Could it be more obvious?

[Jacob]

The scientist put it more bluntly in an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post: "The future is now. And it is hot."

That's what the scientists said? How cute.

I agree the earth has climate cycles. That doesn't rule out man made climate change and I believe better safe than sorry would be the smart move here. We have the technology to vastly reduce emissions and the best science of the day points to the conclusion that we are at least a significant contributor to the problem.

What technology might that be? Because we certainly don't have the technology to do it at reasonable cost or efficiency levels or we'd have already done it.

The arguments in this thread against global warming illustrate exactly why this is such a difficult issue for so many people. People look around at their life and weather they see, then extrapolate from there. If it is cool on any given day, no global warming. If it was hotter last year than this year, no global warming.

People struggle for some reason to look at GLOBAL trends and not just at their own tiny slice of the weather world.

Seriously? Did you just type that? Are you the same guy who started this thread with the following?

Could it be more obvious? Watching the trees slowly die around here has been gut wrenching. This last winter was incredibly warm in KC and this summer has been scorching beyond anything I can remember.

That's the quickest flip-flop I can remember.

[calicoug]

Seriously? Did you just type that? Are you the same guy who started this thread with the following?



That's the quickest flip-flop I can remember.

The amazing thing is, I don't even recall having typed that. Truly bizarre. Almost like I didn't do it.

[LiveCoug]

Seriously? Did you just type that? Are you the same guy who started this thread with the following?



That's the quickest flip-flop I can remember.

Try again, my friend.

[calicoug]

Try again, my friend.

He busted out the rolling around head emoticon. I feel totally busted. I can only be grateful I didn't get the flamethrower guy. I wouldn't have recovered.

[Babs]

Yeah. Hard to imagine how he ever had trouble reeling in the ladies.

[Donuthole]

The amazing thing is, I don't even recall having typed that. Truly bizarre. Almost like I didn't do it.

Jacob may have confused the posters, but his point remains. This thread was started by someone arguing in support of the theory of global warming using exactly the tactics you attribute specifically to those arguing against the theory.

[myboynoah]

Every time we have a heavy snowfall all the old guys walk around the office making global warming and Al Gore jokes.

I LOVE those jokes, especially the ones about Al Gore.

[Pelado]

The arguments in this thread against global warming illustrate exactly why this is such a difficult issue for so many people. People look around at their life and weather they see, then extrapolate from there. If it is cool on any given day, no global warming. If it was hotter last year than this year, no global warming.

People struggle for some reason to look at GLOBAL trends and not just at their own tiny slice of the weather world.

I have a hard time agreeing to spend lots of money and/or constrain the markets when there is so much unknown.

How good are the models, really? Have they proved out any predictive value? I don't mean to imply that they need to have correctly predicted the temperature on a particular day five years in advance. If we're depending on the models to tell us what will happen in 50-100 years, shouldn't we at least check in at the 10 year mark? I just want to know that we're capturing the appropriate inputs and using an appropriate formula. If they're doing it right, the feedback should show it - not necessarily on a particular day, but certainly over time.

Once we have confidence that the model is fairly predictive, then let's talk about what to do about the inputs.

The world's history prior to man's existence has too much climate variation for me to conceptually agree right now that man's influence matters much one way or another.

[frank ryan]

Every time we have a heavy snowfall all the old guys walk around the office making global warming and Al Gore jokes.

What do they do when it is really hot?

[YOhio]

What do they do when it is really hot?

Go golfing.

[Donuthole]

Go golfing.

lol

[Jacob]

The amazing thing is, I don't even recall having typed that. Truly bizarre. Almost like I didn't do it.

Sorry. You guys just seem so alike to me. Feel free to take that as a compliment, if you want.

[lambdacoug]

The arguments in this thread against global warming illustrate exactly why this is such a difficult issue for so many people. People look around at their life and weather they see, then extrapolate from there. If it is cool on any given day, no global warming. If it was hotter last year than this year, no global warming.

People struggle for some reason to look at GLOBAL trends and not just at their own tiny slice of the weather world.

The article linked to in the original post did just that.

[calicoug]

I have a hard time agreeing to spend lots of money and/or constrain the markets when there is so much unknown.

How good are the models, really? Have they proved out any predictive value? I don't mean to imply that they need to have correctly predicted the temperature on a particular day five years in advance. If we're depending on the models to tell us what will happen in 50-100 years, shouldn't we at least check in at the 10 year mark? I just want to know that we're capturing the appropriate inputs and using an appropriate formula. If they're doing it right, the feedback should show it - not necessarily on a particular day, but certainly over time.

Once we have confidence that the model is fairly predictive, then let's talk about what to do about the inputs.

The world's history prior to man's existence has too much climate variation for me to conceptually agree right now that man's influence matters much one way or another.

Here's a good article on the point you are raising. Hopefully one day soon we will have two parties acting like adults on this issue instead of just one. This issue will be one that embarrasses Republicans for decades.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-is-here--and-worse-than-we-thought/2012/08/03/6ae604c2-dd90-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_story.html

[SeattleUte]

Yes.