Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS] Fox News and global warming

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Jack Smith wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-07-10 at 15:42 -0500, Mike Miller wrote:
>   
> > It is interesting that one network is playing such a strong role in 
> > promoting distortions of science:
> >
> > http://foxattacks.com/
> >     
>
> Humans causing global warming is a theory, not a fact. A theory is
> nothing more than an idea about how something happens or has happened.
> It will be impossible to attribute climate change to any one cause as it
> is impossible to have a control and it is also impossible to isolate the
> system and test just one factor. Thus human-caused global warming will
> never become more than a theory as we can never prove it. Theories are
> just educated or semi-educated guesses and can and will be challenged
> and attacked, simply because there's no way to prove the critic nor the
> defender right or wrong. 
>   

The official position of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change) is that there is a 9 out of 10 chance that man's activities are 
contributing noticeably to global warming.  I personally feel that this 
is a good assessment of where things stand - it is not a slam dunk 
theory, but neither is it junk science.  To present it as either extreme 
is to do a disservice.

http://cfsf.missouri.edu/pages/WG1AR4_SPM_PlenaryApproved.pdf

There is more to science than laboratory experiments with controls, and 
I do think that in the decades to come that our scientific abilities 
will get to the point where we can make definitive judgments on the 
issue - we are just not there yet.  In the mean time I think it would be 
wise for us to make moderate efforts to cut back on our carbon dioxide 
emission (and also I think that such cut backs will paradoxically 
improve our economy, both because of the new innovation required, and 
also because it will reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil), but I 
don't think we need to be extremist environmentalists either.

Stephen


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