Posted on 11/11/2002 4:48:58 PM PST by dila813
Global Warming
I can hardly pick up a newspaper anymore without seeing one story or another making reference to so called Global Warming.
This term provides me with a daily irritation for its wide spread misuse that relies more on its connotation than its actual meaning. By relying on a words connotation rather than its actual meaning, a statement can be made and accepted as fact or agreeable by a wide range of professional groups. Other people reading works with references to these terms would take this to mean that these professional groups (Not having publicly disputed the work and using the same terminology themselves) have endorsed this particular view or statement.
Global warming describes a phenomenon of the global mean temperature increasing. This term appears in all kinds of works as Global Warming not global warming. I dont know when this started to occur but the results demonstrate a mass miss-communication that is currently driving politics and activism on a global basis.
I have in my frustration frequently searched the internet and library resources for the term, The Global Warming Theory. Those familiar with accepted scientific methods know that before something can be referred to as a scientific fact it had to be proved out as a theory first. Since no one has ever submitted a formal paper defining this theory the term seems to have appeared out of thin air. Each work published seems to rely on a previous works use of the term.
When people read articles and they see the term Global Warming they take this as a synonym to Green House Theory (a theory that Green House Gases cause heat to be trapped in the atmosphere causing increases in global temperature).
This has caused a huge communication problem between the public, activists, journalists, and the scientific community. Journalists reporting for the public ask the scientific community if Global Warming is a fact and if it is occurring. The scientific community interprets these terms using the literal meaning and answer in the affirmative that this is a fact. The journalists then report this to the public as a whole and the headline usually ends up saying something like, Global Warming is Real! The public, upon reading this and previous articles they have read, believe this is confirmation of the Earth warming being caused due to Green House Gases released into the atmosphere by man.
When the scientific community publishes data that shows what they think global warming over the last 100 years has been based upon ice core samples or whatever, it tends to be reported in the newspapers as, Global Warming responsible for Temperature Increases over Last Hundred Years! The public again interprets this to mean that the Green House Gases released by man over the last 100 years are responsible for the increases in temperature being reported.
I think the reason that this bothers me so much is that I care about the planet so much because I want to ensure a good quality of life for my children. As long as people are talking apples and oranges, we can not have an intelligent discussion about what is happening in the environment.
I believe that the reason that this has continued so long is that many in the scientific community realize that the public is misinterpreting the information and that activist groups are reinforcing this with misinformation, but with this flood of concern came a flood of research dollars. Since they dont feel they have violated any scientific ethics in their release of data they dont feel the need to go out and try to correct these misconceptions. I hear some of them justify this because their job is research not trying to get involved in what they view as politics.
I wish someone would fix this so that when someone puts together the headlines for news articles that they choose better terminology instead of global warming.
If people realized how much we dont know about this phenomenon, they would push their elected representatives to prepare for the coming climate change instead of trying to resist it with expensive strategies that may or may not be worth it.
Today, Environmentalist is simply another term used by Socialists to hide their politics.
Every good Environmentalist 'knows" that all pollution is cause by greedy 'Big Business' Capitalism. By the mid 1970's, the USSR figured this one out and got very busy in Europe to create the Green Party.
Today, the Socialist party is alive and well here in America.
I continue to work in support of efforts that actually improve our environment in ways that actually work, instead of following some political agenda.
I've never looked at it as such.
I am a conservationist not a environmentalist, this doesn't mean I am pro-pollution.
I suppose words can mean different things to different people. To me, a conservationist is one who desires to conserve that which we consume. An environmentalist is concerned with ALL of nature, not just that which we eat, drink, or breathe. It is of course well known that the food chain exist, and if we mess up any part of that chain, that which we consume will suffer as well. That is where I don't follow the logic of those who view "environmentalists" as some whacked out tree hugger. Of course there ARE people like that, but to me they are simply whacked out tree huggers...
Many of our fore-fathers were conservationists.
I believe they were that and more...
To me, those who commit such acts aren't so much "environmentalists" as they are whacked out terrorists looking for a reason to rebel. Of course there ARE those who are mislabeled as being in league with these whackos, and it is not just them but all of us that suffer as a result..
I know what it is being PREVENTED from achieving...
Bush Slashing Aid for E.P.A. Cleanup at 33 Toxic Sites
Is the environment better today, than it was in 1970? If so, in what ways?
The link below might answer that better than I..
I'm all for allowing the lumber industry to harvest trees if they adhere to conservationist methods. What is lacking here though is a coherent policy towards polluters and the resulting toxic waste dumps created by them. If you look at post #30, you'll see what I mean..
Simple scientific study, and about 100 divers participate each year. You are given a 1 foot square box of wood which you place over a grid and count how many EM plants are growing in that box. Continue that process over your designated area and report the results when you return back to the surface.
After a few years of doing this, I got fed up! One day, I returned to the surface with a bag filled with those weeds and reported a count of ZERO Eurasian Millfoil plants in my sector.
What the heck are we doing? Documenting how 'evil man' is destroying the evironment, or are we doing something about it?
Since my wife and I enjoyed SCUBA diving in that lake almost every weekend, care to guess what happened to the population of that plant?
Question: What was the important goal?
1) Remove the problem.
2) Document how evil man is?
Sure, but can I do it MY WAY?
Giggle, if I was able to do it MY WAY, they would be long gone at a fraction of the costs.
Then it is up to "mislabeled" to clarify their objectives, methods and to disavow the "whackos". I have not seen this done nor any intent to do it.
People have long known that mercury causes ALL sorts of problems. They have known many things that they simply didn't care about. I'm not the one to judge them, their ultimate judge they will meet someday whom they will answer to.
I just want the crap they left behind cleaned up. And I'd like those who continue to dump such filth to stop it. Nothing more, nothing less..
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