Discussion on Global Warming

from: http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=334823&BoardsParam=page%3d5%26HIPDelay%3d1%26PostID%3d10320264



geoPeter
Message #5709/12/07 04:57 PM
j kerr,
Thanks for your complimentary (I hope) observations. The weather, our environment, our health, our children......these can all be very emotional issues. Throw in some politics and we have an explosive situation. That is why we have these arguments.

For your information I haven't spent all of my life with my nose in books or sitting in front of a computer monitor and keyboard. Not by a long shot.

You asked:
What would it take, to convince you all that its not a fraud, and somehow our government has for once, told us the truth and warming is real and out of control?
First of all, I know better than to take my limited personal observations of the weather, or beach erosion, or remembrances of times past as accurate measures of global climate change.

Secondly, about ten seconds of listening to people like Al Gore and Michael Moore, tells me to distrust them. I don't listen to obnoxious people like Rush Limbaugh either.

What I know to be true is Earth history, which can be seen, measured, and has been verified by many independent scientists for nearly two centuries. The Earth's climate is changing, it has always changed. The same forces that acted in the past are at work today. Man's contribution to global climate change has to be minimal because what we are seeing today is no different than what has occurred in the past.

The predictions of future climate change are based on computer-generated climate models, which are only as good as the data they are fed. Now we are learning the data is inaccurate, and has been manipulated to meet a particular political agenda. This is the same as an accountant doctoring the numbers in a financial statement. What would your opinion of that be?

What does it take to convince me? That is simple...... honest, accurate science. Not a lot of hype and slick presentations, scare tactics of catastrophic weather, and plays on my emotions with pictures of cute polar bears. That is all a con job, an effort to manipulate and deceive. I think the public is finally coming to see that.