Friday, April 27, 2012

You can't deny it

I'm at a bit of a loss to explain something that has finally reared its head in Canada - at least where I live.

It appears that there are an alarming number of people who actually believe with their hearts that climate change is still up for debate. The last time I checked, climate change is an accepted theory supported by a lot of proven data. The world's climate is definitely changing and it is definitely lining up with changes in greenhouse gases. The changes in greenhouse gases in turn are definitely being affected by humankind.

So if climate change deniers would like to explain to me exactly what's still up for debate here, I am most interested to know the details. I speak to people who side with the leader of the Wildrose party, that it's still unsettled science, and I ask for what they're basing this opinion on and they cannot tell me. But they are steadfast in their belief that this is an unproven theory. When you beg people like this for any kind of justification for their stance, they begin reminding everyone that we still have winter, we still get snowstorms, the earth's climate has always been changing, and so on. Which just goes to prove they haven't actually read the material on climate change because the agreed upon models all indicate that climate change will not do away with winter, or snow. What it will lead to is increases in extreme weather. More storms, worse storms, longer droughts, wilder swings in seasonal temperatures. Bizarre changes in the jet stream. Melting polar ice. All of which have come true.

What irks me is that (IMHO) the main reason people argue against climate change is because they don't support the measures we need to take to reduce its impact and prevent it from getting worse. Which means producing less greenhouse gases. Which means burning less fossil fuels. Which means changing our lifestyles. It's really no different than a smoker saying "the jury is still out on whether smoking causes cancer." No it isn't. Smoking definitely causes cancer. Just being around smoking even causes cancer. Which basically means that your inability and unwillingness to change your lifestyle for the better is ruining my future and a lot of other peoples' futures. There's a word for that. Selfish.

4 comments:

Retro Blog said...

When you have palm trees growing in Alberta maybe....

Anonymous said...

Yes the climate changes, its been changing forever and it changes today. The belief that the devil CO2 is responsible for it is just part of the climate alarmist faith or quasi-religion.

Conservatives will fight this faith to their last breath. You can say it is all because of a feared lifestyle change if that helps your faith, we don't care.

With all of the data and the debate is over, perhaps you know the answer to these very basic questions;


In what year did the climate sinners (humanity) take control of the climate away from mother earth?

And if we climate sinners have warmed the planet, what is the earth's temperature supposed to be?

Simple questions, with all of the data you refer to, the answers must be known surely.

cheers

Karl Plesz said...

In answer to your question, if you have to ask, you don't know how to use Google. There are hundreds of published, peer-reviewed documents detailing how the temperature is in line with dramatic increases in CO2. So the short answer to your 'when' question is - right after the start of the industrial revolution. Are you really finding it hard to seek out this information? The temperature has risen globally by about 0.8C.

Karl Plesz said...

Also, we didn't take control of climate away from anyone. To suggest that is putting words in our mouths. We are contributing to climate change, not dominating it. Also, I do believe quite strongly that many people oppose the concept because of the suggested solutions, including lifestyle change.