Re: [asa] NASA global warming satellite crashes on takeoff

"Wouldn't it be a service to those of us who don't know anything about
the problem for some of you to try to read up on the actual science,
the ways people are trying to estimate the energy flows, the CO2 sinks
and such, as distinct from the politics, and explain it to us?"

For this purpose, I recommend the site RealClimate.org. Or, if you
prefer the printed word, try Spencer Weart's book "The Discovery of
Global Warming."

I agree with your observation that politics seems to get in the way of
rational discourse on this subject. Much more heat than light! <G>

Burgy

On 2/25/09, Preston Garrison <pngarrison@att.net> wrote:
>>No comment. :)
>>
>>NASA global warming satellite has troubled launch
>><http://jackmyers.daylife.com/article/08PMbV53Ceary?q=NASA>http://jackmyers.daylife.com/article/08PMbV53Ceary?q=NASA
>>
>>
>>Lynn
>
> I don't read much of what is written on this topic on this list, but
> what little I do, and not just by Lynn, seems to be all "He said, she
> said, they said..."
>
> Does no one here know anything about the complicated system of flows
> of energy and matter
> through the atmosphere, the oceans, the land? What are the relative
> flows of energy and matter at different points in the system? What
> sinks are there for both? What is known? What isn't? Does the heat
> from volcanic eruptions contribute anything significant? What would
> happen if you spread a reflective white substance over a few hundred
> square miles of desert somewhere? Can an estimate be made?
>
> Last weekend I spent several hours with my male relatives and a
> chainsaw, cutting down a dead tree. I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry
> and the experience of 57 years. I spent 2 years as a Physics major in
> college before doing a lot of biology. My brother is a smart guy and
> has done lots of work in the yard.
>
> Nonetheless, we couldn't predict how the limbs of a tree would behave
> when cut with a chainsaw. Despite being quite deliberate about it,
> unexpected things kept happening. Limbs fell where we didn't think
> they would. The saw got pinned a number of times. (My prayers were
> answered and we got the job done without cutting off any limbs that
> weren't made of wood.)
>
> If it's that difficult to predict a simple system like a medium sized
> tree under the influence of gravity, why do people think they can
> tell what the global climate system will do just by consulting their
> political biases?
>
> Wouldn't it be a service to those of us who don't know anything about
> the problem for some of you to try to read up on the actual science,
> the ways people are trying to estimate the energy flows, the CO2
> sinks and such, as distinct from the politics, and explain it to us?
>
> Just a thought,
>
> Preston
>
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>

-- 
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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