DU scientists: help debunk dumbass LTTE from global warming denier

[smoogatz]

I'll send a reply as soon as I can get good info debunking this clown. After the first paragraph, this has the feel of a canned response, probably sent by a stooge of the local electric power industry.

Here's the LTTE:

"With two fawning reviews of Al Gore and his 2008 campaign film (“An Inconvenient Truth”), and another story on global warming thrown in for good measure, in the Saturday, July 29, Leader-Telegram, the great debate of our time has started in . The movie’s release in the summer creates a perfect segue to reporting high summer temperatures.

"Chances are, you won’t be exposed to any basic truths in the movie that would lessen the global warming hysteria, so here are a few.

"In the 1970s, many scientists predicted the onset of an ice age, at the same time other scientists were successfully launching probes to other planets. That doesn’t mean climate scientists are less intelligent; it means the climate is infinitely more complex than negotiating a spacecraft through millions of miles of outer space.

"Carbon dioxide levels have been rising since the advent of industrialization. Temperatures have been rising, and falling, depending on where they are measured and the starting point used. Glaciers have advanced, and retreated. The ice cap in Antarctica has calved, and thickened. Global sea level has not changed.

"Carbon dioxide levels have risen 35 parts per million (about a 10 percent increase) since 1980. To reverse that trend, the world (note, not just the U.S., but everyone) would have to fundamentally curtail future use of fossil fuels, and devastate our economic well-being in the process.

"Keeping that in mind will dissuade those who would write off Gore as a harmless crank. The junk science of the global warming movement must be countered with facts readily available to everyone and that don’t require you to sit through a 100-minute droning campaign commercial by our ex-vice president."

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[zbdent]

1. In the 60s, the tobacco industry scoured the planet (using bribe money

as the lure) to find doctors who were willing to be bought out, and a few dozen showed up to claim that the issue of the harmful effects of smoking were "inconclusive".

The global naysayers have bribed their "scientists" to come out and say "global warming is not real".

[skids]

2. How about this...

The author is correct in one thing: the climate is more complex than rocket science. Which is why, rather than trust some random person writing letters to the editor to a local paper, I put my trust in the overwhelming majority of scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying this matter.

In the 1970s many scientists thought that humans could not survive a trip into space. The majority, however, thought otherwise, and we indeed did walk on the moon. You can't judge all scientists by the opinion of the few -- but in the case of global warming, we are not talking about a few, and even those few that are wrong from time to time are an essential part of the open and honest process of scientific debate.

The author, however, is less than honest when he tries to scare us into maintaining our global addiction to fossile fuels with the spectre of dire economic consequences. The truth is, if there is one thing that can save this country's middle class jobs, it is a new push towards fossil-free energy. We Americans have the brains, the hustle, and the muscle to do it, and could become a leader and world exporter of clean energy technology, if only our leaders in business and government were not blind to the clear path we must take.

[johnaries]

3. The only scientists disputing Global Warming are paid by

Oil Companies. Please refer to my LTTE:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1830446&mesg_id=1830446

Also, check out Exxonsecrets.org.

Some sections of some glaciers have thickened as a result of increased precipitation (also caused by Global Warming), but glaciers are retreating overall.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=129
"we know that glacier retreat is in fact an essentially global phenomenon, with only a few isolated (and well understood) counter-examples, such as western Norway"

The sea level is rising:http://www.agu.org/revgeophys/dougla01/node4.html#SECTION00040000000000000000

[screembloodymurder]

4. Even if Global Warming is 90% nature, why do nothing?

Why not do everything possible to mitigate our contribution? Can't these people We can do a lot with a few simple changes that, rather than hurt the economy, will help the environment, make us healthier and contribute to our countries independence from Middle East oil. Let's ride bikes. They do it in Europe.

[sueragingroz]

5. There are so many reasons to turn away from fossil fuels

The Global Warming threat is only one. Others include:

-pollution
-scarcity/finiteness
-geopolitical instability as we fight over the scraps..

I could go on...

The point is that we need to stop using them for many many reasons... whether GW is bunk or not.