Sunday, March 20, 2011

Climate change doubters are endangering our common future | The Australian
Most of us do accept the science that human action is changing our climate directly and that only by cutting emissions dramatically can we avert real disaster. Even those who aren't sure take the view that simple prudence dictates action. After all, none of us thinks our homes will be burnt down, but we do take out fire insurance. In fact the probabilities on climate change are far, far higher and the consequences of inaction almost unthinkable.
...Even if they were all wrong and we acted, the result would be that we would have a cleaner planet, more able to cope with feeding, housing, and clothing those 9 billion people. If, however, we follow the sceptics and they turn out to be wrong, then we would leave our children a legacy of destruction. The risk is all one way, which explains why in Britain, scepticism is confined to the extremes. The political parties embracing it are way out on the edge of the spectrum with views on most other matters that few of us would embrace.
...
In the end, we all have to face the facts. The scientific consensus is now so significant that, even if we ourselves remain doubters, it would be wrong to endanger our children by hoping for the best.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

THE FACTORS THAT RESULTED IN THE 20th CENTURY AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE TRENDS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED.

A simple equation, with inputs of accepted measurements (facts) from government agencies, calculates the average global temperatures (agt) since 1895 with 88.4% accuracy (87.9% if CO2 is assumed to have no influence) (facts). See the equation, links to the source data, an eye-opening graph of the results and how they are derived in the pdfs at http://climaterealists.com/index.php?tid=145&linkbox=true (see especially the pdfs made public on 4/10/10, and 3/10/11).

The future average global temperature trend that this equation calculates is down (a fact).

This trend is corroborated by the growing separation between the rising CO2 and not-rising agt (facts). From 2001 through Dec, 2010 the atmospheric CO2 increased by 21.8% of the total increase from 1800 to 2001 while the average global temperature has not increased significantly and the average of the five reporting agencies has been declining steeply since the peak of the last El Nino in about March 2010 (facts). The 21.8% CO2 increase is the significant measurement, not the comparatively brief time period.

As the atmospheric CO2 continues to rise in the 21st century while the agt does not, more people will realize that they have been deceived.