Tom Nelson writes in a Response to Don Cheadle, some things I thought worth repeating here, because it succinctly sums up the position of many climate skeptics.
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(This post was written to respond to Don’s Twitter question here)
Don, off the top of my head, here are some things I believe:
1. CO2 is a greenhouse gas
2. Greenhouse gases have a warming effect
3. Human activity has caused atmospheric CO2 to increase over the last 100+ years
4. The Earth warmed during the 20th century
5. Global sea levels rose about 7.5 inches since 1901
6. We can’t burn fossil fuels forever without running out
7. Alternative energy research is a good thing
8. Energy efficiency is a good thing
9. Destroying the environment is a bad thing
10. I want the best, safest world possible for future generations
Some things I don’t believe:
11. The Earth is a more dangerous place at 61F than at 59F.
12. Carbon dioxide taxes can prevent bad weather
13. Trace CO2 causes drought
If the hard evidence supported the idea that trace CO2 is dangerous, I would be fighting very hard ON YOUR SIDE.
CO2 hysteria risks making energy less available and affordable for poor people who currently have no connection to stable grid power. Many of those people’s lives could be greatly improved by a big honkin’ coal plant instead of some solar panels and wind turbines.
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I would add these to “Some things I don’t believe”:
14. Global warming/climate change causes severe weather (There’s no proven link.)
15. “Ocean acidification” as a claimed byproduct of increased CO2 (It is not a significant problem).
15. Michael Mann (on anything).
16. Various explanations for “the pause”:
The catch is that the higher levels of carbon dioxide also changed the plants’ chemical processes. Assimilating more CO2 left less room for nitrogen, a key component in protein formation. Growth rates went up, but nutritional value went down.”
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Not as I recall. What I remember is that; say CO2 induced growth increased 20%, but proteins & nutritional value only increased 12%, or something to that affect, but both increased.
Yeah, it should be called “an inert trace gas.”
That’s my recollection too.
“If the hard evidence supported the idea that trace CO2 is dangerous, I would be fighting very hard ON YOUR SIDE.” Dismaying give away. You’d lie, cheat, line your pockets and/or give yourself an award, coerce, and manipulate to hand control (economic and otherwise) of the world over to a small group of like-minded individuals who promise to remove bad weather and climate change if I can be made to do as they say?
If CAGW exists, it is a “wrong.” that exists centuries from now but it’s not the only wrong and 2 or 4 or 100 other wrongs don’t make even a single right. And, BTW, what I believe is that any currently insignificant problem associated with CO2 from energy will be an afterthought for technological reasons in 100 years.
@rogernights, Hi Roger, I suspect you are quoting me for some responses that have been written by others. Mine was your first quote, but not the second.
Gareth Phillips says:
April 16, 2014 at 1:31 am
“Aldo describing Co2 as plant food, is like describing O2 as animal food.”
Shall we call it “pollution” instead? Like that better?
‘I would add these to “Some things I don’t believe”:
14. Global warming/climate change causes severe weather (There’s no proven link.)’
Based on the lousy weather during the “Little Ice Age”, it would be more reasonable to conclude that global warming causes LESS extreme weather, global cooling causes MORE extreme weather.
Steven Mosher says:
April 15, 2014 at 11:26 am
That said, it would be a great thing for folks to put down what they actually believe, rather than what they doubt.
“Well, I believe in the soul… the xxxx…the xxxxx… the small of a woman’s back… the hangin’ curveball… high fiber… good scotch… that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent overrated crap… I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. Goodnight.”
Genesis 8:22
The systems are perfect, no man can prove otherwise, let alone permanently alter.
Jason Joice MD
I said believe, not enjoy. most of what you listed are things you enjoy. Note the difference
You say you believe X. I ask why, you give reasons. We can discuss whether this is a justified belief.
You say you believe (enjoy) Scotch. I ask why, you say “well because I do”. or “it tastes good”
I ask why does it taste good.. you say “it just does”
One way to tell the difference between something you enjoy and something you believe is the
reaction you have to someone who questions you.
@Steven Mosher, my attempt to bring some levity by quoting Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in Bull Durham was apparently lost on you. It’s a great movie, you should watch it sometime.
It’s already 600 PPM under the forest canopy in British Columbia. According to Hadi Dowlatabadi, Canada Research Chair and professor in Applied Mathematics and Global Change at the University of British Columbia, in a Canadian debate with Richard Lindzen. (This entire debate is well worth watching, bookmarking.)
[start at 23:06 minutes. It comes around 24 min]
” R. de Haan says:
April 15, 2014 at 10:53 am
I don’t believe anything.
http://iceagenow.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Harris-Mann_Historic_Temp_Chart.jpg”
I’m right with you there, “R”. The problem is the meaning of “Believe”. I use it in the sense of unconditional acceptance of a datum. You may say that I’ve got to believe – say – that I exist. I don’t. It is a reasonable assumption, but if you showed me evidence that I am, say, a few bytes in a computer, I’d accept that pro tem as well. It comes down to evidence – as I say to people who propose a perpetual motion machine, “Fine, show me it working”.
My position,
There has been a global temperature increase of a fraction of a degree since the end of the little ice age. How much of that is due to man is undetermined, likely to at best be minor and does not override natural variability.
“Disputin says:
April 17, 2014 at 2:47 am
… The problem is the meaning of “Believe”. I use it in the sense of unconditional acceptance of a datum. You may say that I’ve got to believe – say – that I exist. I don’t…”
That reminds me of a joke by Raymond Smullyan, in reference to Rene Descartes’ syllogism :
“I think, therefore I am”, could be, unless I’m really someone else who only THINKS they’re me.