Citing effects on U.S. economy, Bush passes global warming problem to next administration

Saturday 12th July, 06:30 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 90 Total Comments Show All

frontandcentre at 10:22 AM JST - 15th July

I should also say that global warming should be an issue that transcends politics. I wish that someone else rather than Al Gore had made "An Inconvenient Truth" - perhaps then right wingers wouldn't be trying to out-do each other to rebut the facts that Gore made.

Unfortunately, by definition, quite a number of the people who oppose Al Gore's politics won't be broad minded enough to separate the "truth" on global warming that he presented and what he personally stands for. I'm an optimist, however - I think ultimately most people are smart enough to look at the world around them and not draw conclusions on what politicians say, but on what science and common sense says.

Effectively, people like Sarge prefer to believe that vested economic interests and that famed climatologist ("ahem"), George W Bush, are correct rather than a large consensus of scientific opinion with a major canon of peer-reviewed research to back them up. I wonder why. Since these are the same people that believe in creationism, the fictional character "omnipotent God" (tm) and other such fairy tales, I suppose we shouldn't be terribly surprised by this
delitachan at 01:33 PM JST - 15th July

As usual, pass the buck.
weedkila at 05:44 PM JST - 15th July

Taka313 at 11:18 AM JST - 13th July

I was trained and understand the science behind global warming. Do you understand the science behind global warming? .... yes, we are making the planet hotter. Here, I'll even get you started: What absorbs and stores more heat, black top or a forest? The answer is obviously tarred black top, right? After all, it's darker and has more of an even surface which aids in absorption and prevents reflection and scattering, giving it a higher albedo. O.K. Moving on....

I'm wondering what this got to do with CO2 and out-of-control warming? You are talking about the heat island effect and that is obviously driven by the radiance of the sun.

If you are still lurking on this thread I have a point you might like to consider. If scientists are compiling global temperatures taken from thermometers in city centres (as they have been found doing) then naturally you will get higher than average temperatures. But if average global temperatures are taken from satellites wouldn't that show a more balanced reading? According to 4 temperature tracking satellites average global mean temperatures have dropped significantly since Jan. 2007. As I think Wolfpack mentioned, before this drop global temperatures had been basically levelling out since 1998.

Wolfpack:

I believe the warmest period was not in the 1930s, but in the middle ages. See the following url for global temps over the past 2000 years (based on ice core samples etc.) If you take this period into account (Al Gore and Co. do not) global warming starts to look exactly what it is, a hoax. Global temperatures were warmer then than what they are now. Good posts, btw.

http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Moberg2005.html

To all you people who believe the global warming theory please consider what this scientist has to say. Collectively your support of policies directed at fighting global warming may, in fact, lead to millions of deaths from starvation if it is combined with the equally ridiculous policy on biofuels. The person who was interviewed in this video talks about the current global COOLING trend which is interesting because he is/was a policy analyst to the EU and UK govts. and a former UN environmental advisor.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xvO6oLYWAQI

Taka313:

Anyone who does not believe the earth is getting hotter has zero knowledge of thermal and atmospheric dynamics. ZERO. The thing is, it's not even that difficult to figure out. Anyone smart enough to pass 5th grade science can figure out that humans are making the planet hotter.

The debate is over, right! What an arrogant remark.
Gyudon at 06:53 PM JST - 15th July

One of the best websites I've seen that expose the lies told by the global warming crowd: http://www.junkscience.com/

Notice that Taka313 & other libs get on their high horse and ride away as quickly as they can once people actually challenge their absurd assertions? Speaks volumes...
Blue_Tiger at 10:53 PM JST - 15th July

Sarge - Cutting CO2 emmissions will cut down on pollution, but stopping global warming??? What are people going to do, cork all the active volcanoes in the world? Turn the sun down a notch?
jaybeeb at 11:39 AM JST - 16th July

@frontandcentre - There are no alternatives to oil for the forseeable future. The other energy sources you mention (hydrogen fuel cells are energy carriers) do not have an adequate EROI to replace oil at our current level of industrialization.

http://www.sustainablescale.org/images/uploaded/EROI%20graph.jpg
frontandcentre at 11:25 AM JST - 17th July

Gyudon:

Notice that Taka313 & other libs get on their high horse and ride away as quickly as they can once people actually challenge their absurd assertions?

No, I think that they give up when people like you choose to ignore the large majority of mainstream scientific opinion. The suggestion that human activity is having an impact on the composition of the atmosphere has essentially been proven by science.

And why, please tell me, should only 'libs' believe ? Global warming is NOT a matter of political opinion, it's a matter of scientific fact.

The website you cite is the personal opinion of a Fox News columnist, i.e. the only type of person stupid enough to dispute the findings of a very large number of reputable scientists.

You are most entitled to believe ultra right wing agents provocateurs - I'll stick with the experts who actually know what they are talking about, not the flat-earthers or creationists.
weedkila at 02:03 PM JST - 17th July

frontandcentre:

Where is your global warming? China has had it's coldest winter for 100 years and there have been record snow levels across Northeast America. Antarctica has had record sea ice coverage (but not the Arctic.) It also snowed in Baghdad and other parts of the Middle East last winter which I believe was very rare, or even a first. Even the mouthpiece of the British Gov, the BBC, has had to admit that average global temperatures have not increased since 1998.

Mr Jarraud (World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general) told the BBC that the effect was likely to continue into the summer, depressing temperatures globally by a fraction of a degree. This would mean that temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7329799.stm

The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat

These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. .... This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming. In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025

Carbon emissions have never driven climate change because as ice core samples show, carbon dioxide is a result of temperature increase and not a cause of it, sometimes lagging behind by as much as 800 years. The scientists who continue to support global warming are either ignorant of the facts or are compromised by funding etc. Furthermore, it is the bureaucrats on the UN international climate change panel and not the scientists who write up the final report which is then disseminated to the world's media.

http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.com/co2_temperature.html

I recommend you take a quick look at what the 'experts' said were saying in the media back in the 60s and 70s about global cooling. These alarmists were given plenty of media coverage to tell us that all animal life in the sea would be extinct by 1979 and England would be underwater by the year 2000, and so and so forth.

http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.com/apocalypse_then.html

Rather than comparing sceptics of CO2-driven global warming with people like George Bush (or even holocaust deniers, as some do) try to be open minded and not confuse general pollution with CO2. Human-caused global warming is the biggest scam going and is worth trillions, but not to you or I, unfortunately.

By the way, since you like peer reviewed papers here is a recent report which says:

Three top scientists have once again contradicted the claim that a “consensus” exists about man-made global warming with research that indicates CO2 emissions actually cool the atmosphere, in addition to another peer-reviewed paper that documents how the IPCC overstated CO2’s effect on temperature by as much as 2000 per cent.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/two-peer-reviewed-scientific-papers-debunk-co2-myth.html
weedkila at 05:16 PM JST - 17th July

jaybeeb:

There are no alternatives to oil for the forseeable future.

I recommend hemp! If you do a google search on hemp and "global warming" the first site at the top says ... It is possible to produce all of our energy with Cannabis Hemp. The unique growing properties of the plant make it the ideal crop for our energy needs. One acre of Cannabis Hemp can produce 1000 gallons of methanol in a single growing season. Any CO2 released from burning Cannabis Hemp would be the same CO2 the plant had already taken from the environment, creating what is called a closed carbon cycle.

If CO2 was really the problem gas it is made out to be don't you think we would have already converted to this amazing plant!? I believe the only reason cannabis become illegal back in the 30s (or thereabouts) was because there was too much money to be made in fossil fuels. The usual story.
Gyudon at 08:04 PM JST - 17th July

Well said Weedkila! Consensus does not science make. Remember when most of the scientists of the world belived the world was flat?? I'll take even a shred of credible evidence over consensus any day. For those that think consensus is the more important factor, there are more and more people claiming the whole notion of man-made global warming is a farce.

CO2 is not a pollutant. If it was we'd all get poisoned from our own friggin' breath!

Biggest hoax in modern times.
frontandcentre at 10:50 AM JST - 18th July

Gyudon,

Try a test - try breathing pure CO2 and see how long you last.

You really are coming up with silly arguments that discredit rational scepticism. Rational scepticism of the consensus is a very good thing, because it makes climatologists work harder to justify their theories with experimental observations and facts.

No credible sceptic would argue against global warming by simplistically stating that "last winter was very cold", just as stating that the considerable increase in the average global temperature over the past couple of decades is - on its own - irrefutable evidence of man-made global warming. It's a much more complex theory than that, and clearly beyond the comprehension of too many people.

Anyway, that's my last word on this subject. Like the polar ice caps in summer, increasingly the minority of people who no longer believe the proven facts are rapidly melting away.

FnC
weedkila at 12:43 PM JST - 18th July

No credible sceptic would argue against global warming by simplistically stating that "last winter was very cold"

Nobody is. Look at global temperatures from satellite data or any of the other info/links that've been posted. You're being selective and trying to force the argument to fit your myth of perpetual warming based on CO2 - or the heat island effect, as your "expert on global warming" friend tried to mislead us on. Too bad that annoying things like facts get in the way!

Anyway, that's my last word on this subject. Like the polar ice caps in summer, increasingly the minority of people who no longer believe the proven facts are rapidly melting away.

"Like the polar ice caps in summer... are rapidly melting away"

Well, you're kind of right about the Arctic ice cap, but only to an extent. Here's another inconvenient truth for you.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) now believes that the new record for minimum sea ice coverage in the northern hemisphere was indeed reached on September 16th, 2007 as the summer melt season has appeared to have ended, and sea ice loss has either stopped, or reversed due to the change in season. Also, as of September 20th, the Northwest Passage is still open, but is starting to refreeze.

A different story in Antarctica.......

The coverage in sea ice in the southern hemisphere, around Antarctica is nearing a record maximum. Patrick Henry has been diligent in keeping us up to date on this story. If you look at the Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area Chart, you can see that the latest data point is just shy of 16 million square kilometers.... (POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2007)

The above was posted just before the record cold winter of 2007-8 set in.

http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2007/09/updateonpolariceextremes.html

~~~

Arctic sea ice back to its previous level, bears safe; film at 11

In the late summer and early fall of 2007, there were a number of alarming media reports about the arctic sea ice melting. Additionally, there were predictions that it would not recover to its previous levels. But, we have this graph charting the rise and fall of arctic sea ice for the last 365 days, notice that the arctic sea ice is right back where it started at in February 2007. -- From the University of Illinois Cryosphere Today.... (February 2008)

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/arctic-sea-ice-back-to-its-previous-level-bears-safe-film-at-11/

So why was there record ice loss in the Arctic but record ice cover in Antarctica? Maybe it has something to do with undersea volcanoes in the Arctic region along with naturally occurring melting due to the sun and other factors.

Volcanoes Erupt Beneath Arctic Ice

http://www.livescience.com/environment/080627-sea-volcanoes.html

Study finds Arctic seabed afire with lava-spewing volcanoes

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=81bb2fd3-63f1-476f-b0be-f48c0dc90304

FnWr

~~~~~

Gyudon:

You might want to check this 10 min. clip out. In one section the guy explains how the IPCC manipulated facts and figures to sell man-made global warming to the public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W-BePJOLbw&eurl=
weedkila at 12:54 PM JST - 18th July

Try a test - try breathing pure CO2 and see how long you last.

Try a test - try breathing pure O2 and see how long you last.

This will improve the gene pool and decrease global warming.
USARonin at 05:10 AM JST - 19th July

Again, another side of 'global warming' that too many folks fear to acknowledge:

http://www.petitionproject.org

They just bury their collective little heads in the sand.

Me so sad.

USAR
Gyudon at 01:09 PM JST - 20th July

Well said again weedkila. Nobody said pure CO2 isn't toxic to humans, but that doesn't make it a pollutant. It's an important part of the atmosphere needed to support the planet's ecosystem. There is a mountain of evidence debunking the inane claims that global warming/cooling is caused by people. Total hoax.