Re: [asa] World sets ocean temperature record

I should have known better than to wade into the global warming question on this list!

I already indicated that I had no ego-stake in the global warming debate, and that I could accept any well-reasoned answer to any of my questions from 1 through 5. I was merely trying to amplify Schwarzwald's moderate, sane, comment with some balanced, non-partisan comments of my own. But now Richard Blinne and Burgy, completely ignoring the carefully developed epistemological and cultural discussions in my two posts, have responded in exactly the partisan, heated "The issues are simple, we're completely right, and the other guys are completely wrong" tone that I had identified as a major part of the problem in having any civilized discussion. Just as Bernie was very aggressive toward me and others, not for *denying* common descent, but for the mere thoughtcrime of saying that it would be possible for a rational person to doubt it, so Burgy and especially Richard have hit me with very heated answers, not for personally doubting global warming, but merely for indicating, without taking a side, that different sources have given different figures, some indicating significant Arctic ice recovery, some claiming that global temperatures had flatlined since 2002, etc. Apparently, for Burgy and Richard, as for Bernie, "He who is not with us is against us".

I did not defend these figures. I merely pointed out that they exist, that they are vouched for in some cases by people with Ph.D.s, etc., and therefore that the intelligent lay person was left in a position of not being sure whom to believe. Along the same line, I could also have pointed out that even some pro-AGW scientists stated that there were several errors and exaggerations in Al Gore's film, which again causes the public to wonder whether there isn't too much hype going on, and therefore, unfortunately, to distrust those parts of AGW science which are in fact accurate. Sometimes, it seems, that AGW zealots are their own worst enemies, overstating their case and creating a pendulum effect against their cause.

I won't reply to any further discussion on this thread, but in the meantime, if Richard and Burgy wish, they can comment on this web article and the scholarly literature that it links to:

http://www.uncommondescent.com/off-topic/fewer-than-half-of-climate-scientists-endorse-anthropogenic-global-warming/

If they use the search engine on Uncommon Descent, they can type in "global warming" and find many other UD articles on the subject. Even if they completely disagree with the UD "spin" on the subject, it would at least be responsible to check out the *sources* cited by the UD authors before automatically declaring them wrong.

Cameron.

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Received on Sun Aug 23 03:11:36 2009