How to Talk to a Sceptic about Global Warming
source: Coby Beck of A Few Things Ill Considered repeated here verbatem. Caution go to the website and subscribe for updates.
Guides by Category
(Supplement to the How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic guide)
All Guide topics can be found here by category for quicker reference. Note, some guide topics may be in multiple categories and have differing descriptions.Ignorant or Misinformed Arguments
- One warm year is not global warming
- Despite what the models say, there is just no evidence of warming
- A few glaciers receeding today is not proof of Global Warming
- One hundred years doesn't tell us anything
- A warmer climate is a good thing.
- The current warming could be natural
- It was even warmer during the Holocene Climatic Optimum
- Wasn't the Medieval Warm Period just as warm as today?
- We can not reduce fossil fuel usage
- Kyoto would have virtually no effect on the temperature rise
- Why do India and China get a free pass in Kyoto
- There is Global Warming on Mars without any SUV's
- There is Global Warming on Pluto without any SUV's
- I just read about a record cold snap, this proves there is no Global Warming
- Even scientists can't agree on the reality of Global Warming
- Ice sheets in the Antarctic are growing so Global Warming isn't real
- Climate is too chaotic so forget about predicting where it will go
- Volcanoes emit way more CO2 than people
- Global Warming is just because cities are getting bigger
- We can't even predict the weather, forget about 100 year projections
- Greenland was even warmer than now when the vikings lived there
- But the Satellites say it's cooling
- It cooled in the 40's and 50's even while CO2 rose, so CO2 must not matter
- There are plenty of times millions of years ago when CO2 and temperature were way off.
- The climate always changes, why should it be our fault today?
- First it was Global Cooling in the 70's, now it Global Warming, make up your mind
- Global Warming has been going on for 20 thousand years.
- Who says it's our fault CO2 is rising, it could be natural.
- That Hockey Stick graph turned out to be bogus.
- CO2 has not driven warmings before, why should it now?
- Climate models don't even handle clouds.
- Global Warming Stopped 8 years ago.
- Any warming must be due to the sun, the source of all our heat.
- Glaciers are growing, not melting.
- Global Dimming in the Northern Hemisphere should mean more warming in the Southern.
- Some sites are cooling, so there is no global warming.
- So far nothing bad has happened after 100 years of warming, why worry?
- Humans have adapted to all types of climates, we'll manage just fine
Socio-Political/Economic arguments
- Global Warming is a hoax
- The temperature record has been manipulated
- Climate scientists hide the dominant role of water vapor
- Reducing fossil fuel usage will destroy civilization
- Even if fully implemented, the Kyoto protocol it is not enough
- The US is right to reject Kyoto as long as India and China get a free pass
- The threat of Global Warming is still too controversial to act on
- The scientist are not revealing how confident the models really are.
- James Hansen has a habit of exaggerating Global Warming predictions.
- Positions statements hide legitimate scientific debate
- The US is a net absorber of CO2, the world should thank us.
- Even the scientists only say it's "probaby" human caused.
- The consensus is a sure sign of political pressure.
Scientific FUD
- The temperature record is so processed it only says what the scientists want
- H2O far outweighs any CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
- A one hundred year trend is not an adequate sample
- The models are primitive and unreliable
- Glaciers have advanced and retreated before
- Models do not even account for H2O, the most abundant and powerful GHG
- There are many periods with much warmer climates in geological history.
- The current warming is just a part of natural variation
- Current temperatures have not even matched the Holocene Climatic Optimum
- The Medieval Warm Period was just as warm and pronounced as today
- Global Warming on Mars and Pluto is clear evidence that the Sun is hotter
- The ice core records show that CO2 does not lead, but lags temperature changes
- Ice sheets growing in the Antarctic contradict Global Warming theory
- The climate system is a chaotic system and therefore we can not predict it
- The Global Warming signal is an artifact of the Urban Heat Island Effect
- Vikings could not have settled in Greenland without the higher temperatures of the MWP
- Satellite readings are not in line with model predictions, the models are wrong.
- Temperature rise and CO2 are not well correlated at all during the 20th century
- Many periods in geological history defy the models and the notion the CO2 is dominant
- Human emissions are almost 30 times smaller than natural emissions from land and ocean
- The CO2 trend is not reliable because Mauna Loa, where it is measured, is an active volcano.
- CO2 levels have flucuated dramatically on their own in the past, we can not rule out nature.
- The famous Hockey Stick study is incorrect methodolgy applied to bad data.
- Climate models ignore the mitigating effects of more cloud formation in a warming climate.
- The majority of observed warming is due to changes in insolation.
- When land use changes are put into the equation, the United States ends up being a sink, not a source of CO2.
- Observed warming shows that models have an over estimated climate sensitivity.
- The environmental effects of the warming so far on the balance have been good.
Philosphical/Arguments from Higher principals
- There is no proof that CO2 is what is causing the temperature to go up.
- The models are unproven
- Climate is a chaotic system and can not be predicted
- AGW theory is moot until there is good reason to reject the "null hypothesis"
- If we can't understand the past climate, how can we claim we understand the current one?
- Even the scientists only say it's "probaby" human caused.
- Sea ice is growing in Antarctica, this contradicts the idea of Global Warming
- So polar bears and a few other species will go extinct, humans are all that matter
- Consensus is just a sign of "herd" mentality.
Crackpottery
- H2O is 99% of the Greenhouse Effect.
- Volcanoes emit way more CO2 than people and are causing the CO2 levels to rise
- Any ice cap melting will just flow into aquifers underneath
- GW is caused by undersea volcanoes
- The CO2 increase is a natural response to the MWP
- Geothermal heat far exceeds the Greenhouse Effect
- The CO2 rising in the atmosphere is coming out of the oceans
- GW is caused by all the heat produced by more humans and more activity
- Global Mean Surface temperature is a meaningless concept with no thermodynamic basis
Underdog Theories
- Cosmic Rays
- The Tungusta Event
- The Iris Hypothesis
...
Tags
- global warming
- coby beck
- sceptic
- my comments
- leftie talking points
Comments
Seth says
M 2006-06-27 04:22:33 3803
This guy doesn't appear to be a meterologist or a climatologist he's an artificial intelligence engineer .Why should I believe him? Who paid him ?
This guy doesn't appear to be a meterologist or a climatologist he's an artificial intelligence engineer .Why should I believe him? Who paid him ? Actually it is good that he does not have a dog in the race. He is just doing, like i am doing, accumulating facts and reasoning to get at the truth of the matter. Unlike him, i have not made up my mind in advance, but then perhaps when he started, he hadn't either. One thing i like about his matrix (which btw is working) is that he has not gotten distracted by all the leftrightism that you are slinging. Nor does he utilize the language of leftrightism with words like "hypervenaliting" etc. Personally i would like to have seen some question/answers in the matrix which actually end up being against global warming. But then, unfortunately, you have not uncovered any of those either. Why? Because you get distracted by (1) your own pre-judgements, and (2) any tasty morsels of leftrightism that you encounter while reading and get joy at slinging my way.
Seth says
source: my comment on this matrix
I love your "How to Talk to a Sceptic about Global Warming" in fact i found it so useful i had to copy your catagories to my blog ... i hop you don't mind. I have already used is several times on fastblogit to answer critics. Btw, what is the procedure to submit new questions? In any Case i would like to answer this one ... though it may be poorly phrased: Why should we ruin our enonomy to reduce the temperature by a mere .6 degree?
I love your "How to Talk to a Sceptic about Global Warming" in fact i found it so useful i had to copy your catagories to my blog ... i hop you don't mind. I have already used is several times on fastblogit to answer critics. Btw, what is the procedure to submit new questions? In any Case i would like to answer this one ... though it may be poorly phrased: Why should we ruin our enonomy to reduce the temperature by a mere .6 degree?
...
Seth says
and the response ...
seth 2006-06-27 16:05:32 3803
source: my comment on this matrix
I love your "How to Talk to a Sceptic about Global Warming" in fact i found it so useful i had to copy your catagories to my blog ... i hop you don't mind. I have already used is several times on fastblogit to answer critics. Btw, what is the procedure to submit new questions? In any Case i would like to answer this one ... though it may be poorly phrased: Why should we ruin our enonomy to reduce the temperature by a mere .6 degree?
I love your "How to Talk to a Sceptic about Global Warming" in fact i found it so useful i had to copy your catagories to my blog ... i hop you don't mind. I have already used is several times on fastblogit to answer critics. Btw, what is the procedure to submit new questions? In any Case i would like to answer this one ... though it may be poorly phrased: Why should we ruin our enonomy to reduce the temperature by a mere .6 degree?
and the response ...
source: coby
Hi Seth, thanks for the comment, I am very happy you are putting the Guide to good use! No worries about the cloning, though it will get out of date eventually.
A question in the comments as you have done is as good a way as any to suggest it. See this article for half of it and this article for the other half. Let me know if that covers what you had in mind.
Hi Seth, thanks for the comment, I am very happy you are putting the Guide to good use! No worries about the cloning, though it will get out of date eventually.
A question in the comments as you have done is as good a way as any to suggest it. See this article for half of it and this article for the other half. Let me know if that covers what you had in mind.
...
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