Global warming is a contentious topic. Opinions on both sides can be loud and angry.
But in the past week, the loudness and anger climbed a few more notches. When a group of so-called "skeptics" expressed an opinion, a Huffington Post blog argued they were scared of science, saying, "the folks who deny scientific facts deserve to be laughed at and scorned." A New York Times blog took a more measured tone, saying that the skeptics "appear to flunk climate economics." Earth Times described their opinion as "a call to play with fire."
And who was this pack of jackals who fear science and deserve such scorn? They were members of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the World Federation of Sciences, the Royal Dutch Meteorological Service, and distinguished universities around the world.
To understand what prompted the anger, it's best to look at the opinion that started it. On Jan. 28, the group of scientists published a signed editorial, titled "No Need to Panic About Global Warming," in The Wall Street Journal. The editorial expressed a strong opinion. It asserted that CO2 isn't ruining the Earth; it even contended that CO2 is a benefit. Moreover, the editorial was steadfast in its position that many high-level scientists don't believe in global warming, and are tired of the demonization of those who speak their opinions.
"The oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true," it said. "In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed."
Right now, the Internet is buzzing with anger over the editorial. Many blogs have said that The Wall Street Journal turned down a comparable editorial written by scientists who believe in global warming. It's not known if this is true; calls to The Wall Street Journal by Design News were not returned.
But forget for a minute whether you do or don't believe in global warming. Global warming -- or "climate change," as it's now called -- is an unbelievably complex subject that's deeply understood by only a handful of people. In truth, most of us rely on conclusions from various studies, done by people we trust, to determine where we stand on the subject. But, good grief, if an opinion of distinguished scientists doesn't match our own, does it deserve scorn?
If you're a physicist, then you know how the system works. You know that you haven't presented any evidence to refute any of the published research, period. Now you claim that "the experiment is underway in a rather sloppy form" and don't indicate which experiment that is! You claim that no one knows how much carbon (CO2/CH4?) and don't identify any study or outline how the data collection is flawed for any study!
So, you have revoked my physics credentials. A new theory needs to both explain observed results and predict new behavior beyond any older theory. The experiment is underway in a rather sloppy form - no one knows how much carbon humans are putting in the atmosphere - and the results are not well predicted by the theories. The proponents say they need another 30 or 50 years. Do I need more evidence than that? Why do YOU think this is a done deal? Feynman demonstated the shuttle solid booster failure with a c-clamp and a glass of ice water.
But you haven't shown any flaws in the research. You've merely stated your opinion, without anything to back it up. You claim to be skeptical, say about the increased ice free Arctic Sea during summer, but haven't shown that the seas are NOT as recorded. That's not acceptable for a physicist or an engineer.
So, again, where's your evidence that the researchers' findings and data are wrong? Nothing else is relevant.
Finding flaws in methods and data does not require that I launch a billion dollar research program. I didn't need to build a big lab to know there were serious problems with Cold Fusion, just very poor understanding of their instruments and circuits. And how many promises of "20 years and truckloads of burning money will get you fusion reactors" will you fall for? If anyone is influenced by funding, it is the ones who get paid to not produce. (I wonder how much power you could generate by burning all the fusion research money as $1 bills?)
My friends are not longer in industry, government, or university (also government) research. Have you ever read "The Limits to Growth" and analysed what went wrong with the predictions?
I suppose trippling the arable land on the Earth would be bad if you hate farming. It sounds OK to me. By the way, do you have links to your work that verifies the published claims? Or do you just believe it because they have pictures of ice bergs and a swimming polar bear? I see charts of ice cores and satelite measuremetns through the stratosphere and dozens of other things, and they do not fit together. Through most of the Earth's history there was apparetnly no solid water on the planet except perhaps on the highest peaks. And then totally frozen ice ages. What has caused it to be different now? Basically the distribution of the continents. I don't know what you can do about it, but the next time the ocean currents are pinched off it won't matter how much carbon is in the atmosphere.
Here is a test. Do you think the people of the Maldives would trade their islands for land in, say, Argentina? They have asked for funds to mitigate sea level rise. Do you think they really believe they have a problem? Would the researchers urge them to take the deal? I'll put together a group to make the trade and run the islands as resorts untill they are under water. Want to invest?
TheRegnirps, Thanks for putting it in a better perspective than I had done. You are certainly correct, the whole thing is WAY more complicated than many believe, and the hysterical bleating of those whose agenda is quite questionable is just that. Once again, along the same line, correlation DOES NOT equal causeation. And wishing it were so does not make it so, no matter how hard one wishes, except in cartoons.
One other thing is that would it be all that horribly bad if the world did warm up a bit and the oceans did rise a foot or two? People would have to learn to live with what nature deals to them, a lot like folks have done since before recorded history. The world would not end, although some folks soft jobs would certaily be wiped away. And if some of those coastal cities were underwater then the people would need to move, wouldn't they? After all, the current rate of rise, if it is to be believed, is a bout half an inch a year. So moving away from the rising water should not be too hard.
Besides all of that, there may be some unanticipat6ed benefits to a warmer earth that we have not figured out yet
And it seems like just a few years back there were predictions of an ice age coming upon us.
So, it seems that your friends are more concerned with the implications of global warming than the science behind it, as I stated previously. You're also unbalanced as you bring up a contrived accusal of scientists performing the reasearch with having to line their pockets but fail to mention that industry and individuals lines their pockets from extracting, refining, and using greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels. That's very telling.
That the models might be off isn't a problem, us having negative effects on others do. That we have obligations to those we don't value is your problem, not that we have had an effect. So, where are their refutations? Where is their research? Where is yours? Provide links to your published work contradicting the published science, I'd like to read it.
They are skeptical of consensus as a substitute for science. They know physics, they know numerical methods, they know that no one understands the heat flow across the haloclines and thermoclines of the oceans, they know that the role of wator vapor near the surface is not understood. They know that no one understands turbulent flow. They know that compression of the solar wind from varying densities of interstellar media cause something - unquantified. They know that many people's careers depend on measuring a sea level rise or ice pack decrease. But moslty they know the models are impossibly ambitious, to put it kindly. How many unknows, unmeasured, or unmeasurable effects does it take to invalidate a model? More than one? Are the climate models any less fuzzy than the Drake Equation?
Note that the large number of catasrophy models of the past 60 years may not be proof, but are a strong indicator that the model makers used first order approximations, perhaps not knowing that all first order differential equations have exponential solutions. Also some that were published were indeed that simple minded. See "On Systems Analysis" by David Berlinsky. I had him for Philosophy of Science when it was new in the 70's. Same bad math assumptions then as now. He ripped them a new one, but I think most of his intended readders didn't understand. And we didn't run out of food in 1986 or "peak oil" a year later.
Sorry, but this is not a debate, but science. The winner is the one who has evidence to back up his or her theory and hasn't had another provide evidence to the contrary. So, where's your evidence?
This is an engineering site, and I haven't seen you act like one. Science is open and democratic, anyone can participate. So, participate and quit whininig.
Black body thermopiles with platinum RTD's or thermocouples were far more common in labs 100 years ago than they are today. They were carefully calibrated and read with nulling bridges and galvanometers with great precision and repeatability. These very broad band detectors were used for all kinds of radiant energy measurement including monitoring solar activity. True, scientists of the time did not have the advantage of space based equipment, but their records are sufficiently precise and accurate and the equipment of the time can be tested against modern methods and compensating algorithms applied, if needed.
I was fortunate enough to have some professors who had used devices like those and learned to make and use them myself along with devices like ballistic galvanometers - basically pulse integrators for the age before op-amps. Don't sell them short. Students and researchers of today can have a heck of a time reproducing measurements made over 100 years ago.
I am also one of those physicists who knows a bunch of atmopheric scientists and physicists who are in the skeptic camp (show me the data, not the "consensus") and prefer to stay out of the public and political fray. I know more skeptics than true believers. They read Al Gore state that just below the surface, the interior of the Earth is millions of degrees, and simply turn away from the subject. Who wants to debate people like that? Or the new generation of Carl Sagans where a nicely turned phrase and a wry smile win the day? You will be into the weeds of UFOs, Bigfoot, and shadow people in the blink of an eye. They leave that fun to Michio Kaku.
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