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Today's Poll: Do you believe the theory of man-made global warming?

By Howard B. Owens
tom hunt

The Earth has gone through many periods of gobal warming and cooling cycles without the aid of mankind. Palm trees once grew in the Artic zone and warm blooded animals trived in areas that today are considered too cold. The carbon cycle is an unrefuted fact of Nature and can't be affected by human activies. I saw on TV the little known and little discussed fact that on the bottom of the World's oceans lay billions of tons of methane hydroxide in crystal form. As long as they are below 1300 feet and kept colder than 33 degrees they are harmless. But when the temperatures rise above the critical point they disolve and trillions of cubic feet of methane will be release in the atmosphere causing an enormous green house effect raising World temperatures many degrees. This has happened in the past and probably will happen again. The Japanese are experimenting with mining techniques to harvest this vast untapped energy source.

Apr 9, 2012, 10:48am Permalink
Doug Yeomans

14,000 years ago this area and ALL of Canada (and more area) was under more than a mile thick sheet of ice. I'd say the last "climate change" was rapid and is still ongoing. It had/has nothing to do with what humans are doing.

Periods of extreme climate change will continue to happen and eventually will erase all signs that we were ever here (after we become one of the 99% of species that have gone extinct).

The earth's surface is about 75% water and we inhabit about 10% of the remaining land area. That means humans inhabit about 2.5% of the earths surface. The majority of the bio-mass of the earth is in the oceans, not above them. Forces far and above mans abilities are responsible for climate change. We may have minor impacts on isolated localities but in the overall, bigger picture, our impact is nothing more than a mosquito bite on the earth's arse.

Apr 9, 2012, 12:37pm Permalink
Sean McKellar

Perhaps a scientific definition of the word "theory" is needed here.

"a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine." From dictionary.com

Man-made global warming is a theory just as are the theories of evolution or even gravity. When it comes to science, the phrase "it's only a theory" is meaningless.

The vast, vast majority of climatologists agree that global warming is very real and is caused by human activity.

I choose to agree with people who have a whole lot more education than I do.

Apr 9, 2012, 1:08pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

So, how do you explain the latest warming trend that started about 14000 years ago? Humans were a barely registrable blip on the landscape but the Laurentide ice sheet melted in a few decades and possibly even in a shorter period of time than that. Humans didn't cause that to happen.

I don't believe your claim that "The vast, vast majority of climatologists agree that global warming is very real and is caused by human activity." Global warming is just as true as global cooling. It's called climate change and has been an ongoing tug of war since the earth formed and cooled enough to have "weather."

http://climatechange.umaine.edu/Research/projects/laurentide.html
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc130k.html

Apr 9, 2012, 2:08pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

Here is how I learned scientific method when I was in school (shortened version)
1.) make an observation
2.) form a hypothesis
3.) test hypothesis (through experimentation)
4.) analyze data
5.) draw a conclusion

Modern liberal driven science does it differently (global warming, evolution, economics, etc.)

1.) draw a conclusion
2.) collect data from any source, use data that supports the pre-drawn conclusion, disregard the rest. If data is found to be skewed, corrupt, or falsified, ignore that too and call those who report it ignorant, backwards, and politically motivated.
3.) make observations while reinforcing the conclusion. When observations support the conclusion, make major pronouncements through the the field of academia and the media. When observations conflict with the conclusion, disregard them, or change the terms of the conclusion so that all data, even conflicting data somehow supports the conclusion (record warm spells = global warming, record cold spells = global warming, record number of major storms = global warming, unprecedented lack of major storms = global warming)

America's schools are still producing some of the greatest scientists but at the same time are cultivating some the greatest con artists.

Apr 9, 2012, 4:11pm Permalink
Sean McKellar

Man oh man Jeff, thanks for the belly laugh!

What the heck is "modern liberal science"? Since when do scientists wear political labels? Do you prefer "modern conservative science"? And what exactly is the "etc..."?

I'm not going to post any links because the controversy that has been manufactured by Big Oil has hoodwinked so many people and spawned so many crackpot websites that you can use crap articles to support any view you want to. On either side of the argument.

I choose to place nothing above the judgment of my own mind. And after much reading, I've decided that global warming is real and man made.

Apr 9, 2012, 6:44pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

Sean, if you are going to quote me, quote accurately. You edited out the word "driven" which is important in the context. There is a recent opening for creative editing at NBC. You have determined through your own reading that global warming is real and man made. How do you reconcile the same "experts" saying that both cold trends and hot trends are a result of global warming? How do you reconcile the assertion by "experts" that both an abundance of hurricanes/tornadoes and a lack thereof are results of global warming? How do you reconcile the admitted data fraud from the University of East Anglia? How do you reconcile the trends mentioned above by others that are not steeped in rhetoric, they are simply factual observations obtained through real and long accepted scientific methods?

Apr 9, 2012, 7:20pm Permalink
Kyle Couchman

Sean.... You said "I choose to place nothing above the judgment of my own mind. And after much reading, I've decided that global warming is real and man made."

Isnt that the same line of thinking that made us believe the world was flat, that the sun and universe revolve around us. Thought so, cant believe everything you hear Sean, but you also cant disbelieve all of it either.

Apr 9, 2012, 8:37pm Permalink
Mark Brudz

Sean, That is actually not true, scientist and climatalogist are actually split 50-50 on the cause of global warming, what they agree on is that the earth is going through a warming cycle.

Just look in your history books for anomolies,

The Year Without a Summer (also known as the Poverty Year, Year There Was No Summer, and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death) was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F), resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere. It is believed that the anomaly was caused by a combination of a historic low in solar activity with a volcanic winter event, the latter caused by a succession of major volcanic eruptions capped by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), the largest known eruption in over 1,300 years.

Apr 9, 2012, 9:04pm Permalink
John Woodworth JR

"Manmade Global Warming?" Sean I agree that Global Warming is real but, not manmade. There are signs that man contributes to it though. After 9-11, all air traffic was suspended and according to scientist the air temperature dropped three to five degrees during the cancellation of flights. My observations is global warming is a natural effect like a lake turning over. Unfortunately weather records have been only recorded for a small period of time in our history. There are records that have been recently broken that were recorded around a hundred years ago. Man cannot control weather or change it.

Apr 10, 2012, 2:08am Permalink

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