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Scientists Respond to Gore on Global Warming
ArthurDent writes "For quite a while global warming has been presented in the public forum as a universally accepted scientific reality. However, in the light of Al Gore's new film An Inconvenient Truth many climate experts are stepping forward and pointing out that there is no conclusive evidence to support global warming as a phenomenon, much less any particular cause of it."
I have to doubt any source that has ads for Matt Furey Combat Conditioning and big TAKE THIS SURVEY popups.
When did Slashdot turn into a Fark flamewar?
Encore! I say, "Encore!"
Bravo!
Can I hire you for our knitting society Christmas dinner?
Stick Men
Ahh exxon. If I may reminisce for a moment. Back a number of years ago I went to Disney in FL with my father and brother. We ended up going thru the revamped 'Universe of Energy' (or something). At the time it had narrators of Bill Nye and Ellen DeGeneres. Which I felt was a detriment to the original I saw as a child, which I don't recall being politically charged). However, Ellen brought up the issue of global warming, and Bill Nye *THE SCIENCE GUY* gave a mealy mouthed half hearted, clearly manipulated answer of something like 'That is an important topic and is in need of a lot of study.' Or something, I was too appalled to really remember. However we have him quoted as saying "Call it "global cooking," Nye suggested, or "really hot ... really fast." Even a modest change from "global warming" to "global heating" might spur people to action."
Why such a BS statement at the Disney exhibit? Sponsors: Exxon (later ExxonMobil) sponsored the pavilion from the day it opened in 1982 until early 2004.
making fun of Al Gore's statement is funny and it always will be
Congratulations!
You, sir/maam, could get a job at any major US Newspaper with that attitude, today. In fact, Kudos to you for remembering what's really important.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
You are correct but EXTEMELY misleading.
It is not provable that we exist at all--we could live in a system like the Matrix and all the input to our "senses" could be faked.
All we can do is rely on the input and reasoning we have though, and try to use that to develop repeated, predictable patterns.
The scientific method is about ruling out things that cannot be based on information at hand and current theories. It works pretty damn well for coming up with a model that allows us to predict the future in many, many ways.
For instance, the theories that science has come up with predict that if I release an apple held in mid air, it will fall until something stops it. This is not "Provable", but if you want to start taking bets on which way it will go, I'll bet my house at 100:1 odds that it's going to hit the ground.
So it generally works. It might be wrong for periods of time, but usually if you look at the majority of scientists, they are pretty correct.
As non-scientists, many of us don't do the same thing. Many individuals pick and choose pieces of data that fit their mindset. It already takes an overwhelming amount of contrary data/evidence to change our mindset but many of us have the ability to pick and choose our evidence ignoring most contrary evidence--this makes convincing them of an untruth virtually impossible. The republicans have become very good at presenting "evidence" that anyone who already believes a point and wants to continue, can do so.
This is where comments like the parents' and the article itself come in. They get this little meme going around that "Most scientists" don't believe global warming. They don't have to convince ANYONE with this crap, they just have to throw it out so that people who already have a given mindset and don't WANT to be swayed by Gore's movie have an alternative, no matter how flimsy--they won't attempt to disprove it.
One of the interesting things about this pattern is that it only really works on conservatives. A good definition of Conservative/Liberal would be that Conservatives tend to cling to what they "Know" is right, Liberals however tend to be more ready to challenge their preconceived ideals, so aren't as open to fluff pieces aimed at allowing someone to retain a "Faith" in the face of significant evidence against it.
Religion has played on this "Excuse to believe" trick for years, but I never noticed it being so mainstream until the reign of Bush/Fox.
I'm sorry, but Al Gore TRULY IS an idiot. Any and all jokes to be made at his expense, should be.
The man got himself lost in the woods outside DC.
Woods. Outside DC.
You could set an 8-year old loose in the middle of those woods without saying a word and they could find their way out. If you can walk IN A STRAIGHT LINE, it's only a few hours until you'd walk onto a major highway.
And he got lost.
The man can't walk in a straight line.
There's no way anybody should ever listen to anyone who can't even walk in a mostly-straight path through the woods for an hour or two. Come ON.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Actually, O'Reilly is a common critic of Bush policies, particular when it comes to national security. But I understand that people who disagree with other people's politics need to pigeonhole them into an absolutist viewpoint in order to dismiss them. :P Not directed at you specifically, though it may apply.
"Sufferin' succotash."
This is always a great topic to bring out the loonies, almost on a par with gun control or creationism.
I'm so bored with the USA.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Amusing. I must be too close to the truth and everyone knows it. Why else would a mod mark me down as a troll? The only reason is the default settings on SlashDot will filter out my post so other people can't read it.
How pathetic. I thought SlashDoters were smart.
Slashdot.. where people join together in deliberate ignorance.
I disagree with your Gore point, but I feel your moderation pain. Moderation's major purpose is to keep unpopular opinions from disturbing the Slashdot masses. My advice is to ignore the moderation, set your threshold to -1 and make up your own mind on the merits of each post.