Science Forum - global warming: salvaging the facts from the BS

gib65 · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 7:13 pm Post subject:

Nothing bugs me more than global warming deniers except being lied to about global warming. Who exactly is lying is something I can't say, but someone definitely is.

I want to start this thread so that I can post articles I've come across contradicting the evidence in support of global warming and/or the anthropocentric account of it.

I don't know who to trust and I feel like a helpless child in a custody battle - who gets to convert me over to their side? - and I feel like shouting out "Just tell me the goddam truth!!!"

I'll accept the words of the noble scientists on TSF, but that's not to say I won't challenge them. I'll take whatever you say and pit it against the words of others on other forums and then come back with more fodder for debate. I hope that over the long haul, some meaningful picture will emerge that explains the riff between the data and the misconceptions that appear on both sides so that a most-plausible-scenario can be built for me to latch onto.

In short, the goal of this thread is to build for myself (and others) a more firm foundation on which to take a stand on the GW issue and to stick to it on grounds other than blind faith or ignorance. It seems so hard to do this on this issue though because of all the conflicting reports and my lack of expertise in both the subject and my BS detection skills.

So here's a couple articles to start:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2871

This one claims that the steady increase in the average yearly global temperature in a myth, that...

[quote=DENNIS T. AVERY]The earthâ€™s warming from 1915 to 1940 was just about as strong as the â€œscaryâ€ 1975 to 1998 warming in both scope and durationâ€”and occurred too early to be blamed on human-emitted CO2. The cooling from 1940 to 1975 defied the Greenhouse Theory, occurring during the first big surge of man-made greenhouse emissions. Most recently, the climate has stubbornly refused to warm since 1998, even though human CO2 emissions have continued to rise strongly.[/quote]

This blatantly contradicts Gore's claim that the average yearly global temperature has been increasing at an alarming rate well into the 21st century, 2005 (I think it was) marking a global record.

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080506/EDITORIAL/404827900/1013

This one claims that the supposed consensus among climatologists and other relevant experts is fraudulent. It says that a significant number of scientists don't want to voice their assessments on the anthropocentric question in fear of being ridiculed or losing their jobs, and that a high number of dissenters come from within the circle of experts itself.

Another point I'd like to know more about (which I don't have an article on unfortunately) is the melting of the Martian polar ice caps that seems to be happening at the same rate and in parallel to all the GW symptoms here on Earth. This can't be explained by anthropocentrism, but it easily can by sunspot theories.

I'm not taking sides here. How can I when I have no idea how to sieve the facts from the bull shit? I want to challenge the GW naysayers, but not because I'm taking up a contrary position, just because that seems to be the only way to force people to backup their claims with something substantial.