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Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the UN’s top scientific panel on climate change will meet in the Spanish port city of Valencia today to finalise a landmark report on global warming and how to avoid its worst ravages.
Some voices, including from within the IPCC itself, fear the panel’s grand report will be badly out of date before it is even printed. Others quietly criticise the organisation as being too conservative in its appreciation of the climate threat.
“Over the past several years we have realized … that the speed at which changes can occur — such as ice sheet disintegration and resulting sea level rise — is much faster than IPCC has estimated,” leading climatologist James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, told AFP.
Another weakness of the IPCC, say others, is a tendency to shy away from controversy.
British scientist James Lovelock blames the consensus rule that governs IPCC proceedings, enabling government representatives to meddle with “forthright and inconvenient forecasts” made by experts.
Scientific peer review is so devoted to checking and rechecking data and studies that researchers sometimes need a wake-up call to move them into action based on their own conclusions.
That cartoon depicts EXACTLY what is wrong with Americans. Not only about the environment, but the overall personality of most non-intellectuals.
Hey I thought James Hansen was being muzzled by the Bush Administration?
Well good for them if they are waking up to doing real science instead of scaring people with press releases. The best way to avoid the worst ravages of global warming is for countries to develop their economy more so they can adjust. Indeed this is the flaw in what the scientists have been saying. To get the worst estimates of global warming, they plug in high levels of economic growth for the third world. Then they turn around and say all that warming is going to destroy those countries. No it won’t because they are now much wealthier, and better able to adjust. If they aren’t as wealthy, then there was not as much CO2 admitted, and the warming is not as high.
If they are going to use their models, they should at least do so accurately. Instead we have a number of scientists saying that it is more important to exaggerate and lie.
And all 19000 of these scientists are bought and paid for by Big Oil.
http://www.oism.org/pproject/
Even if global warming were to be a myth, what we are talking about ultimately is pollution. If we were to approach the subject from a ‘pollution reduction’ perspective, then maybe the non-believers would start to support the effort to reduce man-made emissions.
The reality is that every reputable independent study shows that man made pollution is directly influencing the earth’s climate, and that the influence is increasing.
There are studies that indicate otherwise, but those studies tend to be as reputable as the studies that show that UFO’s are real and there are aliens living amongst us, or that there is a science that proves that ghosts haunt certain houses.. At this point, the only people that seem to actively fight the global warming studies and evidence are the same that believe in UFO’s and ghosts. They also tend to use the same kind of evidence: some highly publicized statement by some nobody that happens to get media coverage, although their credentials and proofs are easily debunked.
But in the end it comes to this: global warming is caused by pollution, and pollution is bad. So why not take care of two problems at once and take serious steps to reduce pollution.
conservatives won’t be happy until all farm land in america lay fallow with poison, all our rivers undrinkable, and our schools and universities closed.
they’re a little behind schedule, but if they keep the white house in ’08, i’m sure they’ll catch up.
So–what are China and India planning to do other than burn as much oil as they can get???==Oh, thats right, deplete the oceans of fish and burn coal too.
Doesn’t matter what we do–even as we obviously plan to do NOTHING!!!
Boobo –
Just because others are doing the wrong thing, it doesn’t mean that we should also do so. That kind of attitude is called ‘moral relativity’, and it is one of least defensible sins.
Conservatives are all about setting an example and living by higher values. Or is that just talk, with the reality being exactly the opposite?
Carbon dioxide isn’t pollution.
Thank you for the post. By the way, I think you should use more editorial cartoons on the blog. They really add to the content.
#4 iGlobalFool –
Yeah right, like that old 1998 ‘petition’ hasn’t been debunked over and over:
http://tinyurl.com/yv2b39
http://tinyurl.com/38nqdj
The ‘petition’ is bullshit. It is a lie and a fraud. It has been proven over and over.
Even the American Academy of Sciences, which the petition’s author used to be President, has this to say about the petition:
The NAS Council would like to make it clear that this petition has nothing to do with the National Academy of Sciences and that the manuscript was not published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or in any other peer-reviewed journal.
The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy.
Is there ANYTHING that climate change deniers can quote that can’t be proven unreliable, made-up or just plain stupid? Some REAL scientific study with some respectable organization behind it? ANYTHING?
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
MikeN –
Any human added element in excess of natural levels is pollution, including CO2.
From the dictionary:
1. undesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities
this old dead horse has been beat enough hasn’t it.
Global warming is a religion not a science and it is like trying to convert a radical Muslim to a Buddhist. I gave up trying to talk sense into the chicken little/global warming crowd a long time ago, when you show them evidence to the contrary they stick their fingers in their ears and go lalalalalalalala get the behind me neocon satanist pig bla bla bla outlyer , lies lies la la la, great manbearpig save us.
The problem is there are things worse than a 5 degree global average temp change. One of those things is the complete destruction of the industrialized world’s economies.
LaLaLaLaLaLa… there is no global warming…
LaLaLaLaLaLa… studies showing global warming are all fake…
LaLaLaLaLaLa… CO2 is not pollution…
LaLaLaLaLaLa… Warmer climate is beneficial…
LaLaLaLaLaLa… it is all a Hollywood conspiracy…
LaLaLaLaLaLa… Bush is a visionary…
#13-14, you guys are right of course. There’s a huge groups of people that have somehow convinced themselves they’re evil and guilty of something now they need to punish themselves (and the rest of us) by destroying everything Mankind has evolved toward.
#12 – You’re exactly right. The problem is the underlying assumption that increased CO2 is “undesirable”. That’s scientific void the whole fiction of AGW is based on.
Remember when all the of sciences top minds said the earth was flat – and people were executed for saying it was round? Global warming – the biggest hoax on mankind in history. The press loves stuff like this – sells papers and gets viewers/listeners. What’s true has nothing to do with it.
http://tinyurl.com/2dvkrs
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
MikeN Carbon dioxide isn’t pollution.
do you really believe that pumping CO2 into the atmosphere on a global industrial scale for well over century, permanently altering the mixture of the gases in our atmosphere in the way that we have will have zero effect on the global climate?
really?
is it that hard to believe that altering a complex system’s core constituents will have consequences?
really?
how can that possibly make any sense?
#17 Ummm, It was science and true scientists that proved the world was round, and that it was not the center of the universe, etc.
Nevertheless, I think it’s wrong to stifle debate and we should give equal time to those who still believe the world is flat.
Scientists got executed for saying the world was not the center of the universe because that’s not what right leaning conservatives of the time wanted people to believe. It was too disruptive. Sort of the same reason people have a hard time accepting global warming today.
grandpa, what was it like before the ice caps melted?
#8 – Conservatives are all about setting an example and living by higher values. Or is that just talk, with the reality being exactly the opposite?
The second one.
#13 – I gave up trying to talk sense into the chicken little/global warming crowd a long time ago
You have to have sense to talk sense.
#17 – Remember when all the of sciences top minds said the earth was flat – and people were executed for saying it was round?
I guess I don’t remember that. Tell us more about when you were young, Grandpa…
#19 – Nevertheless, I think it’s wrong to stifle debate and we should give equal time to those who still believe the world is flat.
Using the old “give em enough rope” strategy… I like it 🙂
#14
You don’t believe that global warming is real and is caused or is at least aided by human CO2 production.
You do believe that significantly reducing CO2 emissions will result in worldwide economic collapse.
Why is it so hard to believe one “chicken little” scenario and not the other?
I mean do have have actual proof that the world economy would collapse? Is there a significant body of UN economists warning of the dangers of CO2 reduction?
>>Is there a significant body of UN economists warning of the
>>dangers of CO2 reduction?
Everyone knows UN economists are all long-haired hippie-type pinko fags. Only when Rush “Anal Cyst” Limbaugh and Bill “Loofah Pad” O’Reilly say something will the Global Warming Denial Industry sit up and take notice.
Awake, you are obviously a staunch believer so what have you done to reduce your personal contribution global warming? Secondly, what actions have you taken externally (exerting public pressure) to do your part?
Someone please give your logic behind why oil is at an all time high when oil companies are allegedly trying to encourage the use of burning oil as fuel? I’m driving a lot more now that gas is increased $4 a gallon (Canada). Oil’s starting to make wind farms look so cheap that no investor would want to start one.
#24: JimR
Personal steps:
– Replaced just about every lightbulb with CF.
– Setup computers to sleep after 10 minutes of no input
– Insulated attic.
– Intentionally plan car travel to minimize fuel expenditures and/or use subway instead of driving into city.
– Recycle, recycle, recycle.
– Minimize use of non recyclable items, such as plastics.
– Currently building Solar water preheater out of old water heater to reduce water heating energy.
– Reduced thermostat temp
– Replaced single pane windows with double pane windows.
– Replaced broken washer with most energy efficient model I could find.
– Vote for candidates that are eco-friendly
– many more little things that add up.
Public pressure:
– Mainly trying to educate people, on forums like this one about the truth about global warming. Sadly it mainly consists of fighting those that, for reasons known only to themselves, want to actively promote doing the wrong thing. Showing how in EVERY case the deniers are just posting bullshit by drinking corporate and special-interest Cool-aid.
25 – JimR
You are driving a lot MORE now that gas is $4/gallon ???
On what backwards planet does that make ANY sense at all?
Why is this discussion centered on global warming? The new buzz word is climate change people. There is no question that CO2 is a greenhouse gas and that the world climate has changed recently. So to say that there are deniers of either is bullshit in real percentages.
There are however many skeptics as to the validity of:
1) mankind being entirely responsible for climate change when so many contributors are not fully understood, and the IPCC assumption that they in fact know all that are meaningful.
2) Any good coming from climate change dwarfs the bad so much that the good isn’t worth mentioning… ever.
3) the IPCC who condemns any scientist who dares not concur
4) computer models which are consistently wrong, including the rate of warming, and the exact opposite of the effect on hurricane season 2 years in a row.
5) Exaggeration from IPCC scientists and of the media of the immediate danger to all life on Earth as illustrated by their own lack of emergency action in relation to the threat.
Let’s start with those.
Awake, at least you are walking the walk. I commend you for that. I can match your list and then some, and I’ve been doing it for 30 years.
I was being sarcastic in post #25 to illustrate that what people are accusing the oil companies of, and what they are doing doesn’t make sense. Activists and mixing manure with the facts in hopes of garnering more interest. The backfire from that is their own F’n fault.
#26 – Mainly trying to educate people, on forums like this one about the truth about global warming. Sadly it mainly consists of fighting those that, for reasons known only to themselves, want to actively promote doing the wrong thing. Showing how in EVERY case the deniers are just posting bullshit by drinking corporate and special-interest Cool-aid.
It’s the “actively promote doing the wrong thing” that is often just mind blowing. Let’s say that we are wrong, and the million billion zillion metric tons of pollution we pump out into the Earth isn’t heating up the planet… Even if that were true, why would it be bad to promote the idea that trying have a significantly lower impact on the environment is good?
We breath this air. We drink this water. We eat foods that were grown in this air and this water. We live on this ground. Even dogs have sense not to shit where they sleep. Why are humans not as smart?