Deny this!
With the release of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report summary on climate, the mainstream press has gone into a feeding frenzy of apocalyptic headlines and hyperventilating hyperbole about the now-inevitable climate catastrophe the Earth is in for. Ignoring that the report itself is little changed from the Third Assessment Report of 2001, activists and journalists have joined in lockstep, deriding anyone who questions the horrific picture as a "denier," grouping them with the "Holocaust Deniers" who insist that Hitler was really a nice guy.
As a counterpoint to the hysteria, Lawrence Solomon of Canada's National Post has written a series profiling ten of these skeptical individuals. It's an interesting series -- Solomon describes their credentials and the arguments they make, most of which don't really "deny" anything in particular but rather try to shed some light on what might be going on with global climate other than the orthodox CO2-induced-furnace situation that everyone seems to be worried about.
Take a look at Solomon's series, and see if these guys look like a bunch of nuts... or if they might actually have something to say.
Really, I hate to sound like Urbie-One-Note, with these repeated columns and blog entries on global climate -- but when we're hit with alarmist media pronouncements on a daily basis, it's hard to let it all pass without comment. When things reach the stage where intelligent discussion is impossible because everyone's made up his mind, that's a sad state of affairs. But that's what we get from the global-warming Gore-huggers. Their dismissal of skeptics as "deniers" is a low blow. Meanwhile, if they'd take the time to read the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (as opposed to merely taking a few incendiary phrases from the Summary for Policy Makers, which gives a much more extreme opinion than the entire report), we'd all be better off. (The Fourth Assessment Report, which has been completed but not yet released, is an update of the Third report, but as far as can be determined from the summary, does not contain any great new revelations about the state of world climate.)
Once again, it's important to reiterate that there is cause for concern about possible human influences on global climate. It would be a decidedly good thing to burn less gas and coal. We should be looking at all possible options to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere. But using terms like "deniers" serves no one.
Urb's Blog
As a counterpoint to the hysteria, Lawrence Solomon of Canada's National Post has written a series profiling ten of these skeptical individuals. It's an interesting series -- Solomon describes their credentials and the arguments they make, most of which don't really "deny" anything in particular but rather try to shed some light on what might be going on with global climate other than the orthodox CO2-induced-furnace situation that everyone seems to be worried about.
Take a look at Solomon's series, and see if these guys look like a bunch of nuts... or if they might actually have something to say.
Really, I hate to sound like Urbie-One-Note, with these repeated columns and blog entries on global climate -- but when we're hit with alarmist media pronouncements on a daily basis, it's hard to let it all pass without comment. When things reach the stage where intelligent discussion is impossible because everyone's made up his mind, that's a sad state of affairs. But that's what we get from the global-warming Gore-huggers. Their dismissal of skeptics as "deniers" is a low blow. Meanwhile, if they'd take the time to read the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (as opposed to merely taking a few incendiary phrases from the Summary for Policy Makers, which gives a much more extreme opinion than the entire report), we'd all be better off. (The Fourth Assessment Report, which has been completed but not yet released, is an update of the Third report, but as far as can be determined from the summary, does not contain any great new revelations about the state of world climate.)
Once again, it's important to reiterate that there is cause for concern about possible human influences on global climate. It would be a decidedly good thing to burn less gas and coal. We should be looking at all possible options to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere. But using terms like "deniers" serves no one.
Urb's Blog
posted by Urbie at 2:25 PM
1 Comments:
Hey, Urb!
Just wanted to let you know that you're invited to my virtual birthday party today! Come on over and bring as many guests as you'd like!
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