My "read" on global warming

About 18 months ago, I got fed up with a lot of the rhetoric surrounding global warming and decided to investigate it myself. I read a fascinating book called The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery (while I don't agree with Flannery's proposed solutions, I still highly recommend this one as the definitive explanation of GW) and followed it up with some more reading and research. I even set Google alerts for articles on global warming and began to see how that topic is reported in the news every day. And that’s when it started going south for me.

It seems that in the area of global warming, alarmism sells. So every day, another ridiculous story is put out there blaming everything from bad years at ski resorts to allergies to every heat wave or cold front on global warming. And then there are the naysayers who rush to say that it’s not happening every time we have a cold snap.

I mentioned The Weather Makers. I also tried to find a good book supporting the other side. That book didn’t exist. All I found were variations of “if global warming’s happening, why is it cooler in such-and-such?” Michael Crichton’s State of Fear was a fun read but was largely based on this argument. There are also a lot of poorly written books out there whose authors are one step removed from energy companies.
I got frustrated, and put the issue on the back burner for awhile. I’m glad I did.

My personal feelings on the issue (and I encourage you to form your own!) are that, yes global warming is happening. But it’s not happening as rapidly as many are screaming about (check out the most recent IPCC report if you don’t believe me). And I do not buy into most of the solutions that have been presented. There’s an immediate jump from “It’s happening” to carbon taxes. And the only other alternative has been to side with the flat-out deniers. Isn’t there another option?

Enter two books I’ve recently read. Newt Gingrich gives us his Contract With the Earth, in which he invites readers to join a movement called “entrepreneurial environmentalism”, while Bjorn Lomborg tells us to Cool It. While unfortunately neither book is as readable or accessible as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, both pave the way towards a much needed middle ground on this “hot” issue that could get us past the rhetoric and into some real solutions.

Look for reviews of both books in the coming days...

Comments

[Chris]

Miranda,
Just to clarify:
There is a difference between the weather and climate, weather being the temperature, precipitation, etc. on a day to day basis, and climate being the overall trend. The temperature today or tomorrow is not proof for or against climate change. You have to look at the overall trends, year after year, over a long period of time, which are definitely on the rise.

[miranda]

Well you get the Global Warming from all sides one group says it happening to another saying it not happen. My take is we are to be steward of earth. To take and use the earth's resource but yet protected it. It not hard to believe that Global Warming is happening when you have couple days of High Temps being from Michigan this mean anything above 90 degrees, but the whole global warming goes out the window after a couple days of minus 0, and 32 degrees looks like a heat wave. But the weather has been funny thing this winter one week we had 14 inches of snow then week it 65 degree out. This is from one sunday to another. I wont say that the chemicals we have release in to the air or ground have not done any destruction because clear it has. Does it cause Global Warming I dont know.

p.s mark i read somewhere on this blog you would like to swim in all the great lakes, having done so myself here is a few tips
1. Lake Superior is COLD no matter where you at. It like swimming in tub of ice water.
2. Lake Michigan is fun to swim in you can on the South of the bridge(Mackinaw or Mackinac ) put one foot in lake michigan and one in lake michigan plus stand under the bridge. yes i know i spelled to different ways but if you are from the U.P. it spelled the french way and is you are from the L.P. it is spell the British way.

[Mark]

I wasn't going to mention any names, as I'm really trying hard to keep things postivie here. But since you did:

Patrick Michaels:

"Known funding includes $49,000 from German Coal Mining Association, $15,000 from Edison Electric Institute and $40,000 from Cyprus Minerals Company, an early supporter of People for the West, a "wise use" group. He received $63,000 for research on global climate change from Western Fuels Association, above and beyond the undisclosed amount he is paid for the World Climate Report/Review. According to Harper's magazine, Michaels has recieved over $115,000 over the past four years from coal and oil interests. In July of 2006, it was revealed that the Intermountain Rural Electric Association "contributed $100,000 to Dr. Michaels."

from this site: http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=4

Oh well. I tried. (Sigh). Here comes the negativity...

[Melanie]

I guess my take on it is that what really needs to be demonstrated is that if we left the planet entirely would global warming cease to exist if it exists now? There have been some good arguments made that suggest that such temperature fluctuations are not unheard of historically. I did see Gingrich speak on the topic once briefly on global warming he did make some sense. I'm still trying to figure out what I think of the whole global warming issue.

Basically I've seen arguments that say that we are in serious trouble from global warming that we can fix, to global warming exists, but it's cyclical to there is no such thing. But it's a little easier to be skeptical when the predictions that were bandied about when I was in high school supposedly all pointed to another ice age.

Anyway, I did run across this book:
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&pid=1441216 but do not know what ties, if any, this guy would possibly have to energy sources. His credentials seem pretty good as far as that goes.

The Bible does predict global warming at some point, though, you have to admit. LOL

--Melanie