Posted on 12/12/2006 8:13:39 AM PST by cogitator
Based on the OISM Petition? You'd be right!
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
The tempature of the earth is getting hotter. I believe man has influenced it to some degree but I think it is so slight it doesn't matter. My belief based on science is that we are simply in a natural cyclical pattern of warmer weather.
Last I heard, there were several thousand skeptics. However, I don't think all of them were climate scientists.
Last time I looked, the those supporting Global Warming were not all climate scientists either, quite the contrary.
However, hard science demands testing of hypothesis to destruction. It's not a popularity contest or matter of opinion. Consensus and the science is settled mantra are attempts to protect a theory, a political gambit, not the continuous cycle of questioning, testing and the confirmation of results by independent research required of the scientific method.
One should never confuse what is known of the physics of climate theory, with what we don't know about water atmospheric feedbacks and computer models, upon which, the case for anthropogenic global warming wholly depends.
He admitted no such thing. He said that any data gathered from such a satellite is open to interpretation. True enough. There is no need to resort to personal insults. I find that folks who do that tend to have less faith in their own arguments concerning the issue under discussion. Unfortunately, this is too often a tactic of the "Progressives" as they like to call themselves these days. Notice I didn't apply the dreaded L word to you since that would be as bad as calling you a moron or worse. Besides, how would I know?
Cogitator has asserted that the scientific community is in united lockstep on the issue of global warming and I disagree. Let's say he's mostly correct. Just like most of the scientific community agreed at one time that the earth was FLAT. Both Global Warming and Fossil Fuels are simply theories. It's been accepted as gospel because for decades the CLAMs (Congressional Left; Academics & Media elite) have allowed only that theory entrance into the marketplace of ideas. It's taught at all levels of the school system, university and etc. It's all that is discussed in the msm and of course the Congressional lefties are hell bent on preventing anybody from sinking any new wells anywhere there might actually be enough oil to disprove their theory.
Thanks, I do my part, and no longer drive.
""We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice"
Yeah right. Man caused it by an increase in temp by less than a degree.
Finally! I didn't think I was ever gonna get to finish that article. This whole week has been one big train wreck. Thank God it's Friday. whew.
You were right; I found it quite interesting. The part about the Drake equation reminded me of an essay I read many years ago: "Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Interdict Hypothesis" by Martyn J. Fogg, published in the November 88 issue of Analog. As best I recall, a computer programmed to model the formation of the universe was fed the Drake equation and the results of the simulation was that the galaxy should be teeming with life. The question then shifts from "Is there life elsewhere?" to "where is everybody?" Of course, the whole exercise requires one to hold the belief that, at some point along the way, life springs from non-life (cough, cough). Anyway, Crichton points out that one of the possible solutions to the Drake equation is "zero" (ie, no life elsewhere). I can't help but wonder if the aforementioned computer simulation would have ever returned such a result. If it did, they'd probably chalk it up as a bug or something. lol!
Thanks for posting that. It really made my week.
You're welcome. If you liked that, you may want to read more of his stuff when you get a chance. Well worth the time. bttt
http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/index.html
Michael Crichton Speeches
"Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century"
Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy, Washington, D.C.
November 6, 2005
"Testimony of Michael Crichton before the United States Senate"
Committee on Environment and Public Works, Washington, D.C.
September 28, 2005
"The Impossibility of Prediction"
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
Janaury 25, 2005
"Science Policy in the 21st Century"
Joint Session AEI-Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.
January 25, 2005
"Environmentalism as Religion"
Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA
September 15, 2003
"Aliens Cause Global Warming"
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
January 17, 2003
"Why Speculate?"
International Leadership Forum, La Jolla, CA
April 26, 2002
"Ritual Abuse, Hot Air, and Missed Opportunities: Science Views Media"
American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Anaheim, CA
January 25, 1999
"Mediasaurus: The Decline of Conventional Media"
National Press Club, Washington D.C.
April 7, 1993
Or was that only for aerosols not based on chlorofluorocarbons?
i hope the whole east coast becomes like florida. the cold is getting to me.
Washington Warming to Southern Plants
"In a revised map of "hardiness zones" -- bands of similar temperatures where similar trees are likely to grow in winter -- the foundation reclassified the entire Washington area in the same zone as parts of North Carolina and Texas. In 1990, the region was on the border of northern and southern growing zones, but a foundation official said that has changed after 15 years of balmy winter weather."
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