One of the reasons I work on this blog is Global Warming. I started out blindly following the herd without looking at the facts or listening to the skeptics. Then, as a result of reading Michael Creighton's "State of Fear" a page turner about the the herd mentality of movements, I decided to read up on Global Warming. What I found was that, contrary to what most people think, there are some serous questions about Global Warming that remain unanswered.
The more I read, the more I questioned what I was seeing on TV and reading in newspapers. I also found out it was definitely not a good way to impress people at parties if you told them you were skeptical of Global Warming. That, of course encouraged me to bring it up at every opportunity. And true to Michael Crighton's premise, it was amazing how little people actually understood about what they were preaching as gospel.
I continued reading and getting into arguments. I have now progressed to the point that, while I believe there are significant unanswered questions, the earth may be entering a warming phase of unknown degree, although nowhere near Al Gores Science Fiction movie "An Inconvenient Truth" that has already been pretty much discredited to the degree that British schools are providing a disclaimer of many of Gores points prior to showing the movie.
How soon, how serious and the possible impact are very unclear. Along with Al Gore, the UN sponsored IPCC was awarded the Nobel Prize for their models predicting Global Warming. The only problem is that, in the last 9 years, not only have the IPCC predictions of temperature increase not come to pass, the total global temperature has actually flat-lined. The year 2008 was the coldest year in the Arctic in the last 50 years that we have been keeping temperature records. Additionally, if the IPCC model was rolled back to, say 1970, it would not have accurately predicted global temperatures in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
There is most certainly some room for debate and a necessity to study the science more accurately. I would also recommend, as I will continue to recommend, the 1974 CalTech commencement speech on Cargo Cult mentality I have linked on this page, about the scientific process and questioning results.
Throughout this Bjorn Lomborg has continued to write some controversial books recommending that instead of Global Hubris of trying to change the Earth weather we should, instead, spend our money and our efforts in diminishing any negative impacts and taking advantage of any positive impacts; Will it really be so bad if the Canadians can grow wheat?
Al Gore and Friends Create Climate of McCarthyism
By Bjorn LomborgDISCUSSIONS about global warming are marked by an increasing desire to stamp out "impure" thinking, to the point of questioning the value of democratic debate. But shutting down discussion simply means the disappearance of reason from public policy.
In March, Al Gore's science adviser and prominent climate researcher Jim Hansen proclaimed that when it comes to dealing with global warming, the "democratic process isn't working". Although science has demonstrated that CO2 from fossil fuels is heating the planet, politicians are unwilling to follow his advice and stop building coal-fired power plants.
Hansen argues that "the first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections, but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash."
Although he doesn't tell us what the second or third action is, he has turned up in a British court to defend six activists who damaged a coal-fired power station. He argues that we need "more people chaining themselves to coal plants", a point repeated by Gore.
The Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman goes further. After the narrow passage of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill in the US House of Representatives, Krugman said that there was no justification for a vote against it. He called virtually all of the members who voted against it "climate deniers" who were committing "treason against the planet".
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