Just HOW inconvenient?

[elvisvf101]

So, I've discussed An Inconvenient Truth with a few people since I've seen it. Two conversations stand out. They were with people who fall on the conservative end of the spectrum. And they both expressed doubt about the reality of Global Warming

Comments

[lady_tigerfish]

*applauds you* Believe me I know what you mean. At this point, I swear some people are maintaining their stance simply by putting their hands over their ears and going "LALALALALA~"

BTW, I have finally "looked you up". Judging by your icons, I can see you are cool. Firefly, Bebop, XMen.... I approve.

(And "Shawshank" is a really good movie. Too intense for me to watch too often, but very very good.)

AAAA

[elvisvf101]

So the journal is working (the blurb is "A Work in progress to make me look way cooler than I really am.") And, by the way, your icon could be described as cool, but it's like, 8,372 levels BEYOND cool. I lack the time and energy to express that level of coolness, so I will compromise on cool.

Willful Ignorance

[glacierscout]

Of course people can doubt that global warming exists, the same way that a significant minority believes in creationism. Science is a powerful agent for finding the truth, but when truth challenges our fundamental beliefs, we'd rather deny the truth than change our beliefs.

On the serious side, the real problem with global warming is that we don't know what the real consequences are in the future. The contrast between the known short-term costs of responding to global warming compared to the unknown future benefits is too hard for most people to deal with, unless they can think in terms of times beyond our own lifetimes.

Mike C.

Re: Willful Ignorance

[elvisvf101]

I will concede that I come off as somewhat condescending and sarcastic in regards to skeptics as I have a major bias. I have accepted Global Warming as Scientific Fact due to overwhelming evidence. As such, I believe it takes on a moral imperitive as Al Gore contends in his movie.

It is true that as models go further out to predict future trends, they get a little fuzzier, but the inevitable consequence of melting glaciers due to rising ocean temperatures is the slowing and stopping of ocean currents, which ultimately cools the planet by plunging it into an ice age. It's happening now.

So, ultimately, I'm bothered by the fact that, even if Global Warming isn't human caused (and I think the evidence is pretty clear that it is), people who contend that the planet is naturally warming and will naturally cool forget the fact that the natural cooling of the planet occurs during an ice age. An Ice Age will wipe out human civilization. But we seem to be ok with that. That strikes me as very wrong.

Re: Willful Ignorance

[mari4212]

As far as some people are concerned, if it doesn't happen within their lifetime, it doesn't count. That kind of shortsightedness makes me whimper, but I see it far too often.

Re: Willful Ignorance

[glacierscout]

The idea that global warming will cause a new ice age is largely a fringe theory. During the last deglaciation, approximately 11,850 years ago, melting of the ice sheets that covered much of northern Europe and all of Canada did release so much fresh water into the North Atlantic (an influx known as a Heinrich Event) that the Gulf Stream temporarily was diverted. The result was a short-term, temporary readvance of glaciers in both North America and Europe, called the "Younger Dryas" event. Glaciers grew, and the advance was as much as a hundred miles along the Great Lakes. The effect was short-term only, and by 11,000 years ago, the glaciers had retreated back and caught up with their long-term retreat rate. There;s not enough water in the Greenland Ice Sheet so that even if that glacier melted completely, it would be unlikely to happen again