I’ve always gotten the impression that the “Global Warming Movement” is more religion than science. An Inconvenient Truth, the movement’s rallying cry, sounds convincing and I knew that it ignored a lot of basic science, widely accepted theories, and facts, but I really never knew to how great an extent that was true.
This morning I watched a documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle it is really outstanding. Anyone who calls themselves an “environmentalist” and has any shred of intellectual integrity ought to at least watch it. Surely hearing some differing viewpoints can’t be that bad, right?
Here are some points brought up in the movie that I thought were interesting.
- The IPCC’s report — you know, the “scientific” work of thousands that global warming fanatics hang their hat on — lists as “authors” people who completely disagree with the report.
- That same report counts among its numbers hundreds upon hundreds of bureaucrats and politicians who are not “scientists” by any definition of the term.
- No study has ever shown that climate change follows CO2… in fact, all of the numbers (including the ones that Gore uses in An Inconvenient Truth) show just the opposite: that CO2 lags behind temperature by hundreds of years.
- CO2 is one of the most minor greenhouse gasses (only accounts for a fraction of a percent) and the human-produced CO2 is only a fraction of that.
- Over the last century, the temperature has actually moved in the OPPOSITE direction of human-produced CO2.
- It’s a large difference in temperature between the tropics and the poles that accounts for violent weather, and “Global Warming” (it’s supporters say) would create a SMALLER disparity… this would lead to MILDER weather patterns, not more violent ones as they claim are going to occur.
Those are just some of the incredibly interesting and thought-provoking facts put forth in the video. It also talks about the origin of Global Warming1: namely, Margaret Thatcher’s desire to be free from the political influence of coal miners and the middle east coupled with the flow of anti-capitalists from the fall of various Marxist regimes. The video discusses why the myths are perpetuated, and what could really be driving the earth’s climate change (hint… it’s the SUN). The thing that I hadn’t really realized before is how dangerous the Global Warming Movement is to the Third World (it effectively relegates them to Third World status for the rest of time).
So… in short… if you claim to believe this Global Warming business because of science and not religion… there are some more facts for you to incorporate into your worldview in this video. If you’re religious about it, about the only benefit you’ll get from watching the video will be a better understanding of the science that stands between you and your irrational beliefs.
By capitalized Global Warming I mean the movement, not the actual act of the earth getting warmer or cooler.
March 12th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Without having watched either item, I’d like to mention that our temperature warming does have a good deal to do with the fact that there was a mini-ice age not too long ago and that the natural tendency is for the planet to warm up following once such thing.
That said, I still like the idea of excreting less noxious chemicals into the air that we breathe — afterall too much CO2 in the air can contribute to breathing problems — mind you that’s a pretty extreme case [note that the building where I have the most of my classes has ventilation issues and thus there have been complaints of increased CO2 in the air, reducing air quality -- but really, it's rather absurd to think that it'll harm the air that much unless I were a) incredibly gullible b) a prof or a grad student who lives in this building in an office somewhere or c) the levels built up to an extent where harm was actually seen -- none of which will happen]!
But really, acid rain and what not isn’t great (although it isn’t caused by CO2 or anything) and the reduction of excretion of DDT and CFCs into the environment has been a good thing. I like the idea of carbon sequestration — mostly ’cause it’ll help get more oil out of the oil sands, and put the CO2 to good use… Not that any of these are intimately linked or anything.
I don’t believe either extreme view on Global Warming… but I am in favour of taking care of our environmnent and of the economy and etc.
shrugs it’ll continue to be a good debate regardless of whatever happens.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
On account of the random, bizarre comments coming from god knows where I’m closing them down.
Unless you happen to be a climatologist, this post is for thinking, not talking.