Do you believe in it? If not, why not?
Quote from: "Jubal"believe
?
Possibly a misphrasing, though I'd contend that simply because something has a solid base in evidence does not mean you don't "believe", it's just that your belief is definitely correct. I believe that I am human. It's a belief, and it happens to be true*.
*Probably.
This climate change thing is a liberal idea for the most part, so I ask them: now who's being conservative and not accepting change?
Whether our planet is warming up or not is not of our doing, we are insignificant next to the power of the force Mother Nature. We've been keeping records on temperatures for what a hundred years while Earth is something like 4.5 billion years old. How can anyone conclude what is 'normal'?
Everyone look up in the sky today at that big glaring spot of light. See that? Its called the Sun. When Mr. Sun's surface gets a little over excited it can make objects in his way get a little toasty.
Just live your lives people.
QuoteThis climate change thing is a liberal idea for the most part
It's a SCIENTIFIC idea; liberalism and conservativism doesn't come into it. As a matter of fact, an awful lot of British environmentalists are Right-wing Conservatives (Zac Goldsmith MP for example). It's very much a US thing that the right takes an anti-science agenda, mostly in this case bcause businesses that tend to fund the right include all the US oil producers who pretty clearly have vested interests here. In the UK, on the other hand, the government owns the oil wells so the debate is much more of a cross-party issue.
QuoteWhether our planet is warming up or not is not of our doing
Well, most scientists would beg to differ. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) would be a few examples; there's little to no mainstream science that suggests that man-made Global Warming does not exist.
QuoteWe've been keeping records on temperatures for what a hundred years
We can actually track global temperature for vastly longer. Ice cores and fossil-based plant evidence, for example; the maount of different gases trapped in ice can tell us a lot about global temperature, as of course can where tropical and temperate plants grew at different stages. The results tend to show that while the earth has been much hotter at times, it's practically unheard-of for it to warm up this fast, excpet possibly in periods of MEGA volcanic activity which are conspicuously not occurring.
QuoteEveryone look up in the sky today at that big glaring spot of light.
I know you want to win this debate, but blinding me won't help. :P
I honestly don't care one way or the other.
Quote from: "comrade_general"We've been keeping records on temperatures for what a hundred years while Earth is something like 4.5 billion years old. How can anyone conclude what is 'normal'?
Although we have been keeping track DIRECTLY for only a few hundred years, we are able to get Ice-Cores, Mud-Cores (I know, I didn't get it at first either), and we can examine the Evolution of animals due to their surroundings. So, that would actually help us understand the definition of "Normal Earth Temperature"
The earth has survived worse, so has it's inhabitants. Scientific evidence there may be, but a lot of it is scaremongering for a good headline IMO.
Quote from: "Marcus"The earth has survived worse, so has it's inhabitants. Scientific evidence there may be, but a lot of it is scaremongering for a good headline IMO.
yup
We're not talking about earth not surviving, though. The worry - the very genuine worry - is the effect on the relatively fragile, overpopulated human civilisation of the 21st century. Armageddon no; mass migration, huge bills to keep cities standing against sea level rise, extinction of large numbers of species? Very, very possibly. Take Bangladesh; it's one of the most densely populated nations on earth, and 2/3 of it is below sea level. Wouldn't take much sea level rise to require everyone living in those areas to migrate. And if you think our immigration issues in the UK or US are a worry, spare a thought for India in that situation. I mean, the two countries were created partitioned specifically BECAUSE of major cultural differences.
click (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw)
yep
Because a survey done among hippie dumbarmadillos tells us SO MUCH.
Look at the science and the scientists, NOT the hippies. They can all tell you what dihydrogen monoxide is, and would have laughed that petition away. They're all taking global warming and climate change really pretty bloody seriously.
People are idiots. Well done. People can be easily manipulated. Any psychologist could tell you that. That doesn't mean we shouldn't worry about the very real dangers of climate change. In fact, whether humans contribute to it is relevant only for deciding on the ways we combat it - the climate evidently is changing, and the possible effects do include those Jubal has already mentioned.
The question now becomes: how much has human activity effected the rate of global warming?
Personally I think we should just
(http://sugarthepill.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/keep-calm-and-carry-on.jpg)
better if we go on a
(http://www.metal-archives.com/images/3/1/5/2/31529_logo.gif)
Ah the good ol' days of trolling Jubal. :P