jfpen,
What the heck is Britney Spears Pop science? You may subscribe, but I don’t. Somebody recently accused me of getting my news from MSNBC (?). I didn’t know that channel, but finally found it. I don’t watch a lot of TV. I believe it’s called projection, when you lay your own attributes onto someone else.
I have followed your links on the site you gave me. And yes, 31,000 scientists may disagree. Or not. Science is enormously complex. Much more than we can appreciate. No one simple answer, like increased sun, suffices. Instead, there are multiple other effects from the first effect.
Scientific belief is like concentric circles. There will be the hard, indisputable facts in the center. Yes, the earth is round, not flat. But in the initial stages of that knowledge there were only the one or two voices brave enough to speak out against the popular belief of flatness.
Let’s put Dr. Steven Chu and the international scientists who voted at the last climate change conference in the center circle. They believe there is hard evidence for man-made climate change, and that it is accelerating. There are tens of thousands of scientists worldwide who are in the core circle.
The next concentric circle of voices is where the dissent comes in. This is where one study negates the other. Where the 31,000 supposed dissenting scientists reside. Where the debate goes on. And where it becomes politics influencing science. Scientific progress does not always bring welcome news.
The final circle contains the way-out there stuff, the unproven leaps-of-logic theories. Often where the big break-throughs come from.
Climate change is supposed to mean more extreme weather. You say your winter was cold; ours was warm. We had no snow whatsoever. I have heard that climate change will bring about more extreme local effects.
If you want to read about man-made weather changes, read “The Worst Hard Time.” I think I got the title right. Fascinating interviews of dust-bowl survivors…their children literally choked to death on flying dirt. Caused by plowing up thousands of acres of prairie, and plowing wrong.
Tonight I was reading Science News, Aug.1, 2009. One of my favorite magazines–no politics! Just science! I read Discover tonight, too.
An article matter-of factly titled: CLIMATE CHANGE OFFSETS EVOLUTION TO SHRINK THE WILD SHEEP OF ST. KILDA analyzed how the wild sheep on a North Atlantic island are shrinking about 5 % over the past 2 decades.
“Over the past 25 years, spring has shifted two or three weeks earlier in Northern Europe,” stated the article. Environmental factors linked to less-violent winters became the most important determinant of body size, overcoming the evolutionary effect of larger lambs.
This acceptance of climate change is now main stream science, folks.
But science is ever-changing. The results are coming in every day. Minds will be changed. Maybe mine. Maybe yours. But let’s let it be based on science, done by real scientists. Not on politics. Not on wishful thinking or denial.
Furnishedowner