re: #447 green_earth

Man-made global warming believers:

Help me out a little. I hear everywhere, even here in this forum, that I should accept man made global warming as fact. What I hear is no more maybe, IT’S FACT you smallish brained idiot, just believe the real intellectuals. There is also equally definitive statements against it as a political hoax with science to back it up (which I admit I’m more inclined to believe, as you can see in my above post).

Nevertheless, I need more than blog posts, AlGore, McCain, or Hopenchange to guide me aright. I’m not a scientist nor do I care to be in earnest. But I need some balanced guidance here. Where can I go to study this issue seriously? What books, articles, or websites take a truly non-politicized look at this issue and consider the obviously VAST number of variables that MUST be considered when looking at this phenominon.

Again, I’m not a scientist and am already doubt that humans can change the climate, even with our burning of fossil fuels. I guess I just don’t see how we can understand the whole system that makes our climate warm and cool all over the globe.

My present feelings aside I am serious about looking at both sides more seriously. Advice?

You’re exactly right that we do not understand the system. We understand a little about it. There is much that we do not yet know, and considering how complex the system is, there is much that we will not know for longer than we have to make up our minds what to do.

We do know is that CO2 has an absorption spectrum in the IR that makes it a greenhouse gas, that atmospheric CO2 is smoothly trending upward year over year, and that it’s warmer now, worldwide, than it was a century ago. That’s what lawyers call a prima facie case. Enough to ask a prosecutor to call a grand jury. Not enough for an indictment, perhaps. Surely not enough to convict.

The people who call the other side idiots are just hooting and pounding their chest. Skeptics aren’t idiots. They’re smarter than the True Believers in either camp, on the whole. That said, experts, the honest ones (and the liars aren’t really experts) know more than the general public, and it’s possible to take skepticism too far. We see this in a stubborn, entrenched skepticism about the necessity and desirability of mass vaccination of children against polio, measles, etc.

Scientific American tries hard to be readable, and while it leans left, it hasn’t gone moonbat crazy. After that, well, Charles, you readin’ this? You’ve been reading up on the topic. You maybe have some good stuff to recommend?