NATHANIEL WOODWARD
Well, what a nice little hole I’ve dug myself into. I’ve managed to royally tick of my politically like minded compatriots with the topics of GMOs and nuclear power.
Remember this my science zealots, I subscribe to scientific reality, not conspiracy, I present the facts as we know them, I will not change the answer simply because you do not like it. That being said, it’s time to tick off the other half of my readers, today you are going to learn about climate change.
The first thing you need to understand is the difference between weather and climate. Simply stated, weather is short term and climate is long term – really, really long term, normally at least 30 years.
So when you think you’re making a point by bringing a snowball inside, you’re not – stop – you’re embarrassing yourself. It may be unusually cold where you live but in the big picture data shows that overall global temperatures are on the rise. The yearly change is about 0.02 degrees Celsius, which is somewhat paltry to the doom and gloom you may have watched on some former politician’s documentary. However, please note this change over time will be catastrophic.
Science is concrete
Next, understand that the scientific community is not divided on this issue. Regardless of what your chosen news network has told you, the science is concrete. To claim otherwise is to show a fundamental lack of understanding on how the scientific process works.
Consistently the only evidence brought about by those who choose to argue against the science is two studies published in the early seventies suggesting we were entering a new ice age. Unfortunately that’s where their argument ends, forgetting to check journal articles published soon after which may have fulfilled the peer reviewed part of science, and debunked the claims.
But for the sake of fairness I’m willing to concede that two articles do in fact exist from the 1970s claiming a “global cooling” but which scientific journal was this published in? Science, Cell, Nature? Nope, the illustrious scientific journal of…Newsweek. Thats right, the source you cite in your counter argument comes from a tabloid. From a scientific journal perspective the consensus on research conducted across the globe is in agreement, climate change is happening and its human caused.
The argument that the planet has always gone through changes in temperature and climate is not incorrect, but what makes this round of change different is the rate at which it is changing. In fact, the last time the climate changed at this rate 90 percent of all species went extinct, in an event known as “The Great Dying.”
Tinfoil-hat arguments
We don’t need computer models to tell us this. The research is done by climate scientists with decades of experience specializing in determining the climates of the past and how the occurred. Claiming that they skew the data to keep renewing grants is tinfoil-hat-worthy and I will not dignify its stupidity with a response.
If you still have skeptic reservations, that’s great. Just look up actual peer-reviewed articles from an actual science journal, then compare and contrast for yourself. Go down swinging.
Finally, what remains up for debate is what we are going to do about climate change. That’s where your political leanings should certainly hold weight, whether left or right.
Something must be done and a middle ground between people keeping their jobs and us not destroying the planet must be found. Nobody outside of executives who own the fossil fuel companies actually cares about fossil fuels. The workers care about paychecks, the lifeblood that keeps their families fed and that’s a noble and respectable thing.
But don’t for a second think you wouldn’t be just as loyal to solar farms if that’s what paid your bills. Stop letting executives tell you what to believe.
The science is settled and they are dead and frankly immorally wrong. Also, those pushing for renewables, that is a worthwhile fight but understand we can’t shut down our coal power plants tomorrow. We need an exit strategy that will replace the jobs so we don’t tank local economies.
We have put highly evolved monkeys on the surface of a celestial body that was not Earth over four decades ago, for Pete’s sake. Don’t believe for a second we couldn’t buckle down and develop the technology to make solar, wind, ocean current, geothermal and nuclear energies practical and, heaven forbid, profitable. Your kids are counting on it.