[Rhodes22-list] Global Warming - Who should be believed? (political)

[Brad Haslett]

Rob,

"It's pretty easy to cherry pick your facts to support any conclusion you
wish.  That's not science.  That's politics. "

And visa versa!  There's plenty of BS to go around on both sides.
Eventually, it will boil down to politics and only then if the truth is
painfully obvious.  Until then, it is all about who has the loudest BS
transmitter.

Small detail - two billion (with a Capital B) in China and India don't give
a rat's ass about your science.  Where's my friggin' scooter? That leaves
another billion or so looking for a warm or safe place to shit.

Brad

On Dec 20, 2007 1:06 PM, Rob Lowe <rlowe at vt.edu> wrote:

>  One could just as easily pick
> facts that support the opposite conclusion. That's not science either.
>  The
> facts stated in Deming's story don't support any type of conclusion.  To
> say
> that his cherry picked facts somehow support or dismiss any hypothesis is
> false science.  - rob
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael D. Weisner" <mweisner at ebsmed.com>
> To: "Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 1:13 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Global Warming - Who should be believed?
> (political)
>
>
> > The following was published in the Washington Times and sent to me by an
> educated individual who has been saying that "There really is no such
> thing
> as global warming."  I bring this to "da list" for discussion, since R22
> owners seem to be the most diverse and educated group around.  Surely, we
> can support or refute this article (with real facts, please.)
> >
> > Mike
> > s/v Shanghai'd Summer ('81)
> > Nissequogue River, NY
> >
> >
> > Article published Dec 19, 2007
> > Year of global cooling
> > December 19, 2007
> >
> > By David Deming - Al Gore says global warming is a planetary emergency.
> It
> is difficult to see how this can be so when record low temperatures are
> being set all over the world. In 2007, hundreds of people died, not from
> global warming, but from cold weather hazards.
> >
> > Since the mid-19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by
> 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well
> within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to build
> in
> the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased
> significantly for nearly nine years. Antarctica is getting colder. Neither
> the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007
> season
> was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made
> landfall in the U.S.
> >
> > South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in
> decades.
> In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens
> of
> homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold
> and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops
> failed,
> livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of
> emergency.
> >
> > Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007.
> Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26
> years.
> Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia,
> the
> city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold
> weather
> since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were
> endangered.
> >
> > Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a
> devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were
> thrown
> out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the
> freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to
> issue
> a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr.
> Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming
> Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen.
> Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S.
> Senate.
> >
> > In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina's
> peach
> crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina's apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C
> .,
> a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the
> coldest
> ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver
> recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records
> extend back to 1872.
> >
> > Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the
> Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of
> minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures
> were
> also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
> >
> > Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea,
> the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham,
> Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the
> previous record low set in 1952. The Canadian government warns that this
> winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years.
> >
> > Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri are just emerging from a destructive ice
> storm that left at least 36 people dead and a million without electric
> power. People worldwide are being reminded of what used to be common
> sense:
> Cold temperatures are inimical to human welfare and warm weather is
> beneficial. Left in the dark and cold, Oklahomans rushed out to buy
> electric
> generators powered by gasoline, not solar cells. No one seemed
> particularly
> concerned about the welfare of polar bears, penguins or walruses. Fossil
> fuels don't seem so awful when you're in the cold and dark.
> >
> > If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming,
> you're
> hopelessly naive. Nothing creates cognitive dissonance in the mind of a
> true
> believer. In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained "global
> warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter." In other
> words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can't
> make
> this stuff up.
> >
> > Global warming has long since passed from scientific hypothesis to the
> realm of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.
> >
> > David Deming is a geophysicist, an adjunct scholar with the National
> Center for Policy Analysis, and associate professor of Arts and Sciences
> at
> the University of Oklahoma.
> > __________________________________________________
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>
>
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