How Did Global Warming Became a Cool Issue & a Hot Cause?
Have you ever conversed with someone who is skeptical of global warming projections?
Have you made any changes to the way you live out of concerns about climate change?
Are your concerns motivated by emotional, spiritual, moral, intellectual or social influences?
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7 comments:
My apologies to those interviewed whose clips didn't make it into the video. There was a an irrecoverably damaged section of tape.
Okay, so I was thinking I'd be interested to hear about those who "oppose" global warming, or believe it's an overblown issue. Knowing very little about it, I'd like to believe it's an overblown issue, because that's means I'm off the hook!
Is it overblown?
Somebody let me off the hook.
One of my daughters woke up a couple of days ago and said, "Daddy, daddy ... I had a dream: I dreamed that I asked God what to do about the world getting too warm and He said he would make a new world for us!"
I almost cried when she said this, because of course I don't believe (don't have the faith to believe?) that God will make us a new world if we screw this one up. And something about a little girl who won't be an adult for many years saying this really struck deep. What will this world look like when she's all grown up.
Later she was talking about making things that are bad into things that are good. She said that she thought that would be really hard. I told her the big adult word for that is "redemption."
I hope we can redeem this world.
As a physicist I've had a lot of questions and doubts about the issue of global warming. We all know the earth has been colder and hotter than it is today, and we all know that there have been periods in recorded history which have been cooler. One such period occurred between 1645 and 1715, known as the little ice age in Europe temperatures decreased dramatically for about 70 years. This period corresponds with a period of relatively low solar activity and is known as the Maunder minimum, (see http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/lisa3/beckmanj.html)
I watched Al gores film to see what it had to say. I love how he drives around in his big Caddy and tells us how bad green house gases are. Certainly, we all need to cut down on our impact on the planet, but can we really change the climate by doing this? Maybe we can, but I'm more likely to believe that there are many other factors involved. Statistics are a wonderful thing, you can twist them to prove nearly anything. Al points to graphs which show a correspondence between temperature and green house gases, but the same relationship can be shown between solar activity and temperature.
Kyoto is an example of the stupidity of politicians gone mad. If green house gases are really that bad, buying credits from your neighbors will not solve the problem! In fact the 400,000,000 tons of CO2 that Canada is going to cut, is equivalent to the amount of CO2 produced by the increase in population over the last century on the planet. This says nothing for all the animals which are farmed to feed an ever growing population.
I wonder what Jesus would say about the whole thing if he were here. I can imagine living next door to him, a nice Jewish tradesman, a little odd perhaps, talking to himself as if there was someone listening and skateboarding with the kids on the block as if he were one of them, but overall not a bad neighbor. I wonder if he would recycle. I wonder if he would drive a smart car. I wonder if he would use one of those push mowers on his grass.
One thing I do know, if the everyday, ordinary people around him were concerned about global warming, he would be too.
Yes the earth is heating up. Yes we are partly to blame - it's complex beyond the average person's grasp (without some studious effort) but it's true...
Can we "fix" it? Reverse it? ... I see no one has pointed out the arrogance of humanity at assuming we can control the climate...
It's taken many decades to create the influence we are detecting today and it will take longer to correct it. We can start by switching from coal to nuclear (obviously over many years) and building more efficient automobiles (methanol power anyone?)
but it could be worse. Global cooling could cull 1/3 of us within a decade...
The truth is - we still cannot predict the future, especially with something so incredibly complex.
-I think that the severity is overstated. The media are all about drama and there's no drama in 'global warming is not that scary' It's a purely political issue driven by the media
-having said that, I think that global warming is a real issue and that something needs to be done and that the rampant consumerism in the developed countries is fairly appalling and has more far reaching effects than global warming.
-I also think that it's red herring to tell people that changing their light bulbs will save the earth. I've done it, I think everyone should do their part, but the real problem here concerning global warming are the large manufacturing companies and oil companies etc. So if you want to talk about individual action; keep it a political/election issue, educate yourself and lobby politicians for legislation and enforcement and meaningful fines. Also, don't underestimate your power as a consumer. You vote for something with every dollar you spend. Know the offenders and shop elsewhere.
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