Just recently I tried to list the reasons for grave concern that I had seen in my lifetime - and which I now look upon as just as many fashionable doom scenarios. That list was all but exhaustive.
How about this?
The post-war years of bad weather: nuclear tests.
Already mentioned: 1972 the limits of growth. The worst of which was expected was to emerge in... 2000, thank you very much.
70s and 80s panic, we're heading for a new ice age. Forgotten.
Followed by acid rain and forests dying. Forests look better than ever.
The hole in the ozone layer. Still there at the end of every summer, like it may have always been, before we started measuring.
And now that terrible CO2. Studies have shown that in the atmospere there is 0,04 volume percent of CO2. It is argued that a fraction of this fraction has to do with human activity.
Go see the fascinating films about climate change at the Friends Of Science site, and see if we need to be concerned about climate change.
13 comments:
Hi Koos.
One can make money from this, and one does not even have to have strong convictions -there are alternative incentives; Exxon are offering $10,000 to each scientist/subject matter expert who wishes to write a rebuttal to the IPCC report. It seems clear on which side the ‘money’ is on.
be well,
Paul
Given the public image of oil companies, that's bad news, because many people will think it's an open bribe.
The scientists who write the pro-greenhouse articles write them for less? I don't think so. So it seems clear that the money is on both sides. But the Big Money is on the pro-greenhouse side. You just don't get funding for a study that goes against the fashion.
films about climate change
dear Koos,
I read the letter beneath your video links and will need a longer chunk of time that I have right now to properly watch the clips.
I think we need to educate children (and adults) to be less wasterful, certainly, but not necessarily as a motivator to prevent climate change.Consumer culture is so driven by the aquisition of "stuff" and the idea that things make us happy. If only people could realise how untrue that really is.
Hi Koos,
Whatever I do, no film here!
Koos, you forgot to mention George Orwell's 1984.
My Dear Koos
I have quite dearly missed you.
Here's hoping that you have not lain shivering in the bilge after pondering that exhaustive list...
I hear The Netherlands will soon be a subdivision of Atlantis - look forward to an increase in property taxes...
Let's keep it simple and live our own lives in that same way.
Cheers!
Love
Dale
Certainly it is good to examine all sides of a question, but the "Friends of Science" are now a discredited (and re-organized and re-named) source, noted for their public relations slant. http://www.desmogblog.com/the-fanciful-world-of-the-friends-of-science I am also struck by your comments regarding funding, in relation to the comments by "ahvarahn". We can all see the gain to oil and gas companies who fund research that contradicts global warming, but what might be the benefit to corporate funders who support findings of extreme climate change caused by human CO2 emissions? By the way, "Dale", 1984 - DoubleSpeak, Big Brother, re-writing news and history in whatever way suits the current audience and application - it is our reality, so some predictions do indeed come to pass. Perhaps some people will just require more hindsight to believe in global warming.
Koos:
I sent you my thoughts already. In a nutshell, I agree with you.
Global Warming?...There are much bigger fish in the sea to tackle.
--Dan L.
Hi Koos,
I've seen the films. Tried Quicktime first but that didn't work. Now i've tried Windows Media and guess what? It worked. Seen them all. In fact it is one film cut to smaller pieces. Very interesting. Would advise the other readers to watch it too.
In need of a de-smogging!
www.desmogblog.com
Listen to the Song of the Last Dutchman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDNIJbT7Z0&mode=related&search=
Koos I have to whole heartedly disagree with your blog, not because of world debate, not because of funding, not because of all the world wide panic you have seen in your lifetime, but because I personally wish to live in a clean world. Yes the earth changes no matter what, but it all looks very cosy in a clean tidy city where there is organization and calm. We are stripping the earth of resources, and really the forests don't look fine(and thos that do only recover because someone intervened), developing countries have unhealthy population sizes, (I don't need statistics or research to tell me that, I just drive past a township with 10 people living in a metal shack the size of a minivan), even with HIV and AIDs wiping out towns and villages. We are dirty creatures and we are polluting the world. Most first wold countries won't see their dirt except in the air and the real damage is done far enough away for people not to care. Humans will survive, we will adapt to the changes yes, but do you wish to see so much smog on your horizon every day? Do you enjoy breathing in fumes? Do you wish every stretch of land that used to be teeming with wild creatures developed and supplying fat cat countries with agricultural produce? Or do you think it might be a good idea just to support healthy living with a conservative attitude to energy and water consumption? What can it hurt?
Hi Maryssa
I only saw your comment thanks to Jodie. So here's a belated reply.
Strange as it may sound to you, I agree wholeheartedly with practically all the points in your comment...
Love
Koos
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