General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums100 percent of Scientists confirm Global Warming.
They try to tell us that it's only 97 percent.
My thinking is--- you're not a Scientist if you fall in the 3 percent.
samsingh
(17,595 posts)kwolf68
(7,365 posts)Oh but I'll go with the 3 percent. Doh!
lame54
(35,284 posts)but that sells lots of toothpaste
immoderate
(20,885 posts)Botany
(70,489 posts)Norfolk, VA spring 2014
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)I think they are having to move their congregation due to the flooding which is a damn shame. I've been to a few services there, and it's such a great place.
Botany
(70,489 posts)VA Beach, Ocean City MD, Rehobth DE, and ..... all are in danger and yet people
still want to question science and data that is already done. The more CO2 in a body
of gas the more heat it will hold ..... and that is based on a universal gas law that is
over 200 years old.
The Traveler
(5,632 posts)There are always scientists who pursue atypical lines of investigation. There are scientists, for example, who are trying to revive the long discredited De Broglie "pilot wave" model of quantum mechanics in rejection of the widely held Copenhagen convention. Like most, I regard that as an unlikely path of theoretical development ... but the consensus has been overturned before and quite often we learn things when pursuing alternate lines of development.
So it is wrong to state that the 3% or so of climate scientists that reject the theory of human triggered climate change as not being scientists. While a significant percentage of these people are probably not very good scientists, the remainder that is competent actually play a vital role in the constant error checking and correction process that is the foundation of the scientific method. I'm sure they feel lonely, but they are still of use to the process.
Now, do **I** accept that climate change is human triggered? Sure. I have held that opinion for close to 40 years. I certainly have no reason in evidence or analysis to reject the scientific consensus on the matter at this point in time, and I doubt seriously that evidence will be discovered that topples the theoretical structure. We'll make tweaks to the models, and add to their sophistication. Refinements of this sort are necessary both to expand scientific knowledge as well as to provide better information to policy makers. The criticisms of contrarians sometimes helps that refinement process along.
Trav
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Response to trumad (Original post)
Erich Bloodaxe BSN This message was self-deleted by its author.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)That's how we learn this "science" stuff. That's how this global consensus was derived in the first place.
The difference between reason and specious argument is that the reasonable keep trying figure out WHAT is true, not simply to prove one possible, preferred truth.
trumad
(41,692 posts)DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Climate change is complicated, and while there is a worldwide consensus that temperatures are rising and humankind is responsible, scientists don't all put their flasks and beakers down and go home at that point.
The only reason climate change been reduced to simplistic, diametrically opposed possibilities is because industry interests and their political allies have politicized the issue in the interest of saving money in the short term. Lest we, say, try to do anything about it, like limiting carbon emissions by law.
We're forced to litigate the most basic things, because we have a continuing tradition, especially strong in this country, of people taking some kind of pride in being able to "believe" whatever they want, including whether facts are facts or not.
We should be well past the question of whether we're impacting climate, and into the exponentially finer details of exactly how we're impacting climate, and how we can mitigate future disastrous effects. And we are, but down here at the layperson level, we still deal mostly with Joe the Plumber type debate over whether scientists are just a bunch of silly hippies out to spoil Exxon's party.
All of which is to say it's perfectly that normal science goes on, including whatever bits and pieces may not point directly to anthropmorphic climate change. As long as it's real, objective inquiry, science should do what it does -- question everything and try to disprove every hypothesis.