Pursue the truth. That is what my teachers taught me. I would add that we should have profound respect for the truth too. For Jesus reminds us that he is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) What is the truth about global warming being the result of human activity since the industrial revolution?
Al Gore is convinced of the truth of global warming and he is convinced that humans have caused global warming, so much so that he invokes science and scripture in claiming that the debate about global warming is over. As sited in Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, pp. 130-31, Gore refers to Luke 12:54-57 to say ‘the evidence is there…. the signal is on the mountain.’ Gore wants the media to stop covering both sides of the scientific debate on global warming because of the scientific consensus he claims exists on the matter.
But what is the consensus? And if it were really a consensus why call it a consensus? If human activity really has caused the temperature of the planet to go up significantly and if this is a bad thing for the health of the environment, and if the scienctific evidence is all in and we all are agreed on it, shouldn’t we just say ‘global warming’ in a rather matter of fact way? We don’t say the apple fell on Newton’s head because of the theory of gravity. We say the apple fell because of gravity.
In truth, there is no scientific consensus on global warming.
I tracked down Mark Levin’s reference to the 31,000 (p. 136) scientists who signed a petition opposing the hypothesis of global warming. It is here. Of the 31,478 signers so far, 9,029 have Ph.D.s, many of these in the hard sciences.
Here is a quote from the petition:
“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural planet and animal environments of the Earth.” See Petition here.
So, what is the truth about global warming? If there is not a consensus, why claim there is one? If some scientists don’t accept global warming, why claim that all scientists do so?
Why has the Environmental Protection Agency declared that carbon dioxide is poisonous. Why is Congress considering the regulation of carbon dioxide through cap and trade? Won’t that be hugely expensive? Aren’t we still in a recession? Wouldn’t increasing costs of energy and gas and manufactures harm people? Before we do such costly things, shouldn’t we debate the scientific hypothesis openly, publically, politically?
What about this article in a 2007 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons finding no conclusive evidence of deleterious effects of carbon dioxide on Earth’s weather or climate?
What is the truth about global warming? How would scientists determine if the Earth’s temperature were rising? Probably with thermometer readings at various locations. But is it even meaningful to wonder what “the” temperature of the Earth is? Is that like wondering what the phone number of the Earth is?
Loading ...In seeking the truth about global warming it is probably a good idea to be suspicious of dramatic and sensational positions, like those expressed by Al Gore. It is also a good idea to use the word hypothesis in connection with global warming caused by human activity. Human activity, extremely complex and difficult to quantify, is probably one of several explanatory variables. Water vapor is another. And another is sunspot activity. Real science would probably be curious how all the involved variables interact. I suspect there is more about atmospheric science that we don’t know than global warmers admit in public.
So, I’m not at all convinced by the hypothesis that human activity has caused the temperatures (plural) of the Earth to increase significantly above their long term averages, and that this increase is mostly harmful, and that harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and maybe someday water vapor must be regulated to reverse all this (debatable) harm.
But I am warming to the truth. A lot.
