Global Warming - The New Socialism

[athoughtfulman]

Before I can fully accept the possibility of Man Made global warming there are a few inconvenient facts that first need to be cleared up..

The main two that spring to mind are these..

Firstly, as I understand it, Humanity is responsible for emitting about 6 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.

This sounds like a huge amount but when you consider that normal volcanic activity is responsible for approx 150 gigatonnes then it seems that we have a very long way to go to even come close to matching nature.

Secondly, the fact that the records for the Greenland ice sheet over the past hundred thousand years or so consistently show that it is always the temperature that rises first and then some time later, sometimes years, the CO2 starts to rise as well..

I would have though then that if CO2 was responsible for global warming it should be the other way around.

Exactly. It is examples like these which are casting doubts on human induced global warming.

Kyu, I believe it's important too Our growth will halt as soon as we are unable to understand the other person's point of view. I understood yours, it made sense, hence I conceded

If we did there wouldn't be a scientific debate about it. However all the data of all the stations worldwide do measure an average increase in temperature and more radical weather changes that go along with it. The debate is more about the question if GCC is man made or one of those warmer periods the Earth has had in the past or if there is another factor involved.

But where was the scientific debate? I don't remember there ever being one. And Al Gore continues to refuse a debate with anyone who challenges him to one.

"He was challenged by Mr. Lomborg, the Danish skeptical environmentalist who thinks the world would be better off spending more money on health and education issues than curbing carbon emissions.
“I don’t mean to corner you, or maybe I do mean to corner you, but would you be willing to have a debate with me on that point?” asked the polo-shirt wearing Dane.
“I want to be polite to you,” Mr. Gore responded. But, no. “The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ issue,” he said. “It’s not a matter of theory or conjecture, for goodness sake,” he added."
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapita...s-critics/

"The list of Al Gore detractors continues to grow as his extreme rhetoric and conclusions get dissected by scientists, economists, and researchers. Avery joins Lord Christopher Monckton (former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advisor), Bjorn Lomborg (Danish economist), author Michael Crichton, Prof. S. Fred Singer (former director of the U.S. National Weather Service), Tim Ball, Ph.D. (historical climatologist), Prof. Ian Clark (University of Ottawa), and Prof. Richard Lindzen (MIT) among others."
Gore has refused all debate challengers to date. Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, noted, "Maybe it's because climate alarmists tend to lose when they debate climate realists. Or because most scientists do not support climate alarmism." The Heartland Institute has run more than $500,000 of ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Times promoting a debate."
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...0237.shtml

Seems like Al's afraid of something, don't you think? I mean, whether it's decided or not, if the facts were on his side, Al Gore would have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The Weblog 'Best Science Blog of 2008' has some interesting articles.

Also, I think I mentioned http://www.icecap.us/ earlier, but there it is again. If you want to know who's articles are on the site and if they're actually scientists, have a look at http://icecap.us/index.php/go/experts

Or interested in public opinion?

- A poll from last summer found that the vast majority of Americans opposed Lieberman/Warner and would not be willing to pay higher prices for electricity or gasoline to combat global warming.
- Pew found in January that of 20 policy issues it asked people to place in order of importance, global warming ranked last.
- This week Gallup found a record-high 41 percent believe the media exaggerates the threat of global warming. “This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject,” the polling firm reported.
http://www.globalwarming.org/2009/03/13/...c-opinion/

Obviously, I can't post it all here. If you're interested, you'll find a wealth of knowledge available on the internet regarding the topic.