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I find this column, which contains statements from climatologists from around the world about why Al Gore’s filmAn Inconvenient Truth is based on junk science, to be very interesting. I don’t know if it proves the hypothesis that global warming is a threat significant enough to be in danger of ending the world but it does cast much doubt on the basis of this statement. Obviously it’s important where any data comes from, especially data spelling out the Earth’s impending doom. The fact that hardly any of the scientists cited in the film were experts in climate, but rather most seem to be experts in the results of climate means to me that at the very least temperatures in certain parts of the world are getting warmer. As to what is causing this, it seems very debatable whether CO2 emissions from vehicles are responsible. I think that the slow progress towards hybrid and even fuel-cell or hydrogen -based transportation is a problem regardless. This is no justification for continued consumption of fossil fuels. In general, however, I tend to follow the understanding that things in nature occur in cycles and that throughout history there were periods of hot and cold climate changes, but the Earth has persisted. This seems to make sense. But this is armchair science and basic logic.
Either way, as someone much older and wiser than myself once said to me: “Things are rarely as bad as they seem or as good as they could be.”
buttons
June 27, 2006 at 6:50 pm
>though, judging by the cycle, it should be getting colder.
eriK
July 8, 2006 at 1:24 am
>Let’s warm up that party-line defense machine…I think you’re missing the point. We’re no experts so we have to rely on some. However, in this case it seems particularly divided so us lowly proles have to wait for a verdict that may never come until it’s too late. However, panicking is not something that will help.Also, Canadians have to be taken with a fistful of salt, you never know if they’re just bitter about being sodomized by a Sasquatch.
Ari
July 8, 2006 at 2:35 am
>But isn’t the real issue here that our world is doomed due to the fact that the U.S. cannot and will not tolerate the metric system? I mean, why can’t we count our unemployed in base-10 like Canada and Britan? Why can’t we measure our standards of education with the Duey Decimal System? And should not our time be metric as well, or at least use the Unix time format? I mean, what part of 1152350084 seconds since Jan. 1st, 1970 doesn’t clearly say July 8th, 2007 @ 1:27am?I think that everyone can agree that our inability to standardize the way the world is going to end is the heart of the issue.
eriK
July 9, 2006 at 10:06 pm
>agreed. never underestimate the inertia of a gigantic nation…