Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
You seem like a reasonable guy. Why would you not be on the train? Pretty hard not to be when you actually read up on it.
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Because anybody that is a reasonable must also be skeptical or open to reason from all sides of an argument by definition. I look at the politicization of the climate change movement as more a social and psychological issue than a scientific proof. People and societies are chronically guilty of being short-sighted and when you look at the longer timescale, the period of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming is a mere blip on the history of the earth.
We know that the temperatures on earth have swung widely from colder to warmer, many instances even recorded during the recorded history of civilization with plenty more scientific evidence showing such periods in prehistory.
The explanations for these changes are usually from large global or space borne reasons. Asteroid collisions and volcanic activity throwing up dust, magnetic pole flips, massive changes in oceans and fauna changing the chemistry of the atmosphere, and most often - changes in solar activity. The sun is the largest cause of temperature change and I believe people are falsely correlating a lot of our climate change issues with actions of our own doing and believing that this is something we have any efficacy to change.
It's human nature to seek an explanation for something because in our evolution, the guy who heard a noise that went to check what it was was more likely to live longer than the guy who didn't. We also need to believe we have control or the ability to interact with those things and that fuels and that causes everything from religion or superstition in the human psyche. I see the same thing in the fad-like adoption of the throngs of demagogy that flock toward the climate change debate.
Climate change might even be saving large parts of civilization. Ice ages have occured with a regular period over hundreds of thousands of years. If you believe in man-made climate change, did you ever stop to think that it might be saving us from another glacial age which would probably wipe out most developed nations?
I'm no professional scientist, just admittedly a nerd in areas that interest me and I have looked at lot of evidence and have drawn my own conclusions. I'm not saying that there isn't overwhelming scientific evidence for antropogenic global warming as there is. But there is also evidence on the other side and I can't help but notice the rash of political support and funding that seems to be extremely partisan in which studies are funded or promoted. I take issue with that and my main interest in climate change is not in the climate change itself, but the political and social consequences of it.
I think changes in climate are mostly out of our control and due to solar activity or other natural factors. That is not to say that I don't believe in protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, limiting emissions, developing alternative energy, being "green", etc. I believe you should do those things irregardless and there are plenty of other reasons for that than jumping on the climate change bandwagon which presents a science that is not objective enough or complete enough to be convincing to me.