Am I still allowed to question climate change?

[MrSmith]

I thought they had discovered that solar activity has been in decline so theoretically the planet should be cooling. If the planet should be cooling but CO2 is increasing then a stable temperature wouldn’t be much of a surprise.

[Cyclone]

But imagine the alternative.

 

What did we do?

v

v

v

v

v

v

Doh!

 

You asked who'd care if we take unnecessary action, not whether the risk meant we should err on the side of caution.

[Halibut]

O dear,

 

Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague

 

 

Yesterday Prof Muller insisted that neither his claims that there has not been a standstill, nor the graph, were misleading because the project had made its raw data available on its website, enabling others to draw their own graphs.

However, he admitted it was true that the BEST data suggested that world temperatures have not risen for about 13 years. But in his view, this might not be ‘statistically significant’, although, he added, it was equally possible that it was – a statement which left other scientists mystified.

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2055191/Scientists-said-climate-change-sceptics-proved-wrong-accused-hiding-truth-colleague.html#ixzz1cHmaEDge

 

The Daily Mail is well known for its cavalier attitude to science - and I'll lay a tenner that you wouldn't understand what statistical significance meant if it poked you in the face.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Halibut

[retep]

The Daily Mail is well known for its cavalier attitude to science - and I'll lay a tenner that you wouldn't understand what statistical significance meant if it poked you in the face.

 

Perhaps with your great knowledge you can enlighten me, i'm waiting.

[Tony]

You asked who'd care if we take unnecessary action, not whether the risk meant we should err on the side of caution.

 

That was rhetoric.

 

You yourself used the phrase "logical fallacy" elsewhere. It's an appropriate choice of words for your own apparent position on this topic.

[Cyclone]

My position? Somewhat sceptical of the level of impact that humans are having on climate change, and somewhat sceptical that we understand the system well enough to take any meaningful action to achieve any stated goal...

 

I'd rather not see the productivity of the world wasted for 50 years in an attempt to change something that we don't really understand. Spending productivity to perform more unbiased research and actually learn to accurately model that system, that I can see the value in. And armed with that information we can then decide whether and how to act.

[MrSmith]

My position? Somewhat sceptical of the level of impact that humans are having on climate change, and somewhat sceptical that we understand the system well enough to take any meaningful action to achieve any stated goal...

 

I'd rather not see the productivity of the world wasted for 50 years in an attempt to change something that we don't really understand. Spending productivity to perform more unbiased research and actually learn to accurately model that system, that I can see the value in. And armed with that information we can then decide whether and how to act.

 

The problem with that is that it could be too late to act once we know for definite that we are causing climate change, making a few changes now to slow down our green house emissions makes sense.

[retep]

The problem with that is that it could be too late to act once we know for definite that we are causing climate change, making a few changes now to slow down our green house emissions makes sense.

 

And while we dilly trying to save the planet, as shown here,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/24/energy-coal-carbon-capture-environment

 

China dally's, as shown here,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6769743.stm

[MrSmith]

And while we dilly trying to save the planet, as shown here,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/24/energy-coal-carbon-capture-environment

 

China dally's, as shown here,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6769743.stm

 

Clearly there is little point in use doing something on our own, it’s a global problem that as to be dealt with globally.

 

China has over 400 photovoltaic (PV) companies and produces approximately 23% of the photovoltaic products worldwide.[1] In 2007 China produced 1700 MW of solar panels, nearly half of the world production of 3800 MW, although 99% was exported.

China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy.

 

It seems the Chinese are more than just talk. The Chinese Government made a big thing about Earth Hour a few days ago, but before that they were already planning on moving into green renewable power as a source for their growing industrial power needs.

And China are still tackling population growth

[Cyclone]

The problem with that is that it could be too late to act once we know for definite that we are causing climate change, making a few changes now to slow down our green house emissions makes sense.

 

Nobody is talking about 'just a few changes' though are they. Wholesale carbon sequestration plans are being discussed, ideas to seed the ocean with iron, or the air with silver nitride, even ideas like putting a huge mirror into orbit to reflect some sunlight.

Couple that with a wholesale shift in energy production to wind, which requires a massive subsidy to be competitive!

 

The 'few changes' you mention have been made over the past decades already, industry is cleaner, transport is cleaner, new planes coming onto the market are cleaner, but the hysteria (for a while) continued to increase.