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Why Don't Farmers Believe in Climate Change? And does it really matter whether they do?
Slate ^ | July 16, 2013 | David Biello

Posted on 07/17/2013 1:17:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

If it isn't torrential downpours, then it's too dry. If there's one thing U.S. farmers can count on, it's bad weather, and perhaps as a result, many of them don't think humanity is to blame for the long-term shifts in weather patterns known as climate change. But even though agriculture is a major contributor to global warming, it may not matter whether farmers believe in the environmental problem.

Take, as an example of skepticism, Iowa corn farmer Dave Miller, whose day job is as an economist for the Iowa Farm Bureau. As Miller is happy to explain, it's not that farmers in Iowa don't think climate change is happening; it's that they think it's always been happening and therefore is unlikely to have much to do with whatever us humans get up to down at ground level. Or, as the National Farm Bureau's spokesman Mace Thornton puts it: "We're not convinced that the climate change we're seeing is anthropogenic in origin. We don't think the science is there to show that in a convincing way." (Given the basic physics of CO2 capturing heat that have been known for more than a century and the ever-larger amounts of CO2 put into the atmosphere by human activity, it’s not clear what “science” he’s holding out for.) The numbers back that up: When Iowa State University sociologists polled nearly 5,000 Corn Belt farmers on climate change, 66 percent believed climate change is occurring, but only 41 percent believed humans bore any part of the blame for global warming.

It's not just the Corn Belt: Farmers across the country remain skeptical about climate change. When asked about it, they tell me about Mount Pinatubo and weird weather in the 1980s....

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: climatechange; environment; farming; globalwarming

1 posted on 07/17/2013 1:17:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Because warmer weather = longer crop growing season.


2 posted on 07/17/2013 1:39:24 AM PDT by wastedyears (One nation, under wub. Saints Row IV)
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To: wastedyears

“If there’s one thing U.S. farmers can count on, it’s bad weather, and perhaps as a result, many of them don’t think humanity is to blame for the long-term shifts in weather patterns known as climate change. But even though agriculture is a major contributor to global warming, it may not matter whether farmers believe in the environmental problem.”

So, because Mr David Biello says it, “agriculture is a major contributor to global warming” it has to be true, after all, his brother is a farmer. The last part of the quote, “it may not matter whether farmers believe in the environmental problem” is probably much closer to the truth in regards the arrogance of those completely off the reservation measuring stick of reality.

It is so comforting to know that the use of horses is one answer to global warming. Who knew, In light of animal methane production which was thrown around as one of many causes. Didn’t see one reference in the article about what one should or could do about the ONE who really has control over the weather. when I say the ONE, I mean the REAL ONE not the fake one in the White House.


3 posted on 07/17/2013 1:57:51 AM PDT by wita
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The advocacy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis as though it were fact, instead of simply an unproven hypothesis, is nothing more than pseudoscience.

Here's why:

AGW (human caused climate change) has never overcome the null hypothesis (a basic hypothesis test), that the warming is a natural fluctuation. Why does this matter?

Allow me to explain:

A null hypothesis is a default position. To overcome (reject) the null hypothesis you have to show a certain statistical significance (or probability) that the evidence fits your hypothesis, better than the default position. We’re not talking about absolute proof, just probability.

Let’s use gravity as an example:

The evidence that best fits the law (by a high probability) is that gravity is generated by mass. If you were to say that gravity used to be generated by mass but now it’s mostly people you had better be able to show a high probability that the evidence fits your hypothesis, better than the current default position. If you didn’t you would be scoffed at.

However, human caused climate change has never done this, and the evidence fits the null hypothesis like a glove. Why? Climate change is the norm, not the exception!

When compared to paleoclimate records there is nothing unusual about the rate, duration, or amount of the meager warming we've seen! It always has and always will change: http://goo.gl/L7VAh

By not rejecting the null hypothesis the human caused climate change hypothesis has never qualified as a theory. The reason? Without the statistical probability (significance) there has never been enough evidence to justify belief in AGW within the standards of the scientific method! Therefore, these people who play it as a fact are in fact in denial, of the scientific method.

Ref: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/lawtheory.htm

However, the AGW hypothesis has indeed been rejected, by scientific analysis.

The peer-reviewed paper Polynomial cointegration tests of anthropogenic impact on global warming, recently published in a highly respected journal has falsified AGW. The paper finds that the warming of the late 20th century was not related to anthropogenic (human caused) forcing .

What does it all mean? It means that (again) there has never been enough evidence for anyone to reasonably justify belief in AGW, and now, AGW is: disproved, falsified, rejected.

It means despite the onus being on the warmists to prove their position, and not on skeptics to disprove it; AGW has been falsified anyways.

It means game over for the Alarmists. If you believe in AGW - science is not (and never has been) on your side.

4 posted on 07/17/2013 1:59:28 AM PDT by sourcery (If true=false, then there would be no constraints on what is possible. Hence, the world exists.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Most farmers pray every day to God about what to do, and how to do it, to help the land produce.
They don't believe people who don't believe in Jesus Christ and His Heavenly Father.
Farmers call "Climate Change" by its proper name ... Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter again.
It's just that simple.
God controls the weather, and man can't do anything to change it; not even if he wanted to.
5 posted on 07/17/2013 2:00:14 AM PDT by Yosemitest (It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Farmers live with the weather every single day, of course they keep an eye on it. They follow it closely and work hard to develop strategies for dealing with setbacks when they occur.

City people on the other hand? The weather is something that they mostly ignore. And why not? Most of them work inside all day, those who don’t stay inside and watch TV or play video Games. Even the kids rarely venture outside to play.

So because of that they are easily led in directions when it concerns the weather. And Man-made Climate change or Global Warming or whatever the Greens come up with next is easy to foist on them. And why not? Everything else in the world of their existence is man-made. So obviously Man is responsible for the Weather too.


6 posted on 07/17/2013 2:12:43 AM PDT by The Working Man
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To: sourcery

Great post, but when your goal is to control and dominate your ‘inferiors’ a lie is as good as the truth.


7 posted on 07/17/2013 3:48:00 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pol Pot, the ruthless Communist dictator of Cambodia, did have one brilliant idea. He emptied all the universities and made the elites go into the jungles to make their living.

He didn’t even have to spend money on bullets to get rid of them.


8 posted on 07/17/2013 4:06:25 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

David Biello

“(Given the basic physics of CO2 capturing heat that have been known for more than a century and the ever-larger amounts of CO2 put into the atmosphere by human activity, it’s not clear what “science” he’s holding out for.) “

Dear Mr. Biello,

THIS science, ding-bat.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/08/the-logarithmic-effect-of-carbon-dioxide/

The Logarithmic Effect of Carbon Dioxide

Basically, nearly all of the “Global Warming” attributable to CO2 has taken place and has been what is holding back another ice age. Throw in solar variation and increasing CO2 is a miniscule factor in global temperature.

Once Al Gore, et. al. figure out how to tax sunshine, they may back off on CO2.


9 posted on 07/17/2013 4:21:14 AM PDT by BwanaNdege ("To learn who rules over you simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize"- Voltaire)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Farmers are a lot smarter on average than the general population.


10 posted on 07/17/2013 4:23:36 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Simple....

Farmers understand the difference between climate and weather


11 posted on 07/17/2013 4:28:54 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
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To: Yosemitest

Believe in climate change? You bet! There are 4 seasons and the climate changes. Man however, does not cause this— the sun is the major culprit and a warmer planet means a longer growing season, as long as there is water.

Would they would worry about a real problem. Water for crops, and potable water for people. Rotary recognized this 40 years ago.


12 posted on 07/17/2013 5:15:52 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why Does Slate Believe in Climate Change? And does it really matter whether they do?


13 posted on 07/17/2013 5:35:28 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ve lived in farming regions my whole life and have lots of friends in farming, and I have observed something about farmers and the weather: No matter what the weather, farmers will complain about it.


14 posted on 07/17/2013 7:27:51 AM PDT by CommerceComet (Obama vs. Romney - clear evidence that our nation has been judged by God and found wanting.)
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To: sourcery

AGW is a belief that supports the religion of Humanism and makes leftists feel good about themselves.

That’s why no amount of “disproving” works for them.


15 posted on 07/17/2013 7:29:20 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...the basic physics of CO2 capturing heat that have been known for more than a century and the ever-larger amounts of CO2 put into the atmosphere by human activity,...

From the late Alexander Cockburn, as hard-left a militant leftie as you'll find:

Is Global Warming a Sin?

The essential quote:

Now imagine two lines on a piece of graph paper. The first rises to a crest, then slopes sharply down, then levels off and rises slowly once more. The other has no undulations. It rises in a smooth, slowly increasing arc. The first, wavy line is the worldwide CO2 tonnage produced by humans burning coal, oil and natural gas. On this graph it starts in 1928, at 1.1 gigatons (i.e. 1.1 billion metric tons). It peaks in 1929 at 1.17 gigatons. The world, led by its mightiest power, the USA, plummets into the Great Depression, and by 1932 human CO2 production has fallen to 0.88 gigatons a year, a 30 per cent drop. Hard times drove a tougher bargain than all the counsels of Al Gore or the jeremiads of the IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change). Then, in 1933 it began to climb slowly again, up to 0.9 gigatons.

And the other line, the one ascending so evenly? That’s the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, parts per million (ppm) by volume, moving in 1928 from just under 306, hitting 306 in 1929, to 307 in 1932 and on up. Boom and bust, the line heads up steadily. These days it’s at 380.There are, to be sure, seasonal variations in CO2, as measured since 1958 by the instruments on Mauna Loa, Hawai’i. (Pre-1958 measurements are of air bubbles trapped in glacial ice.) Summer and winter vary steadily by about 5 ppm, reflecting photosynthesis cycles. The two lines on that graph proclaim that a whopping 30 per cent cut in man-made CO2 emissions didn’t even cause a 1 ppm drop in the atmosphere’s CO2. Thus it is impossible to assert that the increase in atmospheric CO2 stems from human burning of fossil fuels.


16 posted on 07/17/2013 4:33:46 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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