Posted by
inkling_revival on Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:00:00 AM
Those making the claim that we need to cut development drastically to stop human-caused global climate change have been saying "the debate is over" about three, basic items for about 20 years:
- The earth is warming
- Man is causing it
- We have to cut back development to stop it
That there's no debate used to be
almost true of the first point. It's never been true of the other two, though it was closer about 10 years ago: a growing number of scientists dispute how much man is the cause of the warming, pointing to factors like solar effects on clouding, ocean currents, and the earth's rhythmic cycles; and sensible people everywhere note that even the most drastic plans to cut back will not affect global temperature enough to matter, and we just have to get used to warmer weather. However, on the first point -- that the earth is warming -- there's been very little serious disagreement.
Until recently.
Today, that's on the table, too. Two things have happened:
- The earth's measured temperature stopped rising around 1998, and this year it fell dramatically. There hasn't been any warming for 10 years, so far as we can tell.
- It's becoming apparent that much of the warming we've seen in the last 30 years has been because of bad measurements.
Read more at Plumb Bob Blog...