Global Warming

[[AK]Squidly]

I don't know if human-caused climate change is fact or fiction. I do know that scientists, media, and politicians closing debate on a topic flies in the face of the accepted scientific method (a never-ending process of research and adjusting and improving your theories.)

For a group that likes to rub their intellectual superiority in the face of all and sundry, it seems here that they are pissing in their own holy water.

[[AK]Hylander]

These are the same scientists who guaranteed the hole in the ozone layer and a new ice age.

[[AK]Clay]

I don't know if human-caused climate change is fact or fiction. I do know that scientists, media, and politicians closing debate on a topic flies in the face of the accepted scientific method (a never-ending process of research and adjusting and improving your theories.)

For a group that likes to rub their intellectual superiority in the face of all and sundry, it seems here that they are pissing in their own holy water.

Well said Squidly. I'm a Ph.D. researcher. The vast majority of my research conclusions are along of the lines of - we've found this correlation of behavior to changes in parameters: so we're pretty sure those parameters are what's causing the changes. Damn little do I put a pin on the board and say by-God this is indisputable scientific law. I've had to revise plenty of my theories and explanations over the years as new data and understanding comes to light. I work in the larboratory and field scientific world - controlled settings where all parameters are known, repeatable, and adjustable at my whim. These guys are claiming global warming as indisputable scientific fact based on some observations of the not so controllable natural environment. In the lab, it's also, based on the observation that CO2 has a depressing effect on infred light transmission, and that infrared light is how the Earth cools itself at night time. That part is real. Water vapor and methane also have this effect - and we've got one Hell of a lot more water vapor and clouds on this planet than we do CO2. We also have an indisputable trend of increasing temperature on this planet. Surprise, global temperature varies naturally.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned, shouldn't monitor, and shouldn't think about these things. But I am saying we aught to have a care before we decide to knock the standard of living (and mortality rates) back to something that's going to be pretty unpleasant. Or worse, do so unilaterally while some guys across the pond decide not to - and we find ourselves wondering why we're the 3rd world country now.

One other point to ponder - most global warming research is done by academia. Academia, while hugging themselves in their ivory towers and saying they're above petty money, is really all about petty money just like anyone else. They get their money from grants. Grants are reviewed and awarded by academia. What's easier money - further research on the popular academia topic that many of these reviewers made their careers on - or research with the hypothesis that will descredit your reviewers life's work?