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Humanity's Contribution To "Global Warming"
jellisky writes: "In a recent climate modeling experiment, researchers have attempted to calculate the effect humanity has had on our climate. The results and article suggest that humanity is mainly to blame for a few recent warming periods, but also suggests that there are many other effects that might be just as important at times, including an oceanic oscillation and a mysterious "residual effect". Anyone else curious about this "residual effect"? How much trust should we put into these models when people cannot classify what's happening in them? Most importantly, though, what have we learned?"
Global warming has been used as a political issue by both the left and right to further their agendas. Al "don't confuse me with the facts" Gore has hopped on this as "his" issue. This has corrupted science. Researchers who discover or publicize "politically incorrect" results are likely to have problems with funding.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I find it facinating on how emotionaly charged the whole subject is.
For instance @ work we were discussing the subject. Somebody said that if the temprature @ the south pole was raised 1 degree it would all melt and the world would flood.
When I pointed out that the avrage Summer temperture was about -25C (I had found that out on a PBS or TVO spcial the week before) they got really offended. bizzare.
Other things that are really Odd.
Have you ever noticed that on a hot day everyone talks about "Global Warming" but on a cool day everybody forgets about it.
When the great lakes were low everybody said that it was global warming. Then it rained a lot and we had a really cool summer, every body forgot that The great Lakes were being emptyed by Global Warming.
There is a guy out in Winnipeg who went through old Hudsons Bay Jouranals and got the weather readings from the last 200-300 years (i forget wich), and he claims this is just part of a 100 - 150 year cycle.
My perosonal opinion is that Global Warming is a scam by "green" conmen ("greenpeace" comes to mind here) so they don't need to get real jobs, and can screw high school girls
But I am known as something of a cynic
Yes I can not spell...Wait....for a second there I almost cared.
One thing I've found quite interesting is that in the US, global warming is treated as a political issue, whereas in the rest of the world, it's a scientific issue. In other words, a substantial % of high profile coverage of global warming in the media is from political and business analysts, Rush limbaugh, Gore, politicians, etc. There is very little attention given to the scientific merits of the issue.
I think this is largely because of 2 things. Firstly, Americans in general aren't good at science, and most people would have a difficult time describing exactly what the greenhouse effect is. Secondly, scientific issues in the US aren't considered factual, but a matter of opinion and political affiliation. Thus, you have conservatives ridiculing evolution and global warming as leftist ideology.
In contrast, the rest of the world has an apolitical view of global warming - they are curious about it from a scientific perspective, similar to how knowledge about whether mobile phones cause cancer doesn't depend on whether you're pro or anti business, but is a scientific fact. It's unfortunate, but this is how it is - scientific attitudes in the US are dictated by talk show hosts and political beliefs.
I have rarely seen any Americans discuss global warming without being influenced by what it means to oil prices, the employment rate, etc.
w/m