For anyone really interested in actually learning something about this subject isatead of just yelling about it, I highly recommend Michael Chrichton's book "State of Fear". Just finished it and am more amazed/confused/appaled why more people are so wrong on this. He writes a fictional story (for those of you raised in government schools, that means he made it up) but woven around published facts by many different people and organizations. The story is made up, but all the facts, which he meticulously footnotes, are real. Just a graet read. At the end of the book he writes a little essay on why it can be sooo dangerous to accept popular thinking without anyone checking to see if in fact it is true. He cites a popular theory from a century ago. It was widely accepyed by such people as Thedore Roosevelt, Woodro Wilson, Alexander Grahm Bell, Margaret Sanger, H.G. Wells, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. The US supreme court agreed with it and many states across the land passed resolutions supporting it. Sound anything like global warming so far? That theory was eugenics. It postulated that the human gene pool was in danger of deteriation from immigrants and dysfunctional, uneducated people. It was a made up crisis that ultimately led to Germany killing millions of people to keep the race pure. And there was literally no science behind it. Just sounded like a good idea. Give the book a try, it's an easy read despite the length. I founs a copy on ebay that looked new and paid less than $8 with shipping. Or you could just bury your head in the sand and go to Al Gore concerts.
A serious look at global warming
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helpfuljames
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I have read this book twice and found it more fun the 2nd time. The facts are old data compared to what is being used today. It is all relative, however. The earth is really old and has had trends and climate changes several billion times (every day the weather is different, everywhere) so any data we examine is relatively nearly focused in terms of time frame and geography.
Humans have adapted to every change or died. The opportunities that global warming (real and imagined) provide are immense. If the situation can be looked at as an opportunity instead of some self-inflected doom, I believe this can be made into a benefit with the proper application of technology and smarts.
For the 'great unwashed', we do not have a dog in this fight. There are forces on all sides to use global warming as a tool to their benefit. The most evil are those that use it to control behavior of others. And for others, it has become a belief that approaches that of religious fanaticism. These are the most dangerous folks and often do more harm in their behavior than the evil they are acting against.
Humans have adapted to every change or died. The opportunities that global warming (real and imagined) provide are immense. If the situation can be looked at as an opportunity instead of some self-inflected doom, I believe this can be made into a benefit with the proper application of technology and smarts.
For the 'great unwashed', we do not have a dog in this fight. There are forces on all sides to use global warming as a tool to their benefit. The most evil are those that use it to control behavior of others. And for others, it has become a belief that approaches that of religious fanaticism. These are the most dangerous folks and often do more harm in their behavior than the evil they are acting against.
Jimmy Buffett
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I read it several years ago. I think Crighton's next project should be exposing the fear mongering surronding nuclear power. It is the only viable answer to buying oil from people who want to kill us.
It's ironic that the last time in recorded history that experienced global warming, around the 1400s, The net result was a longer growing season, more crops, more food, improved health, and longer life spans. Not to mention lower heating costs in the winter. Why do you think Greenland is so named? When the Vikings were there in the 1400s it was a great place to grow crops.
This was penned in the last century:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." ---C.S. Lewis
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." ---C.S. Lewis
Jimmy Buffett
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Mac,
I take it algore didn't get your vote for the Nobel prize.
I take it algore didn't get your vote for the Nobel prize.
Mac,
Nice quote...the fact that it was CS Lewis is just a bonus. The fact that it summarizes Atlas Shrugged is perfect.
I have found that throughout history, EVERY mistake that has EVER been made regardless of the discipline (medicine, economics, politics, science, religion, etc.) comes down to violating one or more of the following principles:
1. Contrastive thinking - try to prove your own beliefs wrong
2. Causality - realize every cause has an effect and every effect came from a cause
3. Non-contradiction - contradictions don't exist, conflicts do
4. Growth - people who pursue growth realize the only cause of growth is to change a belief that is wrong, so these people actively look for where they are wrong (contradictions) and change their beliefs
The opposite of these four principles are:
1. Comparative thinking - actively looking for facts that agree with you and ignoring the rest
2. Randomness - believing things can't be known...also thinking that everyone with the same effect MUST have the same cause.
3. Contradiction - believing things shouldn't be known and trying to live with contradictions
4. Comfort - Trying to be right in the short term.
CS Lewis also said:
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort, you will get neither comfort nor truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."
Nice quote...the fact that it was CS Lewis is just a bonus. The fact that it summarizes Atlas Shrugged is perfect.
I have found that throughout history, EVERY mistake that has EVER been made regardless of the discipline (medicine, economics, politics, science, religion, etc.) comes down to violating one or more of the following principles:
1. Contrastive thinking - try to prove your own beliefs wrong
2. Causality - realize every cause has an effect and every effect came from a cause
3. Non-contradiction - contradictions don't exist, conflicts do
4. Growth - people who pursue growth realize the only cause of growth is to change a belief that is wrong, so these people actively look for where they are wrong (contradictions) and change their beliefs
The opposite of these four principles are:
1. Comparative thinking - actively looking for facts that agree with you and ignoring the rest
2. Randomness - believing things can't be known...also thinking that everyone with the same effect MUST have the same cause.
3. Contradiction - believing things shouldn't be known and trying to live with contradictions
4. Comfort - Trying to be right in the short term.
CS Lewis also said:
"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort, you will get neither comfort nor truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."
No, I didn't vote for algore. He isn't so scary. What's scary is the fact that so many people agree wuth him. His friggin movie is shown in our schools as if National Geographic made it. And while he asks us, make that lectures us, to conserve and ride bicycles, he flies around in a Gulfstream 5 and lives in a 20,000 sq ft house. If there truly was a God, his jet would crash into his house. BTW, I got the quote from Neal Boortz and his web site.
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pitzerwm
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Bush on Global Warming. http://forum.autocareforum.net/BushonGlobalWarming.wmv
If Al Gore receiveing a Nobel Prize doesn't diminish its worth nothing ever will. It has become an organization that will promote the cause of anyone who wants to slam the United States. The next recipient will probably be MoveOn.org.
pitzerwm
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There is an interesting article in "Wired" about Gore. It was just factual, not a bash. After he left the WH, he was sought out by people that thought he still had influnce and was given stock in their various companies, in the last 8 years his net worth has become about $100M. Just shows you that sleeping with Bill wasn't all bad.
pitzerwm
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