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#152 Jul 08 2010 at 1:42 PM Rating: Decent
knoxxsouthy wrote:
we are not running out of fossil fuels anytime soon and it's usage is not destroying the environment.


lol

#153 Jul 08 2010 at 1:58 PM Rating: Good
BrownDuck wrote:
knoxxsouthy wrote:
we are not running out of fossil fuels anytime soon and it's usage is not destroying the environment.

lol

I'm just curious what your laugh is specifically in reference to. Is it the poster, the assertion that we will not run out of fossil fuels or that their usage is not destroying the environment?
#154 Jul 08 2010 at 2:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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This is quoted from a paper Dr. Theon presented to the IPCC last year:

Quote:
In conclusion, our understanding of how the climate system works is still rudimentary,
clearly not reliable enough to serve as the basis for government policy making. Policies that
rely on climate model predictions call for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to
ameliorate the disaster that the models predict. Such policies will cost billions, if not trillions,
of dollars and will have little, if any, effect on carbon dioxide concentrations or global
climate change. Government policies should be focused on energy conservation and
developing new energy sources that will reduce the free world’s dependence on imported
energy. The climate system is very complex, one in which small-scale and/or slow processes
acting for a very long time, can make huge differences in the forecast outcome.
To believe
that important climate processes, some of which occur on the molecular scale, can be
realistically represented in a computer model requires a leap of faith. Science cannot be
based on faith. It must be based on facts alone. Only religion requires faith of its believers.


I bolded the part with which I absolutely agree. I have said for a long time that I do not understand, or pretend to understand, the science behind global climate change; but those statements are true, in my opinion, whether climate change is man-made or not.
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#155 Jul 08 2010 at 2:25 PM Rating: Good
Samira wrote:
Quote:
In conclusion, our understanding of how the climate system works is still rudimentary,
clearly not reliable enough to serve as the basis for government policy making. Policies that
rely on climate model predictions call for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to
ameliorate the disaster that the models predict. Such policies will cost billions, if not trillions,
of dollars and will have little, if any, effect on carbon dioxide concentrations or global
climate change. Government policies should be focused on energy conservation and
developing new energy sources that will reduce the free world’s dependence on imported
energy. The climate system is very complex, one in which small-scale and/or slow processes
acting for a very long time, can make huge differences in the forecast outcome.
To believe
that important climate processes, some of which occur on the molecular scale, can be
realistically represented in a computer model requires a leap of faith. Science cannot be
based on faith. It must be based on facts alone. Only religion requires faith of its believers.


If the bolded portion was amended to read "Government policies should be focused on balancing the drive for energy conservation and developing new energy sources that will reduce the free world’s dependence on imported energy with the need for a growing and healthy economy." I could get behind it. It was focused on energy policy though, and not economics, so it can be forgiven. Outside of the understandable omission, there's nothing there that I can take issue with.
#156 Jul 08 2010 at 2:51 PM Rating: Decent
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I'll also point out that the drive to develop new forms of energy production which will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels is not something which conservatives oppose. What we oppose is using that to argue that we must "do something", but not being able to yet deliver on true alternatives, the "something" ends out raising taxes on what we're currently using sold to the public on the false belief that this will reduce total usage. It wont. It'll just raise massive amounts of tax revenue.

That's the bait and switch that we're opposed to. If you wanted to fund pure research into viable alternative energies I suspect that most people would be more than willing to pay for it. But that's not remotely close to what the majority of funding does. It goes into boondoggles and subsidies for alternatives which don't yet work. Develop the technology until it's good enough to compete with oil and coal as an energy source and we wont need subsidies. People will fall over themselves to produce and consume it. That should be our goal.
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King Nobby wrote:
More words please
#157 Jul 08 2010 at 2:52 PM Rating: Decent
His Excellency MoebiusLord wrote:
I'm just curious what your laugh is specifically in reference to. Is it the poster, the assertion that we will not run out of fossil fuels or that their usage is not destroying the environment?


All three.
#158 Jul 08 2010 at 2:53 PM Rating: Decent
Moe,

Quote:
I'm just curious what your laugh is specifically in reference to. Is it the poster, the assertion that we will not run out of fossil fuels or that their usage is not destroying the environment?


He's laughing because anyone who doesn't believe those things are happening is just to moronic to respond to. Just like every other kool-aid drinking liberal who lacks the ability to critically analyze their own beliefs.

I defy you to show me one hardcore liberal who's changed their veiw on abortion, immigration, taxes, or the environment. I was fortunate in that most of my family were far left radical nuts deeply involved in the dnc in nashville and my father, as the black sheep, rebelled against everything they stood for.



#159 Jul 08 2010 at 2:56 PM Rating: Decent
knoxxsouthy wrote:
I defy you to show me one hardcore liberal who's changed their veiw on abortion, immigration, taxes, or the environment.


My father, his father and his grandfather, all Republicans. Myself and my brother are the only Dems out of the family.

Do you want to see a picture?

Edited, Jul 8th 2010 3:57pm by Kaelesh
#160 Jul 08 2010 at 2:57 PM Rating: Decent
Still waiting for someone to show me someone half as qualified at Dr. Theon willing to sign onto the myth of man made global warming.


#161 Jul 08 2010 at 3:01 PM Rating: Decent
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MDenham wrote:
gbaji wrote:
MDenham wrote:
gbaji wrote:
The very fact that government has to fund a job for it to exist is strong evidence that said job does not generate sufficient value to the rest of the economy to justify itself on its own relative merits. If it did, someone would already be paying someone to do that work, wouldn't they?
...maintenance on roads doesn't generate sufficient value, blah, blah, blah?


We spend money on roads even when we're not playing "spend massively to stimulate the economy" games.
That's kind of entirely beside the point. Your statement is, point blank, "if the government is funding a job rather than the private sector, the job isn't justified."


No. I said if the government has to fund a job for it to exist. Do you think no one would build roads if the government didn't do it?

Quote:
gbaji wrote:
I'm not saying don't spend any money on anything.
Yes, you are, but it's obviously not what you're meaning to say since you have to backpedal on it like this.


No. I'm not saying that. You're misinterpreting my words so as to make it appear that way. There are cases where it does make more sense to pool our money via a government agency to do things (like roads and military). But we should not be doing that for the sake of doing that. We don't create a military just to employ people. There is a need being fulfilled.

What Smash was arguing was that it didn't matter if the job was productive or needed. As long as you put money in the hands of the people and they spend it buying stuff, all is good in his world. That is clearly a stupid economic theory, but it's one which many liberal economists really do think works. It's one of those bizarre cases where theory quite clearly doesn't match reality, but the guys who like the theory insist that it does, and if it fails it's because we didn't do enough of it, not that it's just a really stupid idea.

Edited, Jul 8th 2010 2:01pm by gbaji
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King Nobby wrote:
More words please
#162 Jul 08 2010 at 3:01 PM Rating: Excellent
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His Excellency MoebiusLord wrote:

If the bolded portion was amended to read "Government policies should be focused on balancing the drive for energy conservation and developing new energy sources that will reduce the free world’s dependence on imported energy with the need for a growing and healthy economy." I could get behind it. It was focused on energy policy though, and not economics, so it can be forgiven. Outside of the understandable omission, there's nothing there that I can take issue with.


Well, as a scientist that's not his call. His statement covers what he feels qualified to comment about, presumably. He's not an economist, and refreshingly enough he's not pretending he is.

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In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

#163 Jul 08 2010 at 3:06 PM Rating: Excellent
Liberal Conspiracy
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He'll never make it in =4 with that attitude, Missy.
____________________________
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#164 Jul 08 2010 at 3:25 PM Rating: Decent
Jophed,

So I guess you couldn't find anyone with half the qualifications ready to put their reputation on the line by supporting the man made global warming myth.

That's all you had to say.
#165 Jul 08 2010 at 3:30 PM Rating: Good
Samira wrote:
His Excellency MoebiusLord wrote:

If the bolded portion was amended to read "Government policies should be focused on balancing the drive for energy conservation and developing new energy sources that will reduce the free world’s dependence on imported energy with the need for a growing and healthy economy." I could get behind it. It was focused on energy policy though, and not economics, so it can be forgiven. Outside of the understandable omission, there's nothing there that I can take issue with.


Well, as a scientist that's not his call. His statement covers what he feels qualified to comment about, presumably. He's not an economist, and refreshingly enough he's not pretending he is.


That's why I forgivened it and noted it as understandable.
#166 Jul 08 2010 at 3:33 PM Rating: Good
Couldn't find anything on "Reginal Newell" but Reginald Newell turned up quite a bit. Nothing about him getting fired for speaking up against global warming (still digging around for info on that, it's elusive) but he said this, and it's all over the denialists websites:

"My suspicion is that if you have a crisis like this, it's easier to gain funds for the profession as a whole."

And that's true, of course. If there weren't any climate problems or changes at all, then no one would be funding any climate research studies. Heck, if we didn't have technology that could monitor the weather to the extent that it does, there would be no climatology industry. Everyone from the meteorologists on your local TV station to the ivory tower guys at NOAA rely on the same technology to make their predictions, whether it's for two days or two hundred years.

If no one got sick, we wouldn't have to pay any doctors. If no one had to travel, we wouldn't have to give money to the automobile and oil industry. If the climate wasn't changing, we wouldn't have to fund any climate scientists. Duh.

Based on his obituary, Newell's area of expertise was smog science. He told the MA state legislature that the amount of cars in Boston was going to cause a smog problem to rival that of LA, and suggested a train to NYC to alleviate some of the problem.
#167 Jul 08 2010 at 3:34 PM Rating: Excellent
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29,360 posts
Well, there are always the people he cites as former colleagues:

Quote:
James Hansen, Roy Spencer, Joanne Simpson, and several hundred other scientists at NASA field centers, in academia, and in the private sector who worked on climate research.


Of the three, Dr. Hansen is clearly the one who takes the most issue with Theon. Simpson's focus was not specifically on climate change, and Spencer largely appears to agree with Theon.

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In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

#168 Jul 08 2010 at 4:37 PM Rating: Default
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35,568 posts
catwho wrote:
If no one got sick, we wouldn't have to pay any doctors. If no one had to travel, we wouldn't have to give money to the automobile and oil industry. If the climate wasn't changing, we wouldn't have to fund any climate scientists. Duh.


Funny analogy. Those who are often the first to accuse the pharmaceutical industry of inventing ailments because they came up with a pill to treat it (irritable bowel syndrome, ADD/ADHD, PADS, etc) and want to make tons of money can't bring themselves to even consider that people in the climatology industry might just invent a crisis to fund what they do. Oh no! Scientists who invent pills are "evil" and can't be trusted, but scientists who do climate research must be trusted with no questions at all!

Lol... Both earn a paycheck doing what they do. And both are subject to manipulation of their results based on the desires of those who pay them those paychecks. How many bogus reports, and false claims, and predictions which don't come even remotely true do you guys need to see before you'll maybe acknowledge that there's a lot of politics involved with those conclusions and not quite so much science?
____________________________
King Nobby wrote:
More words please
#169 Jul 08 2010 at 5:11 PM Rating: Decent
gbaji wrote:
catwho wrote:
If no one got sick, we wouldn't have to pay any doctors. If no one had to travel, we wouldn't have to give money to the automobile and oil industry. If the climate wasn't changing, we wouldn't have to fund any climate scientists. Duh.


Funny analogy. Those who are often the first to accuse the pharmaceutical industry of inventing ailments because they came up with a pill to treat it (irritable bowel syndrome, ADD/ADHD, PADS, etc) and want to make tons of money can't bring themselves to even consider that people in the climatology industry might just invent a crisis to fund what they do. Oh no! Scientists who invent pills are "evil" and can't be trusted, but scientists who do climate research must be trusted with no questions at all!

Lol... Both earn a paycheck doing what they do. And both are subject to manipulation of their results based on the desires of those who pay them those paychecks. How many bogus reports, and false claims, and predictions which don't come even remotely true do you guys need to see before you'll maybe acknowledge that there's a lot of politics involved with those conclusions and not quite so much science?


Catwho's analogy used doctors and made no reference whatsoever to pharmaceutical companies, and I've never heard a single person EVER complain about medical research to find a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's, or any other significant illness. The notion that pharmaceutical companies repeatedly reinvent existing medications or completely new and unnecessary ones for the sake of profit is not analogous at all to climate research. Nice strawman attempt, though.
#170 Jul 08 2010 at 5:36 PM Rating: Decent
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The whole ACC argument is a strawman, anyways. Regardless of the truth of ACC, it's not the only reason for changing to alternative energy. It's not even the most important, IMO. Gore can go fuck himself for turning it into the endless debate that it's become.
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publiusvarus wrote:
we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.
#171 Jul 08 2010 at 6:18 PM Rating: Good
To be fair, I did bring up Big Pharma in an earlier post. But Big Pharma's track record speaks for itself: see Vioxx.
#172 Jul 08 2010 at 6:46 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
Those who are often the first to accuse the pharmaceutical industry of inventing ailments because they came up with a pill to treat it (irritable bowel syndrome, ADD/ADHD, PADS, etc) and want to make tons of money can't bring themselves to even consider that people in the climatology industry might just invent a crisis to fund what they do.

Umm.... what? While I'm sure there's some subset of people who both feel ACC is happening and that pharmaceutical companies are inventing illness, I'm not sure what those people are supposed to prove. Straw man much?

____________________________
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#173 Jul 08 2010 at 6:48 PM Rating: Excellent
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knoxxsouthy wrote:
So I guess you couldn't find anyone with half the qualifications ready to put their reputation on the line by supporting the man made global warming myth.

Of course I could. I could start Googling bios of people working for NASA or NOAA or whoever and turn someone up without much work.

Why? If I do so, will you change your opinion about anything?
____________________________
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#174 Jul 08 2010 at 6:57 PM Rating: Decent
Prodigal Son
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20,643 posts
Jophiel wrote:
knoxxsouthy wrote:
So I guess you couldn't find anyone with half the qualifications ready to put their reputation on the line by supporting the man made global warming myth.

Of course I could. I could start Googling bios of people working for NASA or NOAA or whoever and turn someone up without much work.

Why? If I do so, will you change your opinion about anything?

Academic debates have never caused anyone to change their views; they are only a method for those involved to become further entrenched in their own disparate ideas.
____________________________
publiusvarus wrote:
we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.
#175 Jul 08 2010 at 7:26 PM Rating: Good
Copernicus went to his grave believing that the orbits of the planets were perfect circles.

Even great scientists are often wrong.
#176 Jul 08 2010 at 7:48 PM Rating: Good
Debalic wrote:
Jophiel wrote:
knoxxsouthy wrote:
So I guess you couldn't find anyone with half the qualifications ready to put their reputation on the line by supporting the man made global warming myth.

Of course I could. I could start Googling bios of people working for NASA or NOAA or whoever and turn someone up without much work.

Why? If I do so, will you change your opinion about anything?

Academic debates have never caused anyone to change their views; they are only a method for those involved to become further entrenched in their own disparate ideas.


That's not really true, though, is it?
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