Thread: "Denial"

I agree with your post entirely. That quote was so absured it actually made me laugh at it. having skepticism is never a bad thing. Even if a theory holds true 99.9999% of the time, having that open mind and bit of skepticism lets you see that one time it doesnt hold.

I believe most people equaite being skeptical with not having an open mind, which is completely false. Being skeptical means you can accept (note, not blindly believe) any reality that the objective proof provides..which to me means very very open minded.

There seems to be some evidence that the Earth is warming faster than it used to during previous cycles by looking at ice core samples. CO2 levels are also higher, but that doesn't imply causation of course; it could equally be a symptom of the problem as trapped gasses are released.

The problem with climate change is that there's so much stuff pretending to be science (Al Gore, bad reporting in the mass media), that it's hard to separate legitimate stuff out from the crap.

potholer54 has some very interesting videos on the subject that looks at evidence for and against either side, as well as debunking some of the crappy myths.


Edit: that MP comment is also ironic given that the government decided to completely ignore scientific evidence and expert testimonials from one of the most respected medical journals in the world when formulating drugs policy.

Edit 2: also I think part of the problem isn't that people are being well educated on the issue and are generally skeptical, but a lot of ignorant people believe it's a conspiracy theory and use flawed arguments to justify it, and that the government are just looking for an excuse to get more taxes (which is actually true I suppose)

I'm of the opinion that something needs to be settled science for some period of decades prior to it becoming acceptable to hound deniers.

This is also a valid part of the scientific process: If you want to question and overturn evolution, that's fine but you better come packing some serious evidence. It's just a waste of time otherwise and time is not to be wasted. The way I look at it, everybody is close minded about the vast majority of statements that could be made. The trick is to be open minded about the minority that can actually potentially be "true".

All science can ever do at the most basic level is say that something is not true and not that it is.

There is no denying that the Earth is heating up, that's an ironclad fact. Just look at the glacier retreating of the last 50 years in timelapse and you'll see it before your very eyes. How much of that is due to human activity is unknown, but considering the relationship between CO2 and heat retention (and we've double the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in the last 150 years), it's not a stretch.

Having said that, the Sun is going through a very long peak season in intensity and activity, more than we've ever recorded before. What's causing it and how much it is contributing to our warming is up for debate.

Even if we're only responsible for a minutae of the Earth's heating, as the sentient species of this planet we have the implicit responsibility to protect it for all other species as well as our own. We hold this planet in escrow for our children, their children and so on. Anything we can do to keep it as pleasant (or habitable) as possible should be done.

I'm sure I read somewhere that Scotlands energy generation is roughly 20-24% renewable from wind and hydro. They're bringing up your national average.

I think you guys are kinda missing the point of his post...This didnt seem to be intended to be a global warming debate to me...

but since you all felt the need, Ill just say that weather we are conributing or not, we need other fuel anyways case oil will run out much sooner than anything else...that reason in itself is good enough for me.

Xei, I agree with you. Though I am no scientist by any means, a lot of what I do involves a lot of science, and a lot of people tell me is lies just because it's not supportive of their magical way of thinking, pisses me off. And that statement made my jaw drop. The fact that people buy into phrases like that just because they include scary words like "holocaust" and "climate."

That's just like the governments awesome job of basing all of their reasoning for some of the most assinine shit ever on "terrorists."

I realize that that's not related to the original purpose of this post, I just had to throw that out there.

But I must agree. I have changed a lot in the past year or so as a result of actual science. Seein things work, how they work. I often wonder how I so long bashed scientific questioning of things, and I'm sorry I did. Because now I feel dumb, as now I use science to regularly question other things.

You can't blame people though. I feel like the world is getting stupider. People are starting to accept things at base value now, just because they include "sensitive" words and topics. Idunno.