[GeoStL] Re: NGR: Is it really getting warmer?

-
This is about the most sensible thing I have heard on the subject in a 
long time. And it jives with things I have heard from sources not 
directly in front of a microphone. For example, I belonged to an 
aviation forum. There were guys on there who worked at NASA on the data 
that measured subsurface temperatures of the ocean, which they said is 
about the best indicator of the actual earth temperature since it is not 
influenced by things like the heat island effect that plague 
metropolitan data records. Now if you look at the normal weather station 
readings, they are of course going up. But that is mostly due to the 
fact that the urban sprawl has spread to where the weather stations are, 
and with that comes the heat island effect. So most of the statistics 
that the global warming guys are looking at are going to show a general 
temperature increase. However, that is not the case with subsurface 
ocean temperatures.

There were guys who have been looking at this data for decades, and they 
didn't see the warming that everyone was talking about, but whenever 
they questioned anything, they were told to shut up and keep their 
opinions to themselves. They had to be wrong because everyone just KNEW 
that global warming was a fact. To disagree was politically incorrect. 
So the guys who were actually looking at the best indicators were the 
ones that got ignored because global warming was something that 
politicians could use in sound bites, and it was a villain that they 
could spend money on and save us constituents. And of course we would be 
ever grateful for that at the polls.

Just like a good many other topics, there is plenty of evidence to the 
contrary, but you never see it because the press/politicians don't want 
you to see it. If it unavoidably pops up, then they belittle it with 
their junk science and write the people off as crackpots. Or they call 
it junk science so we don't suspect that theirs is the real junk 
science. Of course they don't really believe that. I am not into grand 
conspiracies. Besides, I have learned to never attribute to conspiracy 
what can easily be explained by ignorance / blind acceptance.

That having been said, the other thing they always said was similar to 
what you have said as well. And that is that even when the evidence does 
come around to indicating global warming is actually occurring (and it 
will), it is a "so what" kind of thing, and we are neither the ones 
making it happen, nor can we / should we do anything to try to stop it. 
That by all measures, even if we were to cut our fossil fuel consumption 
by 50 percent, that would amount to less than 2 percent of the 
contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere that termites produce. Those may 
not be the exact numbers, but it was something like that.

But that is where most folks stop, and then most everyone else figures 
you are all for gas guzzling, when for the most part, people who refute 
global warming are not necessarily in favor of that, and hold that there 
should be work done to reduce fossil fuel usage, just not to prevent 
global warming. Not everyone who believes that global warming is not the 
direct effect of fossil fuel abuse is on Exxon's payroll.

So all in all, well said, and I agree.

know_future@xxxxxxxx wrote:

>-
>Morning all,
>I think the evidence is pretty conclusive that we are witnessing a global 
>warming trend. The big question in my mind is whether we can, or should, try 
>to make an effort to reverse it. Geologic evidence indicates that on several 
>occasions in the distant past St. Louis was covered by oceans and had a 
>tropical climate. We also find skeletons of mastadons and other ice age plants 
>and animals. This happened when the oceans receded (the water being stored in 
>massive continental ice sheets) and earth entered one of many global ice ages.
>Indeed there have been numerous global warming and cooling cycles during 
>earth's history. Each cycle lasts for tens of thousands of years, so we have 
>not yet witnessed a complete cycle. The thing to keep in mind is that our 
>climate is cyclical, therefore it is always changing, never static. The 
>earth's climate has been quite cool, by geologic standards, since the 
>beginning of recorded history. That it's becoming warmer should not be 
>surprising.
>Can we do anything about it? I think the answer is: we don't know. To blame 
>ourselves for global warming may be an overreaction. We didn't cause any of 
>the previous warming cycles - they all happened before humans arrived on the 
>scene. Yet something caused them. Geologic history suggests that the earth is 
>inevitably going to enter a global warming cycle. We don't know when or why 
>and most likely, if it is happening now, it's not because of anything we are 
>doing.
>Should we try to do anything about it? In my opinion, no. Why? We don't 
>understand the mechanics of the global climate cycles. Since we don't 
>understand the problem, how can we hope to solve it? When I was in college in 
>the 70s, some scientists believed that we were entering a new ice age. There 
>were proposals to pump massive quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere in an 
>attempt to retain warmth in the atmosphere. How things have changed in just 30 
>years! Personally I think that our ability to alter a global phenomenon that 
>has been occurring for billions of years is about nil.
>On the other hand, saving fossils fuels, reducing emissions of poisonous 
>chemicals, gases, etc. is a worthwhile effort for many obvious health reasons. 
>To say that this will also have an effect on global climate trends just 
>doesn't jive with the historical record, in my mind.
>Thanks for considering my opinion (if you did, that is ).
>Know Future (BS Geology, 1976)
>-- "Mike Griffin" <griff@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>-
>http://www.junkscience.com/
>Mike
>
>Tired of Spam?? 
>Here's your solution..
>See: http://www.spamarrest.com/affl?4001050
>
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