What I Learned about Climate Change: The Science is not Settled

Medium ^ | Oct 16, 2015 | David Siegel

[Izzy Dunne]

What is your position on the climate-change debate? What would it take to change your mind?

If the answer is It would take a ton of evidence to change my mind, because my understanding is that the science is settled, and we need to get going on this important issue, that’s what I thought, too. This is my story.

More than thirty years ago, I became vegan because I believed it was healthier (it’s not), and I’ve stayed vegan because I believe it’s better for the environment (it is). I haven’t owned a car in ten years. I love animals; I’ll gladly fly halfway around the world to take photos of them in their natural habitats. I’m a Democrat: I think governments play a key role in helping preserve our environment for the future in the most cost-effective way possible. Over the years, I built a set of assumptions: that Al Gore was right about global warming, that he was the David going up against the industrial Goliath. In 1993, I even wrote a book about it.

Recently, a friend challenged those assumptions. At first, I was annoyed, because I thought the science really was settled. As I started to look at the data and read about climate science, I was surprised, then shocked. As I learned more, I changed my mind. I now think there probably is no climate crisis and that the focus on CO2 takes funding and attention from critical environmental problems. I’ll start by making ten short statements that should challenge your assumptions and then back them up with an essay.

[Izzy Dunne]

A light bulb goes on. It's a long read.

He would still avoid a hamburger (it's better for the environment), but happily "fly halfway around the world to take photos of [animals]", so the bulb is not on full brightness yet, but it's progress.

And all it took was a friend to "challenge his assumptions".

[Former Proud Canadian]

The writer is a complete putz. Here is a nugget:

"New research shows fluctuations in energy from the sun correlate very strongly with changes in earth’s temperature, better than CO2 levels."

He needed 400 hours of research to come up with this one? I don't think liberalism is a mental disease. However, liberalism does beat thinking.

[Rodamala]

At the end, does Izzy admit to liking Trump and saying Hillary should be fitted for an orange prision pantsuit?

[Rodamala]

ha I wrote izzy when the author was david... whoops

[kindred]

Liberalism is a mental disorder and brews hatred toward all who know they are 100% wrong and how they are bigots and liars whose ignorance and arrogance is exceeded only by their pride. Lucifer dwells in the left and corrupts America daily.

[Cen-Tejas]

I don’t know if all this guys claims about himself have an ounce of truth to them or not. His statement “I’m a vegan” and “I’m a democrat” really size him up enough for me.

Notwithstanding that comment though, his conclusion that “climate change” is bullshit is one I became in sync with about 30 minutes after I first heard the term years ago. And, I did not need one chart or one graph or one essay to conclude same. I knew, given the sources of the bs, that it was yet another plot by world wide liberals to squeeze MONEY out of the rest of us!!!

[kindred]

Global warming is a lie and scam of the left to deceive and indoctrinate peoples to fear where there is no fear and to destroy the rights and liberties given by God to mankind. And to make men slaves of evil government.

[Izzy Dunne]

Damage figures will rise significantly as we build larger cities on the coasts and expensive buildings with sea views. Don’t be fooled by graphs showing rising damage figures — they are guaranteed!

I've been thinking that for years. A given storm will cause more damage (in monetary terms) next year that it would have caused today, because there will be more people in costlier houses next year.

[jpsb]

The author is a fool, why should I care that some idiot finally realized what I have known since day one? 20 or so years ago I looked into “Global Warming” in my investigations I came across the fact that (at the time) the energy from the Sun is considered a constant. I immediately knew the models were BS and discounted the entire theory.

[scripter]

From the article:

Notice that temperature generally changes first, and CO2 changes some 800+ years later. ...This is called the temperature lag — an inconvenient truth for CO2-warming enthusiasts; it’s well known but not well understood. It could easily be a complex relationship, but CO2 changes do not initially cause historical temperature changes.

I know many people who refuse to accept the above. So sad some people can't think for themselves.

[Iron Munro]

From Drudge Report yesterday:

“SHOCK CLAIM: World is on brink of 50 year ICE AGE and BRITAIN will bear the brunt”

http://tinyurl.com/50YearIceAgeComing

[Izzy Dunne]

The writer is a complete putz.

No, he isn't. He:

1. Was a devout AlGorian.
2. Was challenged in his assumptions.
3. Was annoyed at the challenge.
4. Actually did his own research.
5. Decided that he had been lied to.
6. Documented several things he was lied to about.

It took him 400 hours of research to document all the things in his article, not just your little snippet. Duh.

Give him credit for changing his mind. Not a lot of them do.

[GSWarrior]

Common sense and empirical evidence has no effect on people whose main argument is “how could man NOT be responsible for climate change?”

[Izzy Dunne]

why should I care that some idiot finally realized what I have known since day one?

Because maybe, just maybe, this is the camel's nose under the tent.

[AMDG&BVMH]

BUMP.

Thanks for this great post.

[mountainlion]

Anyone that has read the steps of the Scientific method knows the last step is to reevaluate the data and procedures, adjust the model and such. Science has become a fantasy to manipulate people.

[libertarian27]

That’s a great ‘bookmark’ article to link to in comment sections and facebook pages where progressives roam on the internet.

This guy is one of their own - that realized the scam.
Starting his article off with being a professed Vegan and 2x Obama voter may push more moonbats to keep reading instead of screaming that it’s a warming-denier link.

[zeugma]

Bfl

[Ditter]

I was at the checkout counter at my local pharmacy when the women behind the counter started talking about climate change.

She told me, out of the blue, that she had become very interested in it and had started reading all this scientific stuff and was very worried about it.

Obviously she was worried because she was talking to someone she had never seen before and all I wanted was to pay for my stuff and leave the store.

I quickly told her global warming was a “ crock of s..t” and to stop worrying about it because the sun was in control of warming and cooling and God was in control of the sun!

[abclily]

OK!! Everybody pay attention!

Lesson for today:

1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.

2. The sun is a ball of fire that controls the climates of all its planets.

3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.

4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.

5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.

Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?