Inconvenient Truth

[iloveagoodbrew]

<p>

Anthropo-global warming…avian flue…SARS…oh, what might have been.

ILAGB,</p>

<p>Try spelling the following word correctly in your next post and see what happens wordsmith: piisser</p>

<p>Get it, slugger?

The Dartmouth paper might need a new editor.</p>

[barrons]

<p>It’s a “Sleeper” world sometimes. At least enough to have a long pause before accepting every new “scientific fact”.</p>

[kluge]

<p>I agree, Barrons. The problem, as I see it, is that the global warming theory has been around for a good while and the scientific consensus over it gets stronger every year. I obviously don’t have the scientific knowledge or training (or time) to check the data and the math on every experiment which is undertaken to check the theory. But unlike other “scares” this one keeps accumulating more and more confirming evidence, and seems to convince a larger and larger percentage of qualified scientists as time goes by. Its past the point where I think it’s worth looking into steps to prevent the worst potential consequences to my children’s generation, even if that comes at some small cost to me and my generation.</p>

<p>The fact that treating global warming as a real danger will mean a short term loss of profits in the multi-billions of dollars to some very adept corporations makes me comfortable with the idea that any really strong evidence countering the theory will be thoroughly investigated and publicized.The fact that the opponents of the theory tend to use sneering and personal attacks on global warming advocates as their primary counter-arguments doesn’t actually tend to make me think I should reconsider my feelings on the subject.</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>If our companies are not smart enough to adapt, we have a problem</p>

<p>In World War 2, our companies retooled themselves in record time</p>

<p>Why the fear of making changes, that can only really help us and the planet in the long run?</p>

<p>Why that fear?</p>

[rorosen]

<p>the stork delivered the baby down the avian flue,…</p>

<p>possibly meant ‘global warning’</p>

<p>and 'what mighty has-beens",…</p>

<p>difficult to tell,…but the lass will keep one on the toes of one,…</p>

[FountainSiren]

<p>Ro…it’s like you’re in my head–amazing!</p>

<p>More on lit later.;)</p>

[Dadguy]

<p>See, all this talk about global warming has everyone hot under the collar!</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p><a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-sci-greenland25jun25,0,6885120,full.story[/url]”>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-sci-greenland25jun25,0,6885120,full.story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>greenland is melting faster…</p>

[overseas]

<p>Walked to see the show this afternoon…I recommend it. Something must be happening out in the grand universe of public thoughts and ideas. I mean I literally hung up my car keys 2 months ago. It wasn’t over “global warming” though I am rethinking my ideas on that. It was because I just felt I have to do something personally; no good can come from our oil dependence. Besides, from a selfish vantage point, it is so much healthier for me to walk. I feel so much better. If you haven’t seen the film, take the time to do so.</p>

[patient]

<p>Overseas, I so agree. The changes that are advocated in Inconvenient Truth are all positive, healthful, and life-enhancing. It puzzles me that people of a conservative bent seem to be reacting to the politics or personality of the messenger. Fortunately, a San Francisco Chronicle article this morning suggests that not all of their ilk are behaving the same:</p>

<p><a href=“http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/08/MNGP8JS3UG1.DTL[/url]”>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/08/MNGP8JS3UG1.DTL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[overseas]

<p>Funny yesterday, visiting my 81 year old tennis playing auntie and discussing Baghdatis’ tennis showing, the phone rings and it is Al Gore! Later in the pm a knock at my sister’s door and a young college age campaigner for improving the environment appears on the porch! My sister writes a check and gives it to her. And yes, this am, front page headlines in the Chronicle. What is this world coming to?..</p>

[mini]

<p>“Overseas, I so agree. The changes that are advocated in Inconvenient Truth are all positive, healthful, and life-enhancing.”</p>

<p>Yes, and they don’t come even close to matching up with the diagnosis presented in the film. I would go as far as to say they are a “feel-good” distraction from folks seriously considering the science presented, and the remedies necessary to overcome the problems presented.</p>

<p>But then I don’t believe Al Gore actually believes in the diagnosis.</p>

[DRJ4]

<p>According to this Boston Globe article, some find it better to silence naysayers than to debate:</p>

<p>

MIT’s inconvenient scientist</p>

<p>By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | August 30, 2006</p>

<p>Speech codes are rare in the industrialized, Western democracies. In Germany and Austria, for instance, it is forbidden to proselytize Nazi ideology or trivialize the Holocaust. Given those countries’ recent histories, that is a restraint on free expression we can live with.</p>

<p>More curious are our own taboos on the subject of global warming. I sat in a roomful of journalists 10 years ago while Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider lectured us on a big problem in our profession: soliciting opposing points of view. In the debate over climate change, Schneider said, there simply was no legitimate opposing view to the scientific consensus that man - made carbon emissions drive global warming. To suggest or report otherwise, he said, was irresponsible.</p>

<p>Indeed. I attended a week’s worth of lectures on global warming at the Chautauqua Institution last month. Al Gore delivered the kickoff lecture, and, 10 years later, he reiterated Schneider’s directive. There is no science on the other side, Gore inveighed, more than once. Again, the same message: If you hear tales of doubt, ignore them. They are simply untrue.</p>

<p>I ask you: Are these convincing arguments? And directed at journalists, who are natural questioners and skeptics, of all people? What happens when you are told not to eat the apple, not to read that book, not to date that girl? Your interest is piqued, of course. What am I not supposed to know?</p>

<p>Here’s the kind of information the <code>scientific consensus" types don’t want you to read. MIT’s Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen recently complained about the</code>shrill alarmism" of Gore’s movie ``An Inconvenient Truth." Lindzen acknowledges that global warming is real, and he acknowledges that increased carbon emissions might be causing the warming – but they also might not.

We do not understand the natural internal variability of climate change" is one of Lindzen's many heresies, along with such zingers asthe Arctic was as warm or warmer in 1940," the evidence so far suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is actually growing on average," andAlpine glaciers have been retreating since the early 19th century, and were advancing for several centuries before that. Since about 1970, many of the glaciers have stopped retreating and some are now advancing again. And, frankly, we don't know why."

When Lindzen published similar views in The Wall Street Journal this spring, environmentalist Laurie David, the wife of comedian Larry David, immediately branded him a shill." She resurrected a shopworn slur first directed against Lindzen by former Globe writer Ross Gelbspan, who called Lindzen ahood ornament" for the fossil fuels industry in a 1995 article in Harper's Magazine.

I decided to check out Lindzen for myself. He wasn't hard to find on the 16th floor of MIT's I.M. Pei-designed Building 54, and he answered as many questions as I had time to ask. He's no big fan of Gore's, having suffered through what he calls a ``Star Chamber" Congressional inquisition by the then senator . He said he accepted $10,000 in expenses and expert witness fees from fossil- fuel types in the 1990s, and has taken none of their money since.

He's smart. He's an effective debater. **No wonder the Steve Schneiders and Al Gores of the world don't want you to hear from him. It's easier to call someone a shill and accuse him of corruption than to debate him on the merits.**

While vacationing in Canada, I spotted a newspaper story that I hadn't seen in the United States. For no apparent reason, the state of California, Environmental Defense, and the Natural Resources Defense Council have dragged Lindzen and about 15 other global- warming skeptics into a lawsuit over auto- emissions standards. California et al . have asked the auto companies to cough up any and all communications they have had with Lindzen and his colleagues, whose research has been cited in court documents.

``We know that General Motors has been paying for this fake science exactly as the tobacco companies did," says ED attorney Jim Marston. If Marston has a scintilla of evidence that Lindzen has been trafficking in fake science, he should present it to the MIT provost's office. Otherwise, he should shut up.

``This is the criminalization of opposition to global warming," says Lindzen, who adds he has never communicated with the auto companies involved in the lawsuit. Of course Lindzen isn't a fake scientist, he's an inconvenient scientist. No wonder you're not supposed to listen to him.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/08/30/mits_inconvenient_scientist/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/08/30/mits_inconvenient_scientist/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[iloveagoodbrew]

<p>So whats new? Global warming is over in 5 years max. I wouldn’t entertain the moonbats by even responding to them any more.</p>

[DRJ4]

<p>Brew,</p>

<p>Maybe I like lost causes.</p>

[Allmusic]

<p>Who cares about:</p>

<p>Carbon Dioxide Increasing in Atmosphere
Methane Increasing
More Frequent Extreme Weather
Disappearing Glaciers
Melting Arctic Sea Ice
Melting Antarctic Sea Ice
Greenland’s Ice Sheet Melting
Tropical Diseases Spreading
Oceans Warming With Coral Bleaching & Disintegration</p>

<p>All this hand wringing will all be over in five years! I can sleep at night now!</p>

[kluge]

<p>iloveagoodbrew: I know a guy who has invented a terrific machine which generates more power than it takes to run it. Talk about a gold mine! Of course, the scientific “establishment” moonbats are trying to shut him up. Something about the “first law”…
But you know better, right? I can get you in on the ground floor. Just $10,000! You in?</p>

[fundingfather]

<p>AM - I think the point of the recent post by DRJ14 is that if you truly care about the above items that you should want the full scientific community looking into these issues without fetters of politicians like Al Gore using pressure politics against those scientists who don’t subscribe to his camp’s thinking. Good science should be free to all ideas. To ostracize and belittle those who don’t buy into your hypothesis is not true science.</p>

[iloveagoodbrew]

<p>Ok, ‘dude’. Sign me up for creationism and astrology while you are at it mate.</p>

[Allmusic]

<p>Brew, you’ve gotta work on your humor a bit. Your other conservative cohorts here on CC are an awful lot more fun to spar with.</p>