do you think Global Warming believers are hurting their own cause?

Question

From my perspective people on both sides of the issue are getting a little out of control. One side has their fingers in their ears and the other side is wildly blaming things on Global Warming.

Assuming science is correct, This IS a slow process and it could have some drastic consequences on the planet.

My question is do you think Global Warming believers are hurting their own cause?

It's been getting like every heat wave, a lack of snow here, any weird thing is getting blamed on global warming even though it is not scientifically based.

Last month I got in an argument over how there was so little snow due to global warming, to which I replied BS. Thankfully for my ego the country was promptly BURIED in snow.

I just think in the long run people who don't understand the science which I think is well founded and I personally beileve in are leaving themselves open to contradiction and hurting their own crusade.

Eve I know everything you are saying, probably much better than you know. It is in that context I am asking the question. And it to this point has been a slow process with few/no consequences that people can concretely point to. Can you? And the "ice berg" looks huge, but honestly the scary part is that those are theorhetical and nobody really knows what is going to happen, and neither in your infinite wisdom do you.

What I am saying is that false information and attribution is not a good policy, cause next time you say something I'm not going to believe you . . . y'know

Answer 1

Whether its politics, religion, science, or social issues, there are plenty of people who open their mouths to speak without understanding the issue.

I remember clearly when Penn and Teller had people sign a petition to ban Hydrogen monoxide...People blatantly jumped on the bandwagon and signed the petition. Then they felt like idiots for signing a petition to ban water.

Answer 2

Global warming is at the fore front because politicians found how to use a new platform to get re-elected. The world leadersuse it because they found ways to make money at it. This is a made up problem just like Global Cooling in the 1970's. Wake up people. I agree we need to be more efficient with our resources, and we should fine and jail companies who are dumping into our rivers maliciously. I want to stop the raiforest destruction, but to say that global warming is a serious man made issue and we need to destroy the American economy and bow down to the rest of the world certainly does not float my boat. Follow the money on this one and you will see that it is all for political gain and grant money for those scientists who profit off of the government if global warming stays at the front of the issues. Look deep into the Keoto (sp?) Treaty, first of all they took jets to a non-central resort location. Not very environmentally concious. THen in the parameters of the treaty they have a clause that makes it so you can buy or sell polution credits. This is all about shifting wealth and breaking down the United States. This is painfully obvious, just look at peoples agenda. The earth's mean temperature has risen .6 degrees C in the past 125 years. Greenland's icecaps have gotten colder in the past 10 years. The Scientists who do not gain anything on their posisition will tell you that the earth has a natural progression and this is what we are seeing. The UN report is made up of POLITICIANS not a good spread of scientists. THere are as many or more scientists who believe that man in NOT the reason and it is over hyped, but their voice is not heard in the LIberal Mainstream Media. This issue is 99% political, and an attempt to make the USA a socialist nation, and eventually communisim. WAKE UP AMERICA, IT IS TIME TO BE AMERICANS. FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. STOP THE LIES

Answer 3

Most of us who truly believe that climate change is upon us are not in a competition to see who will win an arguement. We just sincerely believe our planet is being altered by the changes that are happening and that people should take note else they are in danger of having their lives drastically altered by the consequences. No body says it will be hot all the time or that we won't get snow but anyone can see we don't get the same kind of winters that we had a few years ago or the cool summers like we used to in my part of the world. The gradual changes have been very noticable for the last twenty years to people who are really being observant and studied our environments, these changes are now happening at an increased pace over the last two to three years.

Answer 4

One of the problems is if you could stop global warming and did it some people would not have anything to talk about.
I sent this letter to Al Gore and have not gotten a responce:

Putting the technology together to start cleaning up and reintroducing new ozone to the atmosphere is possible. The cost and size of this project means taking a long term commitment. I am proposing the biggest cleanup in history. Al, I do not see any proposal that is realistic or proven at any cost, not even Washington can solve this problem. But if every person on earth does his or her share, we may be ok. Never-the-less, I see governments acting like a deer in a car’s headlights and people doing the same thing. The inevitable is almost upon us. Cleanup and change is the only option.
The first cleanup machine starts with a ten billion dollars investment. Ten year later with twenty-five machines operating, these machines will produce enough ozone to replace both holes at the poles. But more importantly, these machines will remove chemicals that deplete the ozone. Beyond making ozone, decreasing the poisons that deplete ozone, these machines reduce the major greenhouse gases and unbelievably we can have all this for fewer than one hundred billion dollars.
Beyond cleaning up our atmospheric mess as I am suggesting, we humans must do a better job reducing or cleaning up carbon monoxide, collecting and storing methane and ethane for fuel, burning less of everything, cleaning up our forests and using more solar insolation. Solar steam electric generators are the type of systems we need and are 90 percent efficient and near 100 percent if heat recovery is used. I believe nearly 30,000 MW are needed in the USA and Mexico over the next 30 years. This opens the door to new electric cars, new construction vital to our way of life, new bullet trains, and these industries produce new high paying jobs. From small scale solar generators on malls, to 2000 acre collector sights, these systems are viable and ready for production. The Federal Government must give up some land, money and have less regulation to help save the planet from disaster.
Al, spreading the message that we can help ourselves is a key to the development of these businesses. Washington can help: the businesses need grants, patents, land and regulations. Congress must create a pollution surcharge. From gas, coal, diesel, wood to cooling towers, from cattle, other ranches to cigarettes, from agriculture burning to airplane passengers, this surcharge can fund parts of these projects and many stationary pollution control devices in general.
Your personal support is very important to getting the atmosphere cleanup started and developing sights for solar generators.

Sincerely,

Answer 5

There's nothing "slow" about it. We're already in a very serious state, past the point of reversing any damage, maybe only slowing it down IF, and that is a big IF, we do EVERYTHING they say we should do (which we won't of course) to immediately halt the course we're on leading to that ill-fated prediction.

Just because the world isnt going to end in the next 50 years doesn't mean we won't be paying serious consequences each and every year from hereon it. Catastrophies will continue (floods, typhoons, hurricanes, tornados) yes..they happen now but they will increase in severity as will the extremes of long hot summers, and cold bitter winters with thier "freak" snowstorms etc.

This is only the tip of the iceberg (the ones that are left that is) and there are a lot more consequences (drought, famine, species dying both on land and in the ocean) all of which has domino types of effects on the earth and our existence. There's a reason we suddenly have swarms of mosquitoes...or aphids...or locusts...or moths...when we've destroyed the balance of food in the animal kingdom. In turn those things damage plantlife, animal life, our own lives and bring new diseases and epidemics, etc.

It's all inter-connected...there are no so blind as those who just won't see.

Answer 6

Global Warming.

Science can be another route to dogma besides religion. I try to keep them both honest.

It is very much a measurable fact that greenhouse gasses are rising, icecaps are shrinking, weather patterns are changing. These are facts. The facts can be verified - measurements can be repeated (past measurements must be accepted as accurate and are usually verified by multiple sources - separate individual records, fossils and tree rings, paintings of skaters on dikes that don't freeze anymore ... ).

Anectodal and paradoxical effects may seem contrary to the facts of melted glaciers and polar ice caps.
As the northern oceans fill with cold water, and giant ice bergs, some areas may have record cold spells.
Most regions will have abnormal weather patterns.

Why these things might be happening is the realm of theoretical science.
Thoretical science correlates man's activities on this planet with a very distinct temperature rise that has been happening for centuries, and is happening at a higher rate.
Theorectical science is only useful as long as it creates models which allow us to predict and explain accutaely new sets of data. When new data doesn't fit into the model, the theory is disproved or in need of modification, until then, it's a tool to use with a modest dose of doubt.
Great Faith, Great Doubt and Great Wisdom are the 3 Great Virtues of Bhudism. Science and religion depend on Faith, Doubt and Wisdom.

Since global warming is a verifiable fact, these questions remain:

Is man responsible for causing global warming?
Is man able to control global warming?
What are the consequenses of global warming?
How should man respond to global warming?

Is man responsible for causing global warming?
Personally I suspect that the answer is yes.
Green house gasses, pollution, farming, deforestation, energy consumption all contribute to the heating of the planet.
It doesn't take much to throw off the balance (conjecture).
There are other equally valid explainations - cyclical climate changes, perterbation of earth's axis, solar activity, geothermal activity or some other phenomena that have yet to be observed.

Can man control global warming? If we created global warming by our habits of consumption, then reversing, or slowing the process by taming out habbits may have have a positive effect. Other methods might include solar shielding, reforestation, and some kind of thermal redirection (keeping the cold at the poles).
Perhaps our efforst may make things worse, and our best course is to suffer through.

The consequences of global warming are devastaing to all life
Oceans rise to reduce useable land area.
Extra weight of water ebbing and flowing to the tides will rock tectonic plates, creating earthquakes of the like never before seen by man.
Reduced living space will force conflicts for survival - all aspects of man's social life are changed.

Man could respond to global warming by complete denial, continuing to behave as they always have:
Pollution, deforestation, extinction, over consumption, over production, over reproduction, thoughtlessness.
This behavior, though is ultimately selfish, ignorant, greedy, and or lazy.
There is no rational reason to blindly perpetuate these unvirtuous motives even if they don't lead to further global warming. It is certainly bad stewardship of the planet.

Man could build an ark against the coming tides, but, I say that spaceship earth IS our ark, and we should not continue to put holes in it or set it ablaze.

Some men may prepare and others caught by surprise, having been misled and held in ignorance by the well prepared and well fortified in the highlands (?and selling oil?).

Remember that Jonah brought the bad news to Nineva, but the Ninevans changed thier ways and were spared.
Observational science has some bad news folks.

~steve~