Posted on 08/28/2018 8:05:24 AM PDT by DeweyCA
If balance means giving voice to those who deny the reality of human-triggered climate change, we won't take part in the debate, say Jonathan Porritt... and 57 other writers, politicians and academics
We are no longer willing to lend our credibility to debates over whether or not climate change is real. It is real. We need to act now or the consequences will be catastrophic. In the interests of balance, the media often feels the need to include those who outright deny the reality of human-triggered climate change.
Balance implies equal weight. But this then creates a false equivalence between an overwhelming scientific consensus and a lobby, heavily funded by vested interests, that exists simply to sow doubt to serve those interests. Yes, of course scientific consensus should be open to challenge but with better science, not with spin and nonsense. We urgently need to move the debate on to how we address the causes and effects of dangerous climate change because thats where common sense demands our attention and efforts should be.
Fringe voices will protest about free speech. No one should prevent them from expressing their views, whether held cynically or misguidedly. However, no one is obliged to provide them with a platform, much less to appear alongside them to give the misleading impression that there is something substantive to debate. When there is an article on smoking, newspapers and broadcasters no longer include lobbyists claiming there are no links to cancer. When theres a round-the-world yacht race we dont hear flat-earthers given airtime: This is madness; theyll sail off the edge!
Theres a workable model for covering fringe views which is to treat them as such. They dont need to be ridiculed, just expected to challenge the evidence with better evidence, and otherwise ignored.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“Shut up!”, the socialist explained.
1. The planet has been warming and cooling for millions of years, with no predictable pattern.
but but but... now we know what it SHOULD be
2. And what is that?
ummmmmm....
3. The recent warming and cooling has been mirrored by the other planets warming and cooling. Hence... the sun.
but but but.... not ALL of it is from the sun!!! Only 96% is explained by the sun!!
4. Okay, so the small percentage that isn't from the sun is from CO2?
Yes yes yes!!!
5. Okay, but CO2 is only 380ppm... or 0.038%... of the atmosphere... and the oceans contribute 75% of the annual CO2 output into the air, and land animal life contributes a large part of the rest. Do we get rid of those?
ummmm.... no, of course not, but but but... HUMANS do the rest!!!
6. Sure, okay... so you're saying that we should stop all human activity to stop CO2 production?
Well, no, but but but.... We could adjust some of it, maybe 30%, and that will fix everything!!!
7. Fixed... you mean kept at the exact conditions that we want... so do we know what the earth wants the climate to be going forward?
Well, no, but but but....
8. Okay, so... the 4% that isn't caused by the sun... can be controlled by stopping 30% of the 8% (that's 2.4%) of human CO2... and that will adjust the 0.038%... by less than 0.003%... and that will control the entire planet's environments... and that we can accurately predict the entire global environment... even though we cannot definitively put at any global mean temperature... and that we can force human activity to conform so that we can control the climate... even though we have no way of knowing what the planet wants the climate to be going forward. Is that about it?
Yeah!!!! It should only cost about a few trillion to make it happen!!! Totally worth it, right?
9. Maybe not. What is the danger from CO2? The earth has experienced 200ppm and 7,000ppm over its history, and neither stopped plant and animal growth.
but but but.... the TV said that more CO2 is baaaaaad!!!
Maybe you should trust the TV a little less.
Skimmed the article but kept hearing the Soviet Army men’s choir doing a stirringly patriotic number in the background.
No one is denying that the climate is changing. What this guy really means is you don’t have a right to participate in the debate unless you agree that a massive new government spending, tax and regulatory program, controlled by people like this guy, is necessary to “combat” climate change.
The next debate will be the first.
yet another post of The Guardian, a tiny leftist rag with print circulation of 138,000 ...
The Left never wants a debate, they want a lecture.
That's easy, it just takes time. By 2050 the world will be burning about half the fossil fuel it burns now and in 2100 it will be completely over.
In the meantime you'll see news like this: Colorado approves Xcel plan to retire coal, shift to renewables and storage
Not all parts of the world or all parts of the US will be the same. The Big 4 super polluters will remain entrenched in SW Indiana, especially with Trumps coal subsidies.
Here is the problem leftist and big government goons, if you are wrong, the consequences could be beyond catastrophic. We are in an ice age. For most of the past million years, Glaciers have been located along the northern US border. That is the normal climate state for the planet right now. We only have short periods that last around 10 to 15 thousand years, when the glaciers subside during warming. We are near the end of that warming period. Why in the world would anyone with half a brain, actually advocate cooling the planet in this circumstance ?
Dear leftist, do you have proof humanity is warming the planet? If you do, please let us know. Why is Mars warming? Are we so powerful that we are warming Mars?
(Compliments to Oldeconomybuyer)
Consider temperature drops during relatively brief lunar eclipses.
Brrr! How Much Can Temperatures Drop During a Total Solar Eclipse?
Also, consider hourly weather forecasts for next 24 hours show that nighttime temperatures stop dropping after sunrise (Sherlock issue), assuming sunny day.
Climate change is real, almost nobody disagrees with that assessment. but the engine driving change is vastly more complex than a change of a fraction of a percent in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide emissions have JACK to do with changes in weather, even in a highly localized region. Wind blows the carbon dioxide far and wide in the atmosphere, so it disperses rather quickly from any source of origination.
Carbon dioxide is, for an atmospheric gas, relatively heavy, weighing approximately 40% more per molecule than either nitrogen or oxygen, the two major components of the air we breath in every minute of out lives. So, carbon dioxide would remain relatively close the earth’s surface, and much of it reacts with metallic ions, in the presence of water, to form carbonates and bicarbonates, and precipitates out as a mineral.
Water vapor, on the other hand, is quite light, and VASTLY more abundant in the earth’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide. In fact, the changing state of water, from solid to liquid to gas, make it a far more potent agent of climate change than carbon dioxide could ever be, as it acts as a temperature regulator for the warmth of the air and bodies of water, while it goes through the progression from solid, to liquid, to gaseous form, each change either taking up or releasing enormous quantities of heat energy. Carbon dioxide, under normal earth temperatures and pressures, can do none of this.
OK!! Everybody pay attention!
Lesson for today:
1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.
2. The sun is a giant nuclear furnace that controls the climates of all its planets.
3. The earth is one of the suns planets.
4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.
5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.
Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?
None of that will make a difference
Climate has gone through many changes. We are entering a Maunder Minimum and possibly a mini ice age. Volcanoes spew more in a day than mankind does in hundreds of years
It is the arrogance of the human to think they control nature
Yeah we agree
Love the new look! The good doctor sure gets a workout these days.
Well said.
“will no longer print any anti-climate change opinions”
The fascists have literally taken over.
Just search “Trump” on Google and see every result is anti trump.
Time to plug all volcanoes, and
kill off all the herbivores on the
planet. From this point forward
no one is allowed to be or become
a vegetarian. Outlaw boiled cabbage,
pickled eggs, and beans. Anyone
guilty of expelling methane into
the atmosphere will be fined, jailed,
or both. Better stock up on the Beano.
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