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Subject: Climate Science

I've always been surprised by the number of people who are misinformed about climate change or believe there is still a significant debate among scientists about the reality of climate change. First of all, here is some background information:

1. 99.82% of peer-reviewed literature supports human-caused climate change while 0.17% rejects it.

2. No scientific body of national or international standing has maintained a dissenting opinion.

Don't believe me though, read the words of geologist James Lawrence Powell:

Scientists do not disagree about human-caused global warming. It is the ruling paradigm of climate science, in the same way that plate tectonics is the ruling paradigm of geology. We know that continents move. We know that the earth is warming and that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause. These are known facts about which virtually all publishing scientists agree.

I'm no expert on climate change nor do I know all the exact details of how scientists know the earth is warming and why. However, I do trust the findings of climate scientists on climate science for the same reason I would trust a dentist if I had a toothache. If you really don't understand the basics of climate change, there are tons of excellent resources. Here are a few:

1. NASA
2. Environmental Protection Agency
3. National Academy of Sciences
4. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  • 01.03.2013 1:41 PM PDT

It's like arguing about (dare I say it....) evolution with some people. Some people just don't want to accept the hard facts sometimes, they are so blinded by their pre-supposed prejudices that no matter what anyone says - the idea of global warming is just stupid.

  • 01.03.2013 1:42 PM PDT

Please do not send me group invites.

But the news lady told me climate change was a lie!

  • 01.03.2013 1:42 PM PDT

Studies show that men think about sex every 7 seconds. I do my best to eat hotdogs in under 6, just so things don't get weird.

Please allow me to introduce Myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith

I wish I could say this is common sense, but sense doesn't appear to be that common.

  • 01.03.2013 1:42 PM PDT

Lets go to Mars everybody!

  • 01.03.2013 1:42 PM PDT

Well isn't the whole idea of global warming something that's just repeated for thousands/millions of years?

  • 01.03.2013 1:43 PM PDT

Sometimes, I dream about cheese.


Posted by: HundredJono
Lets go to Mars everybody!



Wooo!

*Jumps into cardboard box with fishbowl on head*


We're gunna go ta space!

  • 01.03.2013 1:44 PM PDT

Posted by: Deadlock v3
It's like arguing about (dare I say it....) evolution with some people. Some people just don't want to accept the hard facts sometimes, they are so blinded by their pre-supposed prejudices that no matter what anyone says - the idea of global warming is just stupid.

You are right. As humans, though, we are all like this. Even when someone presents solid evidence that contradicts our views, we rarely accept it. I'm guilty of it too.

  • 01.03.2013 1:45 PM PDT
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Posted by: MadMax888
But the news lady told me climate change was a lie!


This!

It was on some station called FAWKS or FLOCKs, or something..

  • 01.03.2013 1:45 PM PDT

Life?
I have the internet and Doctor Who; i don't need a life.

why does it matter if Climate change is real or not?
recycling and reducing carbon emissions are good ideas regardless of whether they will stop the planet from boiling like an egg.

  • 01.03.2013 1:45 PM PDT

Posted by: Graver18
Well isn't the whole idea of global warming something that's just repeated for thousands/millions of years?

The scientific consensus is that the warming we are experiencing now is due to human activities and is not the result of natural events.

  • 01.03.2013 1:47 PM PDT
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Energy comes from burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels releases CO2. CO2 absorbs certain wavelengths of infrared, which keeps it in the atmosphere and prevents it escaping, thus heating up the Earth.



I just explained it in three sentences. It's really not complicated. It's getting people to accept the facts that's the hard part.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 3:06 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 1:48 PM PDT

Posted by: CultMiester4000
why does it matter if Climate change is real or not?
recycling and reducing carbon emissions are good ideas regardless of whether they will stop the planet from boiling like an egg.


I guess it really shouldn't, but the effects of climate change only add to the seriousness of the issue.

  • 01.03.2013 1:48 PM PDT


Posted by: CultMiester4000
why does it matter if Climate change is real or not?
recycling and reducing carbon emissions are good ideas regardless of whether they will stop the planet from boiling like an egg.
Yes, but people don't accept 'good ideas' simply on the basis that they are good. Hard change never comes around because of 'good ideas', it comes around because things need to be changed - whether it be to increase profits or stop the world from undergoing cataclysmic climate change.

  • 01.03.2013 1:49 PM PDT

http://i.imgur.com/fsISj.png

Posted by: brandorobot
Posted by: MadMax888
But the news lady told me climate change was a lie!

This!

It was on some station called FAWKS or FLOCKs, or something..

Faux News?

  • 01.03.2013 1:50 PM PDT

Life?
I have the internet and Doctor Who; i don't need a life.


Posted by: Deadlock v3

Posted by: CultMiester4000
why does it matter if Climate change is real or not?
recycling and reducing carbon emissions are good ideas regardless of whether they will stop the planet from boiling like an egg.
Yes, but people don't accept 'good ideas' simply on the basis that they are good. Hard change never comes around because of 'good ideas', it comes around because things need to be changed - whether it be to increase profits or stop the world from undergoing cataclysmic climate change.
... that needs to be changed.

  • 01.03.2013 1:53 PM PDT
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Posted by: annoyinginge
Posted by: brandorobot
Posted by: MadMax888
But the news lady told me climate change was a lie!

This!

It was on some station called FAWKS or FLOCKs, or something..

Faux News?


That's the one.

  • 01.03.2013 1:54 PM PDT

Dating Age

For those looking to vent, get proper advice, or give it to those in need.


Posted by: CultMiester4000
why does it matter if Climate change is real or not?
recycling and reducing carbon emissions are good ideas regardless of whether they will stop the planet from boiling like an egg.

Because the measures needed are evil. The understanding of climate change is scientific. The technicalities of actually solving it are economical. CO2 is a byproduct of us buying goods. So the pollution caused by driving is part of that. What do you do to reduce something? Attach a cost. A carbon tax. Not a very politically popular idea because it contains a dirty word and I don't mean carbon.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 1:55 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 1:54 PM PDT

"Before you insult someone, try walking a mile in their shoes. This way, when you insult them, you are a mile away and have their shoes."

I have no problems with accepting the concept of global climate change. How else must I explain ice ages or how we got out of them? It's obvious that climate change exists...

...the problem I have is accepting that somehow humans, organisms, or anything else are responsible for it. It's been happening for million or perhaps billions of years, who knows, and we have not been around for that long.

I also disagree with the concept of "it will burn/kill/destroy us all." It seems to have had a reciprocating behavior, so why would this be an exception?

My stance.

  • 01.03.2013 1:56 PM PDT

I found the article I was looking for. Go to the number one section titled "Facts Don't Change Our Minds".

  • 01.03.2013 1:56 PM PDT

RIP Logan ~B.B.

There isn't really intellectual opposition to it, only ideological. The problem is that the problem was introduced by politicians rather than scientists. Politicians tend to forget that it isn't a rhetorical discussion. You can't argue atmospheric CO2 away, and you cannot argue new polar ice caps into existence. But, more people are into politics than they are into science, so the debate is what it has become today. Because it is discussed in the political arena, people assume they can argue it any way they want and will be right as long as they can find others to agree with them.

  • 01.03.2013 1:57 PM PDT

Posted by: davadude
I have no problems with accepting the concept of global climate change. How else must I explain ice ages or how we got out of them? It's obvious that climate change exists...

...the problem I have is accepting that somehow humans, organisms, or anything else are responsible for it. It's been happening for million or perhaps billions of years, who knows, and we have not been around for that long.[/quote]

I also disagree with the concept of "it will burn/kill/destroy us all." It seems to have had a reciprocating behavior, so why would this be an exception?

My stance.


I'm not sure that scientists say that climate change will burn or kill us all. What they do predict is that we will have to adapt to a vastly different earth with a drastically more hostile climate. For example, there will be an increase in extreme weather events like hurricanes.

I had the same misunderstanding. While the earth does go through cycles, scientists agree the the current warming that we are experiencing is caused by human activity. I would suggest going to one of the websites I provided that explains how humans cause it.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 2:03 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 2:01 PM PDT

What are these first person words you speak of?


Posted by: MyNameIsCharlie
I wish I could say this is common sense, but sense doesn't appear to be that common.

  • 01.03.2013 2:03 PM PDT

Posted by: Obi Wan Stevobi
There isn't really intellectual opposition to it, only ideological. The problem is that the problem was introduced by politicians rather than scientists. Politicians tend to forget that it isn't a rhetorical discussion. You can't argue atmospheric CO2 away, and you cannot argue new polar ice caps into existence. But, more people are into politics than they are into science, so the debate is what it has become today. Because it is discussed in the political arena, people assume they can argue it any way they want and will be right as long as they can find others to agree with them.


Of course, it doesn't help that vast sums of money are spent by groups that have an interest in spreading anti-science like oil, coal, and gas companies.

  • 01.03.2013 2:07 PM PDT

RIP Logan ~B.B.


Posted by: davadude
I have no problems with accepting the concept of global climate change. How else must I explain ice ages or how we got out of them? It's obvious that climate change exists...

...the problem I have is accepting that somehow humans, organisms, or anything else are responsible for it. It's been happening for million or perhaps billions of years, who knows, and we have not been around for that long.

I also disagree with the concept of "it will burn/kill/destroy us all." It seems to have had a reciprocating behavior, so why would this be an exception?

My stance.

Like rings on trees, the historical records of Earth's climate and even atmospheric content are locked away in glaciers hundreds of thousands of years old. Scientists can piece together that history and are quite confident what we are seeing today aren't even close known long term patterns.

[Edited on 01.03.2013 2:10 PM PST]

  • 01.03.2013 2:08 PM PDT

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