Forum Discussion

There is also a difference between responsible science and alarmist hysterics. Apparently you have not grasped the distinction.

The IPCC report is one of the most exhaustively researched, debated, cross-checked, and peer-reviewed reports yet to address the issue of global warming. In fact, the primary idea of global warming--that the global mean temperature is increasing--is NOT in debate, it is irrefutable to anyone with access to temperature records for the the past fifty years. What lots of people can't quite seem to grasp is that a global increase in temperature does not mean an nice, even temperature change everywhere in the world. Some places will get much warmer, some places will stay much the same, some will even get colder. Global climate modelling, for example, predicts a mean temperature decrease in Britain because of a shift in Atlantic current circulation, although the DEGREE of that change is of course in dispute.

Bottom line: Just because it is cold outside does not mean global warming isn't happening, and there is nothing alarmist about thousands of scientists worldwide going "folks, really, we aren't kidding, PLEASE listen to us."

>There is also a difference between responsible science and alarmist hysterics. Apparently you have not grasped the distinction.
Of course you are a world renown weather scientists, so you know better right?

I seem to be having problems understanding this. Let me draw an analogy.
Thousands of physicists standing by the side of the cliff are yelling at you to step from under the cliff cause a a giant boulder is falling toward you. About 5 people on the other side say they do not believe it, there is no boulder, the boulder is made out of cotton candy and basically not to move from under the cliff. Of course the physicists know laws of gravity \ and generally spend YEARS learning all of this and the rest. Its not clear what the other side knows cause they just say they do not believe in the boulder or that its falling.

Of course you will believe the 5 people. On the other hand the rest of teh world believe the scientists.

I know better because I understand that the Sun and volcanoes (to name two) are forces infinitely more powerful than a yuppie in an SUV. It frankly is a shame that I understand this better than a "scientist" who's spent his entire lifetime studying weather.

I know two other things that these "scientists" do not grasp (and apparently, neither do either of you). We have reliable temperature records for all of 200 years. Two centuries. That's it. Do you realize that this is not enough time to be drawing inferences of regarding global temperature patterns centuries in the future?

The other thing is that the doom-and-gloomers don't understand that a warming period brought us out of the last Ice Age, at a time when the Neanderthals did not have SUV's, coal-fired steam engines, or any of the other things that the Chicken Littles (not to mention you two) believe is causing the Earth to heat up. They also haven't explained why it was possible for the Vikings to grow grapes and vegetables in Greenland (properly called Vinland, by the way, as in "vine") but not today. Likewise with other areas today known as Labrador and so forth. The point is that the Earth's climate fluctuates naturally, back and forth, over the centuries, and there's nothing mankind can do about it.

And don't even get me started on Krakatoa (which blew 98 KM3 of material into the atmosphere in 1883) or Tombora, which caused 1816 to be remembered as "the year without a summer."

And by the way, Good Will...I think most of Huber's fans (me included) are pretty tired of you posting on here and looking down your nose at people, time and again. Why the hell do you keep coming back here if you disagree with the cartoonist and his fans so much? Geez Louise...get a life...or at least go over to the Daily Kos where your kind is welcomed. You evidently return here for no reason other than to razz people. Sick.

>I know better because I understand that the Sun and volcanoes (to name two) are forces infinitely more powerful than a yuppie in an SUV. It frankly is a shame that I understand this better than a "scientist" who's spent his entire lifetime studying weather.

Pride goth before arrogance. Until you spend year studying this weather and chemistry and other subjects, your opinion, is all it is, an opinion.
Very few will believe you over THOUSANDS of people who spent COUNTLESS hours studying this from many sides.

>I know two other things that these "scientists" do not grasp (and apparently, neither do either of you). We have reliable temperature records for all of 200 years. Two centuries. That's it. Do

I also know what green house gases are, and how their role in the atmosphere. Those THOUSANDS of scientists you dismiss so quickly, know that too. And yet they still see evidence that it is us thats causing it. 90% likely they said!!! 90%!!! better chances then you get in Vegas.


>And by the way, Good Will...I think most of Huber's fans (me included) are pretty tired of you posting on here and looking down your nose at people, time and again. You evidently return here for no reason other than to razz people. Sick

Because there is nothing wrong with a little discussion. I am here to try to understand people who think differently then me If you do not feel up to it, I do see any reason why you should read my comments. I have had good debates here with folks who believe differently then me, debates in which I both agreed and disagreed. I have been respectful to those people.

While it is true that there are only direct measurements for the last couple of centuries, very consistent techniques have been developed for estimated global temperature in the past through ice cores in long standing caps, chiefly (ironically enough) in Greenland, where by the way, the Vikings never grew grapes, you're thinking Newfoundland. At any, I won't go into the details of the technique unless folks really want to know, but the data from atmospheric composition indicates that we SHOULD be cooling down again, in keeping with the other aspects of the cycle, towards another ice age. But, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are currently TWICE as high as they have ever been in the last, oh, 200,000 years or so. Obviously, volcanoes are important emitters of greenhouse gases, but they were always there...the stuff people are putting up there is additional, and is having an effect. The earth's climate does fluctuate, but what your saying is equivalent to "well, an earthquake or something is going to knock our house down some day anyway, so why should we bother fixing the roof or looking after the plumbing?" I'm sorry that you feel the need to attack me and pretty much the entire climatealogical community as "chicken littles." I mean, clearly we have so much to gain from just scaring people randomly that we'll stake the total of our careers and reputations on flimsy data and whispered ideas. Go ahead and listen to Texaco and Exxon, they are TOTALLY impartial and have only your interests at heart.