Re: [asa] climate change severity

Statistics can be a lot of fun, allowing in the past such scientific
organizations as tobacco companies to deny the impact of smoking on
health, instead appealing to a 'controversy'.
It saddens me that some of this group seem to be intent to repeat the
flaws of these companies and ignore the wise words of Augustine.

There is indeed strong consensus that there is a significant human
component to global warming, in fact most of the doubling of CO2 has
been attributed to human activities. Like the Ozone hole and the link
to CFC's some seem to be strongly arguing against the obvious facts
reached by science and instead seem to be intent to argue that there
is still a 'controversy' without really explaining what this
controversy is all about.
So let's look at the results

* 82 percent of environmental professionals think global warming is a
real, measurable, climactic trend currently in effect;

* 66 percent consider the rate at which global warming may be
occurring is a serious problem facing the planet; and

* 67 percent of professionals surveyed agree the U.S. is not doing
enough to address the effects of global warming.

Compare this with Janice's presentation of the data... and a very
different picture emerges...

and

The existence of global warming today

· 82 percent of professionals report they think global warming
is a real, measurable, climatic trend currently in effect.

· 66 percent respond that the rate at which global warming may
be occurring is a serious problem facing the planet.

· 64 percent attribute certain phenomenon such as rising ocean
levels, increased storm activity, severe drought, massive habitat
loss, depletion of the Earth's oxygen sinks, i.e. rain forests and
ocean plankton, to the effects of global warming.

· 68 percent agree that global warming is a trend that must be
addressed as soon as possible.

The causes of global warming

· 59 percent respond that current climactic activity exceeding
norms calibrated by over 100 years of weather data collection can be,
in large part, attributed to human activity.

· 71 percent of environmental professionals, however, do
consider the recent increase in hurricane activity in the Atlantic
through 2005 and the Pacific through 2006, to be part of a larger
natural cycle and not, for the most part, attributable to human
activity.

http://www.nrep.org/globsurv.htm

Hope that this helps understand the spin by Janice. In his context it
is important to realize that the Heartland Institute has received
funding from Exxon and Mobile.
http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/ExxonMobil:_Opposing_the_Science_of_Global_Warming#Heartland_Institute.2C_Heartland

FUNDING
Heartland Institute has received $342,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.

hope this helps understand the 'rest of the story' so that we as
Christians run not afoul of the warnings of St Augustine...

On 1/13/07, Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> At 05:06 PM 1/4/2007, Charles Carrigan wrote:
>
>
> "...But it is the absolute concensus of the scientific body that human
> activities have had an enormous impact on planet Earth .."
> @ I don't think so. And even if there were "absolute consensus" it would
> only be "garbage in" and absolute consensus the "garbage out". ~ Janice
>
> Dec 28, 2006 Scientists still vigorously debating climate variance
> JAMES M. TAYLOR senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and managing
> editor of Environment & Climate News.
>
> It is very difficult to read a news article or watch a newscast regarding
> global warming without encountering an assertion that "the debate is over"
> -- that all, or virtually all, scientists agree humans are causing a
> dramatic and harmful change in the Earth's climate.
>
> Quite notably, no hard data is ever cited to support such a conclusion. A
> survey conducted by the National Registry of Environmental Professionals
> (NREP), released Nov. 16, shows why: The debate is still very much alive in
> the professional community.
>
> More than 12,000 environmental scientists and practitioners participated in
> the survey, which found:
>
> * 34 percent disagree that global warming is a serious problem facing the
> planet,
> * 41 percent disagree that the planet's recent warmth "can be, in large
> part, attributed to human activity,"
> * 71 percent disagree that recent hurricane activity is significantly
> attributable to human activity,
> * 33 percent disagree that the U.S. government is not doing enough to
> address global warming, and
> * 47 percent disagree that international agreements such as the Kyoto
> Protocol provide a solid framework for combating global climate change.
>
> The poll results certainly demonstrate global warming is an important issue
> to many and that human activity is generally assigned some responsibility.
> But the results also demonstrate that many scientists believe climate
> variance is not a terribly pressing issue and that recent warming trends are
> no more alarming than many other naturally occurring warming trends in our
> recent past. This, of course, contradicts claims by environmental
> propagandists that the debate is over and that virtually all scientists
> agree humans are causing substantial and ominous global warming.
>

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Received on Sat Jan 13 19:08:40 2007