[Mr170IQ]

A very thoughtful treatment by the brilliant Freeman Dyson.

[neverevergiveup]

I know his daughter. She’s also bright, but motivated in a different direction.

[Mr170IQ]

The documentary that this interview was a part of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuoxLggqI_g

[Telepathic Intruder]

Clearly a science denier for saying we don’t know everything there is to know about climate.

[Leaning Right]

Great post there, Mr170IQ.

Freeman Dyson: Brilliant physicist, and winner of many science awards
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Ex-bartender with no scientific training at all.

Guess which one America is listening to.

[LibWhacker]

Well, that ought to shut ‘em up, but won’t.

[gov_bean_ counter]

The more we learn, the less we know...

About practically everything.

[exDemMom]

Without CO2, there are no plants. Without plants, there is no other life. Plants not only produce oxygen, they convert CO2 into the biomolecules that form the bodies of every living thing. The attempts to remove CO2 from the air are quite literally an existential threat to the continuation of life on earth.

CO2 is the foundation of biomass. Biomass is the sum of all living things. Biomass makes the earth beautiful.

[preacher]

L8r

[Former Proud Canadian]

Great post

[Fightin Whitey]

He is brilliant and he’s honest and his quiet wisdom here should shut the pie holes of all the rest of the lying, sniveling power and money grubbers.

But of course it won’t.

[Popman]

Bmk

[Right Wing Assault]

So what’s happened in this country is that we’re substituting natural gas for coal. As a result reducing pollution and also reducing global warming, if that is what you want.

Then...

We know that the carbon dioxide has gone up by thirty percent during the last hundred years. That’s due to human activities, that’s quite clear. The question is what effect that has had on the climate. That’s not clear. Whether the carbon dioxide actually caused the warming, we don’t know.

He says natural gas reduces global warming due to its lesser carbon content.

Then...

He says we don't know whether carbon dioxide caused the warning.

A bit of a contradiction there.

[chrisser]

". So generally speaking you can believe the observations and you don’t have to believe the theories. "

With all due respect to Mr. Dyson, I believe that if you spend a little time looking at the quality of the observations vis-a-vis global warming, you would conclude that they consist of more bunk than the associated theory. That may not be true of all scientific observation, but the real shame about this hoax is will taint virtually every area of scientific inquiry for decades.

[babble-on]

That’s a good article.

[marktwain]

Yes! They believe their models. It’s a very dangerous game if you work with a computer model. I mean I’ve seen that, not only on climate but in all fields of science. To work with a computer model for years and years, always improving the model, fixing the weak points, making it better and better all the time. In the end you end up believing it. It’s very difficult to remain objective.

I worked professionally with a number of computer modelers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

The quote by Freeman Dyson describes the problem very well.

[central_va]

All you need to know about climate is that is has two states: Approaching the next ice or leaving the last ice age. Fortunately at this time the climate falls into the later. Our good fortune is driving “scientists” crazy.

[ek_hornbeck]

Freeman Dyson is one of the most interesting living minds in the world, still sharp and going strong in his 90's.

To me, he has one of the few sensible and scientific takes on climate change out there (one completely uncorrupted by any political agenda on the subject, as far as I can tell) - he recognizes that climate is a complex nonlinear system that is not well-understood or fully characterized by our theories and models. Therefore, anyone who dogmatically makes predictions, be they doomsday or that nothing is changing based on current information, is probably wrong. This means that we need open minds and research rather than a hysteria that brings our economy to a halt.

A couple of other sensible voices on the subject are Patrick Michaels and Robert Balling (both climatologists), authors of Climate of Extremes, who start by acknowledging that yes, we're warmer on average than we were 100 years ago, but neither that nor any other fact in climate research justifies the current political reaction from Al Gore's minions.

[stump56]

bmk

[Reily]

I met Freeman Dyson at a JASONS conference ten years ago.
It was quite an honor to chat with him. Humbling experience to meet someone who participated in important crossing points in history.

[RideForever]

A refreshingly fact-filled discussion on CO2 effects.