spf
Scrapple
   
   
   
   
 
Since: 2.1.02
From: The Las Vegas of Canada
Since last post: 25 days
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|  #1 Posted on 19.6.03 1043.19 | Apparently our leader's skills are far-ranging as he and other political figures in his administration have decided to overrule the EPA's scientists and edit their report on global warming to fit the Bush administration view on the issue (story.news.yahoo.com)
Now I know there are people who have questions on this issue, and that in an hour or two there will be multiple links up which point out that human beings are the best thing to ever happen to the environment and so on. But to me that's not the issue here. Slowly a pattern of trying to shape everything that comes out to the tightly controlled Bush world view is developing. If we want to invade Iraq but can't find much evidence of WMD, don't let that stop us. If an arm of the government which we control says something we disagree with, edit it out no matter what our qualifications. That trend worries me somewhat, not that I expect honesty from politicians, but this is getting a bit dubious even by the standards of a long-time Chicago resident :)
and maybe I should open up my sensitive side/but really, the sensitive side sucks./I've been there./You can only imagine the kinds of sweaters they make you wear.| Promote this thread! |           | Big Bad
Scrapple
Since: 4.1.02
From: Dorchester, Ontario
Since last post: 17 hours
Last activity: 4 hours
|  #2 Posted on 19.6.03 1551.12 | Instant Rating: 5.54 | More evidence of why it's never a good idea to elect Vince McMahon as your president.
Over 1400 posts and still never a Wiener of the Day!
Well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started in your little room
da da da
---"Little Room," by the White Stripes
| Pool-Boy
Lap cheong
Since: 1.8.02
From: Huntington Beach, CA
Since last post: 796 days
Last activity: 14 days
| #3 Posted on 19.6.03 1620.11 | The EPA has overexaggerated global warming so much it has become ridiculous. The general consensus amongst the legitimate scientific community is that so-called "global warming" is nothing more than a normal climatic fluctuation in our ecosphere. We are no where near as hot as we have been in the hostory of this planet. Earth will be much hotter and much colder far into the future.
The EPA, in my mind, is pretty comfortable with skewing data in their direction. They are great watchdogs, but like my own dogs, 90% of the time they are barking at nothing at all.
Still on the Shelf #13 - Bargain Bin Love: Part 1 | godking
Chourico
Since: 20.10.02
From: Toronto
Since last post: 3385 days
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| #4 Posted on 19.6.03 1641.37 | The EPA has overexaggerated global warming so much it has become ridiculous. The general consensus amongst the legitimate scientific community is that so-called "global warming" is nothing more than a normal climatic fluctuation in our ecosphere.
Wow, that statement is so full of crap I don't know where to begin, except that well over ninety percent of climatologists the world over disagree with that assertion and think that global warming is real and a big deal. This is why, when some random climatologist says "it's not such a big deal", it is news - because it's such a sharp trend from the norm, and because also Fox News then wants to make it into a story like all climatologists agree with he one guy who wanted to get some TV time. Except that they don't. A simple search for "global warming" on Google's news engine reveals a vast majority of articles on how yet another scientific study says global warming is real and a danger, and a tiny paucity of "it's not such a big deal."
You can believe the Republican dogma all you like - just don't try to represent it as common opinion, because it simply isn't such. | rabidzebra
Linguica
Since: 23.6.02
From: Charleston SC
Since last post: 2303 days
Last activity: 1135 days
| #5 Posted on 19.6.03 1642.44 |
Originally posted by Pool-Boy
The EPA has overexaggerated global warming so much it has become ridiculous.
When something called permafrost melts isn't that a pretty bad sign?
 
Why is it so heavy?"
"Cause it's so full of mercy"
| Nate The Snake
Liverwurst
Since: 9.1.02
From: Wichita, Ks
Since last post: 3229 days
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| #6 Posted on 19.6.03 1721.32 | I think the "it's no big deal, global warming is a natural trend" thing has been mis-represented by people who're sort of wanting to downplay the problem.
Yeah, we are at the tail end of an ice age. Eventually, we'll get into another era where the majority of the world is tropical, ala the dinosaur age.
The deal is... normal climate change is a hell of a lot more gradual than what we've been seeing. If the first ice age had come as fast as we're currently warming up, life would have most likely ceased to exist, because it wouldn't have had time to adapt.
That's the issue with global warming... we're pushing that natural trend forward way, way too fast.
Kansas-born and deeply ashamed
The last living La Parka Marka
"They that can give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin | Pool-Boy
Lap cheong
Since: 1.8.02
From: Huntington Beach, CA
Since last post: 796 days
Last activity: 14 days
| #7 Posted on 19.6.03 1730.21 | I am all for caring for the environment, but I don't support wild (and wholle egocentric) theories to support doing that.
The Earth warms. The Earth cools. It is a fact of nature. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that it is doing so at a rate any faster than is perfectly normal for the planet. We are most definitly in a warming phase here on Earth- right inbetween ice ages. There is no real evidence to support the Earth is warming faster than it is supposed to.
It is not "Republican Dogma" I am buying. I have had this opinion long before Fox News even existed. It has been verified through research, not by hearing a 10 minute soundbyte about permafrost melting (How do YOU know it has never melted before? It has...) or the Earth warming some ridiculous amount in a short time.
The fact is that Environmentalist watch-dog groups are quite often sensationalists. Look at the rain forest. They claim that we should not cut it down because they are "the lungs of the world!! We will all suffocate!" Yeah, conservation should be on our mind, because like your own house, you should keep it clean. But deal in facts. The Rain forest is a net consumer of oxygen. Undergrowth and dead trees eat up more oxygen than the rain forest produces. The real "lungs of the earth" are the oceans- that is where our oxygen comes from.
Same with "global warming." YES, take care of the planet, yes, develop clean-fuel burning engines (wasn't Bush supporting that? Something about Hydrogen-powered Engines? Oh, the article did not mention that? Who says there is no liberal media...), but don't do it because some wackjob developed a wild theory that the Earth is burning up because of people, and the media culture buys it. The Earth is warming all on its lonesome... it has nothing to do with US. And it will warm and then start to cool all over again.
I don't have a link, but I seem to remember an equally wild theory from a few decades ago, where scientists were CERTAIN that pollution was causing global cooling. Using identicle arguments no less. Of course, they were the crazy ones.
And I'd LOVE to see where that 90% figure comes from...
(edited by Pool-Boy on 19.6.03 1535)
Still on the Shelf #13 - Bargain Bin Love: Part 1 | Grimis
Scrapple
Since: 11.7.02
From: MD
Since last post: 749 days
Last activity: 546 days
| #8 Posted on 20.6.03 0607.43 | Instant Rating: 7.29 | Originally posted by Nate The Snake
The deal is... normal climate change is a hell of a lot more gradual than what we've been seeing. If the first ice age had come as fast as we're currently warming up, life would have most likely ceased to exist, because it wouldn't have had time to adapt.
But again, this is not true. Even Harvard people (cfa-www.cfa.harvard.edu) say one should not underestimate natural climate change. And remember that the "Little Ice Age" started suddenly around 1300 AD, when the permafrost began in Greenland, when grapes could no longer be grown in Northern Europe, etc. That period ended ca. 1800, years before mass industrialization in Europe.
Nobody is saying that we should piss on the environment. But let's not ruin the economy by following unproven dogmas.
Also remember: the same thing dogmatists say now causes Global Warming they said was causing Global Cooling in the 1960's. Remember, we should all live under an icecap right now...
{EDIT: Fixed the auto-linkification bug that was causing the link to get eaten - CRZ}
(edited by CRZ on 20.6.03 0511)
"I'm going to fill a dark awful basement with radioactive cockroaches. Yep. Big nasty ones like skateboards on legs, that go click-click-click when they walk. And maybe poisonous. I'm going to starve them for a week.
Then I'm going to catch all the coercive priss-spigots in the world, the ones that want to ban second-hand smoke and dwarf-tossing and beer. I'll smear the rascals with bacon fat, so the roaches won't know what they're eating, as otherwise they might not.
Then I'm going to toss all those greased busybodies into the basement. And whoop. And dance. Ha."
- Fred Reed |
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