Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Global Warming Debate




Do you believe in Global Warming?  Or Climate Change, I guess is what we're suppose to call it now ?   Someone once asked me this, and it caught me off guard because it was like they were asking me if I believed in Santa Claus !  "Well", I muttered  "I'm not sure how to answer that".  He proceeded to give me a web site address that elaborated on the "conspiracy" of Global Warming and how all these scientists are conspiring to make us believe the planet is warming when it's actually not.  The year was 2008.  My opinion has not changed at all in 5 years., but after that conversation I realized that coming to a solution for a very real problem was going to be MUCH harder than I had thought because now it was becoming a "political" issue and nothing gets solved when it becomes political.  

Do I believe in Global Warming?  I can't say that I "believe" in Global Warming because it puts the issue in the realm of Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy.  Unlike either of these "made up" beings, Global Warming simply "is".  I don't "believe" in electricity, I just know it works because I see and sense its benefits every day.  It "is".  Science has brought us so many things;  air flight, internal combustion, computers, high definition television, modern farming, elevators, disease curing medicines.  I don't "believe" in any of these things, I simply know they exist because I see the benefits.  Global Warming is considered by nearly 100% of all Climate Scientists to be a reality.   I see no reason to not believe them any less than I would listen to scientists regarding any other topic.  So, what bothers me about the Global Warming Debate is that I don't think it should exist.  The only thing we should be discussing is what to do about Global Warming, "whether" it is or not needs to go the way of the "Dodo bird", it needs to become extinct before we do.

2 comments:

Vizzo said...

Im also conflicted on the issue of global warming or climate change or huge hurricanes and perfect storms or whatever we are supposed to call it. I do think that evidence that the globe is warming is the fact that the polar ice caps are melting as in your picture. However, we don't have record of the climate of the earth before humans started recording it so who's to say that we didn't go through a huge cooling trend right before we started warming up? Who knows? The science on this subject is just too open ended to draw any conclusion. As far as the solution how do we address this? Does anyone know?

Marshall in the Middle said...

I respect your questioning any so called "expert" in a field, but if you have a car that one mechanic tells you has a problem with the exhaust system (let's say) and then you get a second, third and 20th opinion...eventually you have to accept that there is a problem with the exhaust system. The only exception would be if you're a mechanic yourself (vis-a-vis- a climatologist in this analogy), which I would guess... you are not.