Posts Tagged by global warming
Mother Nature is Awesome — But Is She Impervious to Damage?
| March 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Every time I hear intelligent people refute the idea of global warming based on the power of Mother Nature I really can’t believe my ears.
Last week, I spoke with three people who appeared bright enough, all of whom told me that humans simply don’t have the power to screw up a force as powerful as nature. As proof, one of these guys, on a live radio interview in front of 70,000 listeners, said, “Hey, the temperature of the planet was changing long before the Industrial Revolution.” Another pointed out that the BP oil spill was overhyped, because microbes instantly began eating the oil. In agreement, the third fellow pointed to the video footage of the Japanese tsunami – testimony to the awesome force of the natural world.
Sure nature is awesome. And just as sure, it doesn’t need people; if it had conscious awareness, I’m sure it would be thrilled to see us erased from the face of the globe. But I’m at a loss to understand how, regardless of its power, that anyone could think it’s impervious to damage from mankind’s ceaseless pumping out toxins, deforestation, strip-mining, fracking, ocean dumping, changing the make-up of our atmosphere, and so forth. Is it really hard to believe that our practices are making it tough for Mother Nature to support life here?
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Global Climate Change and the Nature of Belief
| February 27, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
Frequent contributor Mark Vendetti sends an interesting article that I thought everyone would enjoy. I believe there is a profound (albeit sad) truth here:
Craig,
Check this out, it might help to explain why some people seem so resistant to change their thinking even when presented with the facts about climate change.
There is no doubt that people really do hate to change their minds. We’ve all seen this a million times, and it applies to ourselves just as well as it does to others. Read More
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Global Warming
| January 23, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
When we discuss global warming here, we (predictably) get a range of reactions, including the comments of the deniers, like this one:
NASA has stated that ALL the planets in our solar system are heating up. I would say that this definitely points to the Sun as the source…. I do not think that humans are responsible for any global warming.
I respect the opinion of all readers here, but let me take a moment and present my own viewpoint, which goes back to numerous suggestions I received from friends when I became interested in the subject. They’d ask, “Craig, why don’t you do your own independent research of global warming?”
Well, I’ll tell you why not. Read More
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Global Warming — A Quick Overview
| January 10, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
When people ask me to explain my position on global warming, I normally assert what I’ve learned from the interviews I’ve conducted, while politely acknowledging that I’m not an expert on the subject. I also point out that the specifics of the subject that are yet to be — and probably never will be — fully understood. When I encounter adamant climate change deniers, I calmly suggest that they find one of any number of other reasons to urge a rapid migration away from fossil fuels: national security, public health, etc.
However, when pressed for my true beliefs, I have to admit that I get really stern. What remaining hair I have on the back of my arms stands up and blood vessels swell in my forehead as I Read More
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Are We Preaching to the Choir on Environmentalism?
| January 2, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
One of the many things I like about the community here is that we are most certainly not “preaching to the choir.” There are many people here whose viewpoints, while divergent from my own, are stimulating to the conversation, and, more likely than not, constitute the principal reason that people like to be here.
A reader commented the other day: Read More
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Our Leaders Should Understand Basic Science
| December 14, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
John Boehner, soon-to-be Speaker of the House, told a crowd recently:
The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, when they do what they do, we’ve got more carbon dioxide.
I know there are people who don’t know the difference between carbon dioxide and methane, or what a carcinogen is, and I’m completely fine with that; ignorance in the general population, the result of a failing school system, “is what it is.” But when stuff like this comes out of the mouth of one of the most powerful lawmakers on Earth, I’m not at all OK with that. We need to do a better job in electing people who have a basic command of the core issues that affect our survival.
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Science Is Under Violent Attack on Global Climate Change
| December 14, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
As a civilization, we’re in trouble whenever politics trumps science — and we’ve seen plenty of that lately. That’s why the world is so frustrated with the inaction of the COP meeting in Cancun, as we listen to diplomats drone on in vague, glib language while scientists beg for resolutions to save us from what virtually all of them believe to be impending disaster. Clearly, mankind is never well-served to put its scientists in a position of subserviance to big money/power, where they feel they must toe the line on any issue, whether it’s global warming, cold fusion, “clean coal,” etc.
Yet, while I’m a bit reluctant to raise this issue, I would argue that we face an even bigger problem when religion and science cross paths. Read More
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Conversation on Global Warming
| November 9, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
A friend and I were discussing a mutual acquaintance who believes that the Earth is hollow – a radical theory to say the least. My friend writes:
Of course, I’m more than dubious about this hollow Earth stuff, but here’s an interesting conundrum to contemplate. Given Earth’s current gravity, is it really possible that dinosaurs were able to get as large as they did? Why aren’t land creatures today no larger than an elephant, which weighs a fraction of a T-Rex or other gigantic dinosaur? Did Earth have less gravity at one time? If so, how?
To which I reply:
I can’t speak to that one — it really IS interesting. I just think the accepted theory of the formation of the planets is so overwhelmingly compelling that a hollow Earth — or any other phenomenon that would result in a significant change in the force of gravity at the Earth’s surface — would be extremely hard to buy. Remember also that the dinosaurs were here only 65 million years ago, which is fairly recent in geologic time; almost 99% of the four-billion-year life of the Earth was before that time.
Anyway, I hate to sound like I have no intellectual curiosity, but my focus at this point in my life is more on the present. Check out this piece on the politics of global warming. I’m very worried that power politics is in the process of winning out over science, and that we really are running headlong to the ruination of this planet. I’m afraid this stuff is getting completely out of hand.
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Global Warming: Getting at the Truth
| October 17, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
As I write in the conclusion to my book: Renewable Energy — Facts and Fantasies, I have no axe to grind on the subject of global warming. Though I see no grounds on which to argue against the vast majority of climate scientists who have made this subject their life’s work, I think we all need to admit that it’s perfectly possible they’re all wrong. And you don’t need to be conspiracy theorist of some kind to admit that possiblility; the vast majority of 15th Century geologists sincerely believed that the world was flat. Besides, as I hope the book amply demonstrates, global climate change only is one of half a dozen reasons to move to renewable energy.
But I do want to continue to call readers’ attention to material on the subject that I consider to be professionalially constructed and compelling. On such item was co-written by Erik Conway, a gentleman whose work is chronicling the history of JPL (which, coincidentally, I can see from my back patio from my home here just northwest of Pasadena, CA). You may want to check out Merchants of Doubt, an exposé of the group of rightwing scientists hell-bent on destroying the cause of environmentalism.
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Global Warming and Renewable Energy
| October 11, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
In response to my recent piece on renewable energy politics, Ron Hill, very bright guy, writes some cogent stuff on his position as a climate change denier, and concludes:
The failure to insist on objective science is part of the problem with you folks who make your living in the “alternative” energy field. I do not make any money on either existing energy or alternative energy. Can you truthfully make the same statement?
The answer is no, I can’t. And I agree that those who stand to profit from the world’s acceptance or rejection of global climate change (obviously) have an incentive to shade the data in their direction. But, as I point on in my recent book on renewable energy: “What would you guess represents more money (and thus more incentive to bias one’s findings): the business of atmospheric research, or the business of selling of trillions of gallons of gasoline?”
I also point out that the vast majority of climate scientists who have studied global warming and published peer-reviewed papers on the subject support the theory.
