17th October 2012, 7:10 AM
Someone put together an interesting image. Of those who are "skeptical" of global warming, many have looked at figures presented to them for certain periods of times, noting that during those small periods average global temperatures have gone down. However, the long view shows that these are temporary and slight compared to the steady climb.
<img src="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2012/10/SkepticsvRealistsv3.gif">
This graphic is "snarky" but accurate. Sometimes temperatures go down a little, but not enough to stop the overall trend.
Fortunately, lately most have begun to accept that global warming is real. They just don't believe it is caused by humans. To that I say there's good reason to believe humans are the cause, but even if they AREN'T, even if this is an entirely natural global warming, should we not STILL want to reverse it? 99% of all species that ever lived are extinct. That's "natural", and as a consequence basically a prediction for humanity. However, I say if we are able to, let's take the reigns of ecology and try to prevent that. Let's do our best to "freeze" the planet in it's current state to prevent our extinction if we can. If humans aren't the cause of global warming, we have a daunting task of finding out what IS responsible and stopping it (my bet is Omicronians). If humans ARE responsible, our task becomes magnitudes simpler, but still difficult and necessary.
<img src="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2012/10/SkepticsvRealistsv3.gif">
This graphic is "snarky" but accurate. Sometimes temperatures go down a little, but not enough to stop the overall trend.
Fortunately, lately most have begun to accept that global warming is real. They just don't believe it is caused by humans. To that I say there's good reason to believe humans are the cause, but even if they AREN'T, even if this is an entirely natural global warming, should we not STILL want to reverse it? 99% of all species that ever lived are extinct. That's "natural", and as a consequence basically a prediction for humanity. However, I say if we are able to, let's take the reigns of ecology and try to prevent that. Let's do our best to "freeze" the planet in it's current state to prevent our extinction if we can. If humans aren't the cause of global warming, we have a daunting task of finding out what IS responsible and stopping it (my bet is Omicronians). If humans ARE responsible, our task becomes magnitudes simpler, but still difficult and necessary.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)