June 29th, 2006

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Science
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Skeptical Views About the Effects of Global Warming

I recently saw An Inconvenient Truth. Mr. Gore did a convincing job of telling the story of global warming and the threat it poses to, well, the Earth. While there’s generally agreement about the existence of global warming, there are pretty diverse views about the intensity and speed of its impact.

I’m familiar with the ‘global warming is big, urgent trouble’ side of the argument, but I know next to nothing about the ‘don’t sweat global warming’ camp. So, I’ve asked around to find some books that will give me a reasonable, readable view of the other side.

A couple of people recommended (including those from the DeSmogBlog) Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe, which I plan to read.

I also posted my question to the handy world of Ask Metafilter. It’s a touchy subject, and there’s plenty of debate going on there and at the meta level. The two recommendations that came from that thread are The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg and a report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Comments: 4 Responses so far

Celia
June 29th, 2006
7:28 am

Don’t forget Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, heh.

[Reply]

gillian
June 29th, 2006
4:04 pm

I don’t see the point of reading arguments from both “sides”. Even if global warming didn’t exist, we shouldn’t be consuming and polluting like we do. There are enough economic, environmental and social reasons to do so.

Even if the predictions Gore presents for the future climate turn out to be vastly exaggerated, it’s not like everyone’s going to say, “gee, and to think I could’ve been driving a Hummer all these years.”

[Reply]

Jarrod
July 1st, 2006
6:33 am

I agree with Gillian. Australian cities aren’t really that polluted on the world scale of things, but I still don’t enjoy waiting for the bus on one of the busiest intersections in town - the pollution is definitely noticeable.

If more people waited for the bus on the busiest intersection in town, the buses might begin to come more often (supply and demand and all), and the intersection would become less busy…

[Reply]

Rui G. Moura
October 4th, 2006
1:20 am

You must read a book like this:
«Global Warming: Myth or Reality - The Erring Ways of the Climatology», by Marcel Leroux, Spring & Praxis, 2005, 509 pp.
Marcel Leroux, former Prof. of Climatology - Lyon University, France, debanks the «global warming» ideology (not science). He says that we are in the premises of a new glaciation age than extensive «warming» period.

[Reply]

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