I'm glad to see the Register's stance on this. We should all try really hard to be as dispassionate about these matters as possible, in order to make as good a decision as possible on these studies. This shouldn't be a religious type matter where people are firmly entrenched in their beliefs. Although I believe this is an honest mistake in reading the data, it should never be permissible to fudge the facts in an ends-justify-the-means type way. I'm referring to stopping the use of fossil fuels of course.
"For example: 1998 was a record breakingly hot year. But it was also an El Nino year, and the effect of that current shifting should be accounted for."
And over at Slashdot, a major correction came out:
"According to an article at DailyTech, a blogger has discovered a Y2K bug in a NASA climate study by the same writer who accused the Bush administration of trying to censor him on the issue of global warming. The authors have acknowledged the problem and released corrected data. Now the study shows the warmest year on record for the contiguous 48 states as being 1934, not 1998 as previously reported in the media. In fact, the corrected study shows that half of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before World War II."
Responding to all of the responses to my posting, I'd like to clear up a few things:
I believe that decarbonization is a good thing, for many reasons. We're making it naturally. Recyled paper, glass, hybrid cars, etc have become common place in our everyday lives in the past 10-15 years. Yes, CO2 levels are up 30% in the past 100 years, and things like cars, factories, even farm cows, are a major contributor for this. Lastly, I'd like to say that I recyle my trash, I don't own a car and use public transportation to get to work everyday.
I just don't believe global warming is a catastrophie. From 1940-1970 the earth showed cooling, and celebrity scientists like Paul Ehrlich predicted half of all species being extinct, and a new ice age. It didn't happen. Who honestly believes that the atmosphere is a simple linear system, and by reducing one or two components, maninly Co2, will change or "stabilize" our environment, when it's never, ever had a history of being stable? My problem with this whole debate, is that it's becoming so emotionally involed and people really aren't looking at the data. It's more about how people "feel" when they see a tree being cut down, or see black smoke coming out of a tail pipe.
Jasmine, Richard and Tim's posting are not only wrong in fact's, but wrong in speculating. NONE OF US KNOW THE FUTURE. Consenus is the business of politics, not science. Lastly, a crash program to try and reverse global warming is unwise, and unwarranted. Also, I never said that CO2 was increasing malaria out break, but banning DDT did.
"Some" global warming may be happening, and it seems to pre-date major industrialization, but this whole debate has become so emotionally charged, that people, most of which have never looked at the real data (and yes, I'm talking about the U.N.'s), are starting to make this an almost religious debate. I say religious, because when you can't prove something, it becomes a matter of faith.
Science, good science, requires only one person, who happens to be right, to prove something. Every time someone in the media seems to mention global warming, they seem to want to invoke "consensus". Consenus is usually the first refuge for scoundrels.
A .6 rise in temperature is almost meaningless, and besides, the world has been decarbonizing for 150 years.
Let's move on to things like eradicating malaria and other very curable things like water borne illnesses.
Register
7 posts • joined Saturday 24th February 2007 01:38 GMT
Net income of $200 million?! Wow! They're rich!!!
So a company with a net income of $200 million is supposedly worth $50 billion? What year is this, 1999?!
Google has a Net that's about 30x greater than Facebook's. Yet, Google is only valued at about 4x more than Facebook. Absolute insanity.
Where did you hear that?
I believe it, but I would be shocked if Ive told anyone that.
Bad science shouldn't be used to make good policy
I'm glad to see the Register's stance on this. We should all try really hard to be as dispassionate about these matters as possible, in order to make as good a decision as possible on these studies. This shouldn't be a religious type matter where people are firmly entrenched in their beliefs. Although I believe this is an honest mistake in reading the data, it should never be permissible to fudge the facts in an ends-justify-the-means type way. I'm referring to stopping the use of fossil fuels of course.
A prediction is never a fact....
Why do so few seem to understand that?
"For example: 1998 was a record breakingly hot year. But it was also an El Nino year, and the effect of that current shifting should be accounted for."
And over at Slashdot, a major correction came out:
"According to an article at DailyTech, a blogger has discovered a Y2K bug in a NASA climate study by the same writer who accused the Bush administration of trying to censor him on the issue of global warming. The authors have acknowledged the problem and released corrected data. Now the study shows the warmest year on record for the contiguous 48 states as being 1934, not 1998 as previously reported in the media. In fact, the corrected study shows that half of the 10 warmest years on record occurred before World War II."
http://www.dailytech.com/Blogger+finds+Y2K+bug+in+NASA+Climate+Data/article8383.htm
Anyone want to bet $20 what the temperature will be in 1 week from tomorrow?
Of course not. So why would someone bet on the weather prediction 50-100 years from now?
A "prediction" is never a "fact"
Responding to all of the responses to my posting, I'd like to clear up a few things:
I believe that decarbonization is a good thing, for many reasons. We're making it naturally. Recyled paper, glass, hybrid cars, etc have become common place in our everyday lives in the past 10-15 years. Yes, CO2 levels are up 30% in the past 100 years, and things like cars, factories, even farm cows, are a major contributor for this. Lastly, I'd like to say that I recyle my trash, I don't own a car and use public transportation to get to work everyday.
I just don't believe global warming is a catastrophie. From 1940-1970 the earth showed cooling, and celebrity scientists like Paul Ehrlich predicted half of all species being extinct, and a new ice age. It didn't happen. Who honestly believes that the atmosphere is a simple linear system, and by reducing one or two components, maninly Co2, will change or "stabilize" our environment, when it's never, ever had a history of being stable? My problem with this whole debate, is that it's becoming so emotionally involed and people really aren't looking at the data. It's more about how people "feel" when they see a tree being cut down, or see black smoke coming out of a tail pipe.
Jasmine, Richard and Tim's posting are not only wrong in fact's, but wrong in speculating. NONE OF US KNOW THE FUTURE. Consenus is the business of politics, not science. Lastly, a crash program to try and reverse global warming is unwise, and unwarranted. Also, I never said that CO2 was increasing malaria out break, but banning DDT did.
When has science ever needed consenus?
"Some" global warming may be happening, and it seems to pre-date major industrialization, but this whole debate has become so emotionally charged, that people, most of which have never looked at the real data (and yes, I'm talking about the U.N.'s), are starting to make this an almost religious debate. I say religious, because when you can't prove something, it becomes a matter of faith.
Science, good science, requires only one person, who happens to be right, to prove something. Every time someone in the media seems to mention global warming, they seem to want to invoke "consensus". Consenus is usually the first refuge for scoundrels.
A .6 rise in temperature is almost meaningless, and besides, the world has been decarbonizing for 150 years.
Let's move on to things like eradicating malaria and other very curable things like water borne illnesses.