GivemTheAxe;842850838 said:
We have been through this all before. If 95%-plus of scientific community agrees that climate change is man made and you do not believe them then I doubt that we are going to be able to convince you here.
If 95 out of 100 cancer specialists told you you had cancer but could cure it with an expensive treatment, I guess you would deny that they were correct if that morning you were feeling fine.
It would be helpful if you (and others) were more careful with your claims. The 95% or 97% claimed consensus of "man made climate change" is simply false.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2016/12/14/fact-checking-the-97-consensus-on-anthropogenic-climate-change/2/#449469b5d08e"
Cook is careful to describe his 2013 study results as being based on “climate experts.” Political figures and the popular press are not so careful. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have repeatedly characterized it as 97% of scientists. Kerry has gone so far as to say that “97 percent of peer-reviewed climate studies confirm that climate change is happening and that human activity is largely responsible.” This is patently wrong, since the Cook study and others showed that the majority of papers take no position. One does not expect nuance in political speeches, and the authors of scientific papers cannot be held responsible for the statements of politicians and the media.
Given these results, it is clear that support among scientists for human-caused climate change is below 97%. Most studies including specialties other than climatologists find support in the range of 80% to 90%. The 97% consensus of scientists, when used without limitation to climate scientists, is false.
In the strict sense, the 97% consensus is false, even when limited to climate scientists. The 2016 Cook review found the consensus to be “shared by 90%–100% of publishing climate scientists.” One survey found it to be 84%. Continuing to claim 97% support is deceptive. I find the 97% consensus of climate scientists to be overstated.
An important consideration in this discussion is that we are attempting to define a single number to represent a range of opinions which have many nuances. To begin with, as Oreskes says, “often it is challenging to determine exactly what the authors of the paper do think about global climate change.” In addition, published surveys vary in methodology. They do not ask the same questions in the same format, are collected by different sampling methods, and are rated by different individuals who may have biases. These issues are much discussed in the literature on climate change, including in the articles discussed here."
To answer your cancer analogy, if the proverbial cure for one person's cancer resulted in the death or impoverishment of 100 people, wouldn't that be a factor to consider? And that is the problem, many of the climate activists simply don't want to engage in ANY cost benefit analysis or acknowledge that the measures they advocate for have real costs - including limiting the development and advancement of third world countries where the conditions do in fact lead to death/shorter lives.
I've read a fair amount (though by no means am I an expert) and the only consensus I have found is that there is general agreement that humans impact climate (i.e., there is Anthropogenic Climate Change). It seems axiomatic - we live on the planet and obviously have an impact (just like cows do when it comes to methane).
But there is absolutely no consensus or science that clearly explains the magnitude of human impact vis-a-vis other factors. Some scientists believe man's contribution to climate change is significant and others feel the impact is minor (compared to other factors). There are many models attempting to quantify both climate change and the amount that is man-caused and projecting future changes. Those models have not been anywhere near accurate.
So that leads to the following questions, that I would invite you and others on the board to answer:
1. If the science is settled, why has every "consensus" climate model going back 40+ years been wildly inaccurate? Is it possible that human understanding of climate is far from complete? If so, does declaring the science "settled" (and stamping out all contrary points of view) lead to a better understanding of climate?
2. Why have all of the modes vastly OVERSTATED global warming and/or the claimed climate effects? If the science were not politicized or influenced by non-scientific factors, wouldn't we expected the climate models to sometimes underestimate impacts/temperature rise and sometimes overestimate those? But that has not been the case - "consensus" predictions of climate change have always been alarmist and wrong. Why?
3. Why is so much emphasis put on cudgeling opposing points of view with the questionable 95/97% numbers and so little placed on actually explaining the climate science? Shouldn't an honest discussion include a discussion of the limits and many complex assumptions built into the consensus view (such as the limitations on historical temperature data and other educated "guesses" that go into the models)?
For example, false alarmist predictions from Al Gore's inconvenient truth:
http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/03/an-inconvenient-review-after-10-years-al-gores-film-is-still-alarmingly-inaccurate/ Some links from Scott Adams (Dilbert) to consider:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/154082416051/the-non-expert-problem-and-climate-change-science http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157694622351/the-climate-science-debate-illusionhttp://blog.dilbert.com/post/158159613566/how-to-convince-skeptics-that-climate-change-is-ahttp://blog.dilbert.com/post/158778029326/how-to-change-my-biases-on-climate-science