"Potentially even more alarming than the climate change is the ongoing acidification of the oceans."
Both are caused by CO2 emissions. Phasing out coal over the next 40-50yrs would cut those emissions in half. However, just replacing the existing capacity of coal plants would require building two large nuclear reators (or 1000 windmills) per day. Such a massive undertaking may seem impossible until you condsider that we have accomplished the same feat with coal plants in less than my lifetime.
"The UP isn't about your ability to measure something."
At least you prefaced your statement with "wrong".:)
"In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states by precise inequalities that certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, cannot be simultaneously known to arbitrarily high precision. That is, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured." - WP.
"There is no free market, everything is regulated"
Sigh, a market is not a physical thing it is a set of (in)formal regulations governing transactions. A market without regulations makes as much sense as a game without rules, it's an oxymoronic definition. No matter what Glenn Beck says, the "free" in free market does not mean free of regulations, it means anybody is free to participate provided they abide by the rules.
"since it's not a free market this is why there are problems."
Free markets are a GoodThing(TM) but they are not a silver bullet.
"Has no fiduciary duty to you or anyone else."
WL has the same fiduciary duties as any other private organisation.
"Has no moral obligation that they acknowledge"
WL and Assange in particular promise their sources annonimity and maximum exposure for their material. Is keeping one's promise a moral obligation in your book?
"Is not subject to any kind of legal authority with respect to publishing information."
Are you implying freedom of the press is a BadThing(TM)?
"Has demonstrated a disregard for the possible "collateral damage" related to released information."
Crocodile tears don't impress me. If your concern is "collateral damage" then why are you ignoring the fact that the released information demonstrated the US military lied to the public in order to cover up real "collateral damage".
"a job that requires you to put on jeans and then spend days immersed in damp clientele."
Sounds like a job I once had on a fishing trawler. Jeans were not a problem but finding a jumper that would last more than a couple of trips before the sleves rotted and fell off was quite a challenge.
Training is popular in Oz because of the "training guarantee" law enacted by the Hawke govternment a couple of decades ago. The law stipulates that companies over a certain size must provide a certain level of training for employee's. Failing to comply incures a levy in the form of additional taxes. The training can be in-house and on any subject, so most large corporations run in-house training courses that are often, (but not always), little more than a tax dodge. The training budget usually runs out as soon as the company has met it's training guarantee requirements.
"1 more time and I'm done with this site. If a lot of these things aren't actually factual, I'll migrate to a better source"
Sharks are very common in Qld rivers and can be found up to 100km from the sea, Goodna is less tha 20km from the sea. As a 50yro Aussie who has heard stories like this in previous floods it does not strike me as fake news. - YMMV
Yes, and just as it's possible for the US and Japan to be first world nations, it will also be possible for the US and China to both be first world nations. Prosperity is not a zero-sum game(provided we don't all choke on the industrial waste).
I've done that a few times, it didn't save their life but it sure made their day (and mine). I had a small taste of being homeless for a few months in the early 80's, nothing like walking a mile in someones shoes to change one's worldview.
Regardless of who the bad guy is, a lot of his books have the "science gone mad" theme. He's a great writer, my only problem with him is when he pretends to be something other than a writer, such as when he appeared before the US senate pretending to be a climate expert.
I propose my own bet, for ever year in the next 10 that is the warmest on record you pay me $1000, for every year in the next 10 that is the coldest on record I will pay you $10,000
Attribution does not come from statistics. The attribution section of the IPCC WG1 report is the most thourough treatment of that question I know about but it's heavy reading. For something less formal you could try this article on attribution.
A good accounting of the major climate forcings (both +ve and -ve) can be seen in this graph that summarises the IPCC's findings.
Some salient points on attribution are...
1. We know the proportion of CO2 mankind has put into the atmosphere from analysing it's isotopes, the result is a ~30% increase since the start of the industrial revolution. That equates to half a trillion tons, projections of current emmisions show that it will take another 40yrs to emit another half a trillion tons.
2. The radiative forcing effect of CO2 has been known since Fourier discovered it in 1824, the modern formula is RF=5.35*ln(C1/C0) where C1 and C0 are the end and start concentrations of CO2 respectively. Thus the temprature change due to changes in CO2 concentrations can be easily calculated (for the troposphere), what cannot be easily calculated are the feedbacks that such a temprature change will induce. To estimate the effects of feedbacks they use paleoclimatology and computer modelling.
3. Remove the +ve forcing effect of our emmission from climate models and the 20th centry shows a slight but insignificant cooling.
"The only part I don't comprehend about this debate is jumping to the conclusion that SUVs are responsible"
Well that makes two of us, by far the largest source is the coal industry (~40%), oil and gas is secondary (~25%), followed by concrete (which emits CO2 while setting), and then a whole bunch of other minor sources. Arguments about SUV's just demonstrate the ignorance of people who participate in them.
Yes, any skeptical assesment of Watts will quickly reveal his bullshit but I like that experiment because it's simple, elegant, and debunks Watts with his own data. The great pity is that if Watts did not have an aggressive anti-science agenda then his work might have had some practical use to the people who maintain the observation network. As it stands, the propoganda makes it worse than useless.
"Want to learn, Want to know, Want to find, Want to read"
These are things that WP's detractors don't want, when confronted with information that does not fit their worldview their head explodes and they start projecting their own personality faults onto WP's contributors.
Slashdot Mirror
Broken window fallacy on a global scale?
"Potentially even more alarming than the climate change is the ongoing acidification of the oceans."
Both are caused by CO2 emissions. Phasing out coal over the next 40-50yrs would cut those emissions in half. However, just replacing the existing capacity of coal plants would require building two large nuclear reators (or 1000 windmills) per day. Such a massive undertaking may seem impossible until you condsider that we have accomplished the same feat with coal plants in less than my lifetime.
Wonderful rant!
"things that are not experienced do not exist?"
Existance is relative.
"The UP isn't about your ability to measure something."
:)
At least you prefaced your statement with "wrong".
"In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states by precise inequalities that certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, cannot be simultaneously known to arbitrarily high precision. That is, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured." - WP.
Further reading - Embrace the horror
"TFA is nonsense, written by an uneducated fool."
I can only assume that people who can't see past common spelling/grammar mistakes must have comprehension skills similar to those found in a compiler.
"There is no free market, everything is regulated"
Sigh, a market is not a physical thing it is a set of (in)formal regulations governing transactions. A market without regulations makes as much sense as a game without rules, it's an oxymoronic definition. No matter what Glenn Beck says, the "free" in free market does not mean free of regulations, it means anybody is free to participate provided they abide by the rules.
"since it's not a free market this is why there are problems."
Free markets are a GoodThing(TM) but they are not a silver bullet.
"sending someone to prison requires convincing a jury that they should be"
I'm a tad suspicious of the US legal system due to the fact that the US has ~4% of the gobal population and ~25% of the global prison population.
"Has no fiduciary duty to you or anyone else."
WL has the same fiduciary duties as any other private organisation.
"Has no moral obligation that they acknowledge"
WL and Assange in particular promise their sources annonimity and maximum exposure for their material. Is keeping one's promise a moral obligation in your book?
"Is not subject to any kind of legal authority with respect to publishing information."
Are you implying freedom of the press is a BadThing(TM)?
"Has demonstrated a disregard for the possible "collateral damage" related to released information."
Crocodile tears don't impress me. If your concern is "collateral damage" then why are you ignoring the fact that the released information demonstrated the US military lied to the public in order to cover up real "collateral damage".
"a job that requires you to put on jeans and then spend days immersed in damp clientele."
Sounds like a job I once had on a fishing trawler. Jeans were not a problem but finding a jumper that would last more than a couple of trips before the sleves rotted and fell off was quite a challenge.
Training is popular in Oz because of the "training guarantee" law enacted by the Hawke govternment a couple of decades ago. The law stipulates that companies over a certain size must provide a certain level of training for employee's. Failing to comply incures a levy in the form of additional taxes. The training can be in-house and on any subject, so most large corporations run in-house training courses that are often, (but not always), little more than a tax dodge. The training budget usually runs out as soon as the company has met it's training guarantee requirements.
"If I was making a TV show I'd beg my audience to talk about it on every channel they had available."
Seems to me that's exactly what they are doing, it also seems to be working.
Kudos to you for having the balls to change your mind, slashdot needs more people like that. :)
"1 more time and I'm done with this site. If a lot of these things aren't actually factual, I'll migrate to a better source"
Sharks are very common in Qld rivers and can be found up to 100km from the sea, Goodna is less tha 20km from the sea. As a 50yro Aussie who has heard stories like this in previous floods it does not strike me as fake news. - YMMV
Yes, and just as it's possible for the US and Japan to be first world nations, it will also be possible for the US and China to both be first world nations. Prosperity is not a zero-sum game(provided we don't all choke on the industrial waste).
"I mean what are we going to mine that has so much value?"
Knowledge. Learning how to use robots to build and maintain an autonomous moon base would be valuable in and of itself.
"What is different between then and now?"
People no longer have to dump their raw sewerage into the street.
"why there are homeless people in a 'first world' country in the first place."
There are homeless people in every country, and no I'm not a Randian or an American.
"And possibly buying and eating lunch with me."
I've done that a few times, it didn't save their life but it sure made their day (and mine). I had a small taste of being homeless for a few months in the early 80's, nothing like walking a mile in someones shoes to change one's worldview.
"It's ridiculous that you have to pay $0.10 a minute or something to telephone granny in Scotland."
I recall paying $2.00/min to call the UK from Australia, that was in 1976 dollars, ie: almost one weeks wages per hour.
Regardless of who the bad guy is, a lot of his books have the "science gone mad" theme. He's a great writer, my only problem with him is when he pretends to be something other than a writer, such as when he appeared before the US senate pretending to be a climate expert.
I propose my own bet, for ever year in the next 10 that is the warmest on record you pay me $1000, for every year in the next 10 that is the coldest on record I will pay you $10,000
"can you link to the data that shows AGW?"
Attribution does not come from statistics. The attribution section of the IPCC WG1 report is the most thourough treatment of that question I know about but it's heavy reading. For something less formal you could try this article on attribution.
A good accounting of the major climate forcings (both +ve and -ve) can be seen in this graph that summarises the IPCC's findings.
Some salient points on attribution are...
1. We know the proportion of CO2 mankind has put into the atmosphere from analysing it's isotopes, the result is a ~30% increase since the start of the industrial revolution. That equates to half a trillion tons, projections of current emmisions show that it will take another 40yrs to emit another half a trillion tons.
2. The radiative forcing effect of CO2 has been known since Fourier discovered it in 1824, the modern formula is RF=5.35*ln(C1/C0) where C1 and C0 are the end and start concentrations of CO2 respectively. Thus the temprature change due to changes in CO2 concentrations can be easily calculated (for the troposphere), what cannot be easily calculated are the feedbacks that such a temprature change will induce. To estimate the effects of feedbacks they use paleoclimatology and computer modelling.
3. Remove the +ve forcing effect of our emmission from climate models and the 20th centry shows a slight but insignificant cooling.
"The only part I don't comprehend about this debate is jumping to the conclusion that SUVs are responsible"
Well that makes two of us, by far the largest source is the coal industry (~40%), oil and gas is secondary (~25%), followed by concrete (which emits CO2 while setting), and then a whole bunch of other minor sources. Arguments about SUV's just demonstrate the ignorance of people who participate in them.
Yes, any skeptical assesment of Watts will quickly reveal his bullshit but I like that experiment because it's simple, elegant, and debunks Watts with his own data. The great pity is that if Watts did not have an aggressive anti-science agenda then his work might have had some practical use to the people who maintain the observation network. As it stands, the propoganda makes it worse than useless.
"Want to learn, Want to know, Want to find, Want to read"
These are things that WP's detractors don't want, when confronted with information that does not fit their worldview their head explodes and they start projecting their own personality faults onto WP's contributors.
Disclaimer: I am not a regular contribitor to WP.