Climate Change: A Big Con?

Question

Is it really happening? Professors from MIT and London University and many many others say its a big lie?

What do you think?

toffeefan: Do you have any idea at all the academic importance of the Massechussets Institute of Technology? CAMBRIDGE University? and the other 100 institutions that back this claim? These are not your average developing country educational facilities!

Answer 1

We'll never really know.

Antartica ice is actually getting thicker.

I think the western governments are jumping on the green bandwagon to reduce our dependance on oil becuase of the instability of the main oil-producing regions (Middle East + Russia) + get votes.

There is lots of data and theories on both sides, so you choose to believe what you want.

To all the 'of course it happening' brigade, the temperature of the earth rose by 0.5 degrees in the first half of the 20th centuiry, and 0.25 degree in the 2nd. The rate of increase is actually going down.

The debate is not whether its happening, but whether its part of the natural cycle and nothing to do with green huose gases.

I'm not sure either way, but people screming "it must be becuase I don;t remember it being this hot" is pathetic

Answer 2

I was first taught about global warming in 1968. The predictions which were given then have all come to pass. The point of no return was in the 90,s. Global warming is a fact of life. This time it has been caused by the activities of humans, The scientific data available online is indisputable, if you have the courage to go check it for yourself. The problem is that we have in excess of 7 billion people on this planet. The last 6 billion have been added since 1900. To keep this many people alive affects the environment of the planet. Neither humankind or the planet has been in this situation before. Because of the nature of humans we will continue to do what we do regardless of the consequences. Refer to Rachel Carsons book "Silent Spring" written in 1950 and see if any change has been made to our useage of pesticides. I have been an entomologist since 1965. Insects are without doubt the hardiest macro creatures on this planet by many orders of magnitude. To watch the environmental changes over the last 40 years and the effects on this magnificent Order of animals has been truly heartbreaking.
The planet is going through some unprecendented rapid changes, and it is getting faster by the day. Argue all you like but it would be much wiser to accept the readily available facts and prepare for the future. There is no question that the s@#t is going to truly hit the fan. The only question is when. We are getting to the point that when is being measured in years not decades. Good luck and have fun.

Answer 3

Climate change has occurred and is still happening. If you read the science (both sides of the argument) then it seems to boil down to who and what you believe. Figures regarding the percentage of scientists who blame human activity should be looked at first - not all of them are climatologists, not by a long way.

The motives of the IPCC merit more than a casual glance too. Questions need to be asked about the validity of ice core evidence - what actually happens to the gasses that are locked in ice for centuries? Do they change? Can the method of drilling for cores contaminate them? It is information worth knowing, rather than just accepting what some scientists say is true - that is veering into religious territory.

Look at computer climate models - a great source of climate alarmism - and ask why they leave water vapour out of their calculations - when water vapour is by far the greatest "greenhouse gas".

There's nothing wrong with looking after the world we live in - it seems to me that as a species we've done a pretty poor job up to now - but it's worth sitting back and asking what the participants of the IPCC are actually asking us to do on the strength of a theory - one which is worth hundreds of billions to all those concerned.

Answer 4

When I was growing up in the 1970's there was much said about the world entering a mini ice age. Now we have the scare mongers saying we have global warming, and telling us we can't eat this and that because it's bad for us. Where will it all end?

I watched a programme on National Geographic Channel a while back, they said that the earth's climate has warmed up and cooled down several times over millions of years...this makes a lot of sense, if you just think about how your boiler works at home, it's the same principle.

I am no expert but I believe that the planet we live on will do what it has always done, continue to adapt and change.

Answer 5

Climate change in and of itself is normal. The question here is whether or not the changes we are seeing now, are part of this normal cycle, or are they man made.
The scientists questioning the assumption of global warning have a right to do so... that's what scientists do. It doesn't mean they are right. It just means that they think the data supporting the theory is weak.
Science is advanced through testing and proof, not consensus. Nobody votes on what a scientific fact is, you just prove it. It's called Peer Review.
The reality that some people are instead resorting to panicing the general populace, and character assasination of dissenting voices, while calling that proof, does not sit well with many in the scientific community.
This question can be resolved only if both sides look objectively at the other sides' arguements and concerns. If you feel you have a case, you should be able to make it using the data alone, and leave the emotion out of it.

Answer 6

900 scientists recently interviewed on global warming and climate change weighed in on this. they were from all political backgrounds.. Those who said it is scientific fact:
900 not true 0. Pretty impressive.

Remember the petroleum industry has funded about 1/2 the studies that question it. Think they might have a stake in disputing it. The other studies are mostly funded by other industries that pollute heavily. (plastics, etc)

While you can find people, even qualified people to say anything and arrive at different conclusions, the vast and overwhelming majority of world scientists and others who study climate change believe pollutants are creating a seroius problem. I've been to the northern reaches and I really see change and severe melting that wasn't there even 15 years ago.

Below are two links you might be interested in.

Answer 7

Yes it's happening. What we can do about it is the big lie. Over the past few thousand years, we've chopped down a third of the world's forests and overpopulated the world, both with ourselves and our livestock. That means the balance between trees (carbon dioxide consumers) and animals (carbon dioxide producers) has been upset in a big way.

Putting less water in the kettle, or taxing 4x4s is hardly going to save the planet. A cull is out of the question. (Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot tried but it hasn't improved the climate). Our best bet is to put back the forests. That will require world cooperation on a massive scale and there's no votes in it. So sit back, relax, we're all doomed. Once we die out, the planet will recover in a few centuries.

Answer 8

What happened 300 years ago read The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White. Available at Project Gutenberg.

Answer 9

I'd be interested to know which professors (except Prof Lindzen). I got a degree in climatology from UCL so I know the professors personally - there are one or two that are skeptical but they definitely don't say it's a big lie. Sounds like you've been reading a desparate media, inventing stories in the absence of any evidence.

Guarantee you one thing, for every 1 professor who says it's a big lie there's 100 or even 1000 that will oppose that.

Answer 10

I have eyes to see; ears to listen; mind to create and so do the professors at MIT and London University.

What do you think happens to all the stuff we put in the air?
Have the professors noticed the greater incidence of skin cancer?
Have the professors noticed that people are now swimming in areas once privy to polar bears?
Have the professors noticed that just about anywhere you look now seems hazy? Even Hawaii!
Have they seen the satellite photos of glaciers lately?
Do they know the extremes the French and the Swiss are taking to preserve some parts of the Alps?
Has there been anything like Katrina? That Tsunami?
Have you ever seen a bird crap on a President before?
Have they noticed how vicious some dogs have become?
Did they even consider the intelligent behavior of animals in their "big lie" theory?

I think those professors should turn in their credentials!!

Answer 11

References, please. Which professors? What do they teach or research, and what, specifically, are their arguments against climate change? Because a quick google search will probably come up with other climatologists from MIT, London University, Cal Tech, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and any other major university that you care to mention who believe that climate change is occurring.