt to take action, and start mandating CO2 reduction!
I recommend the following measures to be implmeneted immediately;
1. Ban SUVs. I addition to emitting too much CO2, their waste of oil rsults in support of terrorism.
2. Put a carbon tax on all businesses. Greedy capitalists are getting rich by dumping CO2 into the air! Make them pay their fair share of the cost of doing business!
3. Define all written and verbal communication that in any way argues with, disparages, ridicules, mocks, or even questions (the fact that global warming is caused by human activity and that it will destroy the planet) this as prohibited hate speech, with severe criminal and monetary penalties. Stop the right-wing neanderthals who mock and criticize those who are devoting their lives to saving the planet for all of us!
If #3 was in place (as it should be) some of the posters to this site would be arrested!
March 16, 2007 - 01:01 PM on March 16th, 2007
Lenny, maybe you are the loon who ought to be locked up or deported NOW.
March 17, 2007 - 03:41 PM on March 17th, 2007
Lunitic Larry he must be living in aworld of the weird i mean he must still think the earth is flat:razz:
March 18, 2007 - 05:19 PM on March 18th, 2007
Hey Ted, here are a couple of things for you to research to find out how out of control all of the Global Warming hype really is. Look up the following phrases “Climatic Optimum” and “Little Climatic Optimum”. Your search should also indicate that from about 1550 until 1850, the earth was in an extreme cold spell that some have called a mini ice age. You can also research the Antarctic ice cap. You will find that while 10% of it may be getting smaller, the remaining 90% is actually increasing. How accurate is it to report that something is getting smaller, by basing your comment on only 10% of it? That’s like calling the outcome of an election with only 10% of the precincts counted. To make a definitive decision based on that small a number is utterly ludicrous.