Another Reason To Be Convinced About The Science Of Climate Change
The ideological, swivel-eyed, lunatic fringe are just as convinced that "It is a global Marxist mantra that is going to be used to beat people around the head, tax us to the hilt, smash nations and impose a one-world government."
A very vocal minority will try to convince you over the next two weeks that it’s all a big scam. Some sort of conspiracy by people who are in it for their own fiendish ends. They’ll quote "thousands" of scientists who know for a fact that there’s no such thing, or that our lifestyles are not to blame - it’s a freak of nature / the solar cycle / gravity lensing / whatever. When you hear these claims, ask two very important questions:
- Are the scientists making them somehow having their research sponsired by oil, gas, or coal companies? Remember that there were lots of "scientists" working for tobacco companies who used to be able to produce convincing evidence that there was no proven link between smoking and lung cancer
- Have these scientists who have proof that climate change isn’t happening / isn’t our responsibility been published in proper peer-reviewed literature? The first person who can provide convincing evidence that global warming is a false hypothesis will be made for life, as science is all about disproving the accepted orthodoxy. Until someone makes their career by so doing, we’d best act on the principal of prudence - no matter how unconvinced you are that the debate really is settled, act as if the science and facts are at least 100% settled.
If we don’t, then trust me, it will be too late. The planet won’t need saving, but we’ll be no more an interesting geological footnote for someone else to discover in a few million years.
Karl - playing devil’s advocate here, mainly because I am naturally skeptical of anything and everything that someone tells me that I must believe.
Why is it that the ones that are screaming the loudest that we must accept the (possibly corrupt) data, without question, that supports the global warming hypothesis are the same ones that screamed the loudest that the evidence of weapons of mass destruction was corrupt (it was)?
Food for thought.
Skepticism is a Good Thing. It was skepticism of the received wisdom of the age that drove Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Planck to ask difficult questions that led to startling answers.
The thing is that both sides are really good at screaming loudly (I can barely hear myself think sometimes), but one side seems to have a whole lot of data that gets past the editorial committees & referees of well respected scholarly journals, and includes The Royal Society (”we cannot emphasise enough the body of scientific evidence that underpins the call for action now“), and The American Association for the Advancement of Science (”The vast preponderance of evidence, based on years of research conducted by a wide array of different investigators at many institutions, clearly indicates that global climate change is real, it is caused largely by human activities, and the need to take action is urgent“).
It won’t be us the geologists discover - the remains of Ken and Barbie will last far longer than our puny bones ever will…
I know a lot of scientists who work in the natural world -botanists, zoologists, ecologists etc. - and they are all desperately worried about climate change and have been for years. If we wait for every scientific i to be dotted and t crossed, it will be too late. I’d love to believe climate change wasn’t happening - oh the relief - but we simply can’t afford to sit around and hope it might be okay.
I suspect that those screaming that we accept the data probably have questioned it and not found it lacking. I’m with TownMouse…please, please show me that climate change is part of a natural cycle because I’d like a warm house, to use my car more and to be able to leave things turned on.
Which raises another point that gets missed so often. Being ’sustainable’ isn’t just about reducing carbon. Coal and oil WILL run out. Building sustainable energy infrastrcuture and reducing consumption will not only cut emissions, but will give us energy security for the future.
Actually…can I take back the comment about wanting to use my car more?