"So take this broken offering and make me whole, Set my feet upon the road that leads me home, let me walk as one fixed upon the goal, even though I've got a thousand miles to go..."
Friday, March 30, 2007
Good article
Some good questions about global warming...if anyone finds a response piece answering these questions, I'd truly love to read it!
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The whole problem with identifying global warming and who's causing it: the window of time that humans have been emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide is miniscule compared to how long Earth has been around. I've seen a chart of temperatures on earth going back to prehistoric eras (taken from ice cores in the Antarctic)--the timeline was roughly 6" long on paper, and the period of the Industrial revolution until now was literally a centimeter or less. Now, that tiny period of time is showing a steeper temperature increase than what we've seen in the past; however, it's so small that it's very risky, even ludicrous, to extrapolate that the global temperature will continue to rise at that higher rate--the trend just hasn't been going on long enough
Of course, conservatives are making the same mistake, like this guy is in #2. He's talking about a 35-year period of high greenhouse gas emissions and lower temperatures. 35 years is just a drop in the bucket in terms of climate change and Earth's history--there's no way to draw conclusive data from such a short time period, either to support or refute global warming.
Also, one more addition: I do have to disagree with #6. Think of how many scientists there are in the world--I have no idea how to estimate that or find that out, but if there are 6.5 billion people on the earth, the number of scientists out there is probably at least a few million, right? Even if I give him the benefit of the doubt and estimate 500,000 scientists on the whole planet, 17,200 is only 3.4% of them. So, yes, right or wrong, I would say that 96.6% is a consensus.
It's so much easier just not to do my research and say that a) I think global warming is largely crap and b) I've lived in Michigan all my life, and by March I'm saying: Let the warming begin!
Seriously though, some good points. How can we possibly ever know if we're responsible for a warming trend we perceive to be deviant from the norm (something else we can't know)? It blows my mind how some people/scientists/politicians think they're so important that what happens during their lifetimes makes any difference whatsoever on a geologic time scale. -Ryan
2 comments:
The whole problem with identifying global warming and who's causing it: the window of time that humans have been emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide is miniscule compared to how long Earth has been around. I've seen a chart of temperatures on earth going back to prehistoric eras (taken from ice cores in the Antarctic)--the timeline was roughly 6" long on paper, and the period of the Industrial revolution until now was literally a centimeter or less. Now, that tiny period of time is showing a steeper temperature increase than what we've seen in the past; however, it's so small that it's very risky, even ludicrous, to extrapolate that the global temperature will continue to rise at that higher rate--the trend just hasn't been going on long enough
Of course, conservatives are making the same mistake, like this guy is in #2. He's talking about a 35-year period of high greenhouse gas emissions and lower temperatures. 35 years is just a drop in the bucket in terms of climate change and Earth's history--there's no way to draw conclusive data from such a short time period, either to support or refute global warming.
Also, one more addition: I do have to disagree with #6. Think of how many scientists there are in the world--I have no idea how to estimate that or find that out, but if there are 6.5 billion people on the earth, the number of scientists out there is probably at least a few million, right? Even if I give him the benefit of the doubt and estimate 500,000 scientists on the whole planet, 17,200 is only 3.4% of them. So, yes, right or wrong, I would say that 96.6% is a consensus.
~CH
It's so much easier just not to do my research and say that a) I think global warming is largely crap and b) I've lived in Michigan all my life, and by March I'm saying: Let the warming begin!
Seriously though, some good points. How can we possibly ever know if we're responsible for a warming trend we perceive to be deviant from the norm (something else we can't know)? It blows my mind how some people/scientists/politicians think they're so important that what happens during their lifetimes makes any difference whatsoever on a geologic time scale.
-Ryan
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