Incompetent People Too Ignorant to Know It

This is the inverse of the teenager phenomemon. A 17 year old thinks they know everything, a 18 year old KNOWs they know everything, and a 19 year old starts to think they don't know anything. They also start to realize just how smart their parents were. So the smarter they get, the smarter they get and eventually become conservatives.

I know this has the danger of going off topic, but...

global warming isn't something you do or do not believe in.

No more than that old bugbear evolution.

Or Dirac's equation.

Scientific progress doesn't happen by 100% proof.

So most discussion about global warming is, as dunning said, completely flawed and ignorance-based.

Most people do not have a clue about probabilities.

So, if we asked the question 'what is the likelihood of x amount of rise in temperatures by 2020, and what would the effect of that be', which is a more scientific approach, a proper risk analysis, then most people fail to even understand the question.

So what are scientists and scientific advisers meant to do?

Pay more taxes to try to educate the masses a bit more in how to conduct rational thought, pay good maths/science school teachers what they are truly worth to the nation, get false religion out of the classroom.

I know this has the danger of going off topic, but...

global warming isn't something you do or do not believe in.

No more than that old bugbear evolution.

Or Dirac's equation.

Scientific progress doesn't happen by 100% proof.

So most discussion about global warming is, as dunning said, completely flawed and ignorance-based.

Most people do not have a clue about probabilities.

So, if we asked the question 'what is the likelihood of x amount of rise in temperatures by 2020, and what would the effect of that be', which is a more scientific approach, a proper risk analysis, then most people fail to even understand the question.

So what are scientists and scientific advisers meant to do?

Pay more taxes to try to educate the masses a bit more in how to conduct rational thought, pay good maths/science school teachers what they are truly worth to the nation, get false religion out of the classroom. Originally Posted by essence

Nice post. But how dare you inject reasonableness into the discussions.

So, what do you suggest we do about global warming?

I do not know a definitive answer, and I think there is room at this point for reasonable differences of opinion on what are the primary causes and how ro react.

The part that annoys me no end are those who look at the data and say it isn't happening.

The data are all over the place. There's no way to plan, because one set of data says we're getting warmer. Another set says we are getting colder. Another set says everything is static.

The fact is, the Earth has been warming and cooling for millions of years before we even got here. Our effect on overall climate is minimal, at best. However, there is money to be made in the climate change hoax. That's all that's driving it. Nothing more.

The Earth will do what it wants, regardless of what we do. If the Yellowstone caldera blows, the damage will be worse than if we detonated all our nuclear warheads at once. An asteroid may hit us, some have come very close. Disaster on a scale we can't imagine. The Pacific Rim is getting shakier, and could cause more destruction than we could imagine. Then we think by spraying underarm deodorant, we are destroying the planet? PUH-LEEZ! Get a grip, and join reality.

I do not know a definitive answer, and I think there is room at this point for reasonable differences of opinion on what are the primary causes and how ro react.

The part that annoys me no end are those who look at the data and say it isn't happening. Originally Posted by Old-T

Ice ages and periods of warming come and go. If we are warming at the moment, so what. There is no definitive proof that human activities are causing the atmosphere to warm. In the nineteen seventies, some of the same "scientists" that rant about global warming today, were warning about the coming ice age.

Here are a few magazine covers from the seventies, scare mongering the latest ecological disaster that was sure to kill us all.



http://neoconexpress.blogspot.com/20...oming-ice.html

The data I have seen is not ambiguous--it is getting warmer. I've seen some serious arguments by well regarded folks on both end of the spectrum politically, and they loudly disagree about causes and what to do next--but they essentially all agree it is getting warmer.

I for one don't like the "I could get struck by falling space junk tomorrow, so why worry" point of view for myself. I've seen the Chernobyl data, Love Canal, Japanese mercury, and the Aral Sea info. To say we don't affect the earth's habitability is beyond stupid. I have no desire to revert to a hunter-gatherer society with a life expectancy in the 30s, but I also prefer to avoid the deforestated earth as well. As always (except on here) moderation is a good thing.

Ruining our industries and economies seems like a illogical answer. Except if you want to profit of of the aggony.

So, what do you suggest we do about global warming? Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Take the computer away from Marshall...

+1 First sensible suggestion you've had in a long time, WTF. I like it.

The data I have seen is not ambiguous--it is getting warmer. I've seen some serious arguments by well regarded folks on both end of the spectrum politically, and they loudly disagree about causes and what to do next--but they essentially all agree it is getting warmer.

I for one don't like the "I could get struck by falling space junk tomorrow, so why worry" point of view for myself. I've seen the Chernobyl data, Love Canal, Japanese mercury, and the Aral Sea info. To say we don't affect the earth's habitability is beyond stupid. I have no desire to revert to a hunter-gatherer society with a life expectancy in the 30s, but I also prefer to avoid the deforestated earth as well. As always (except on here) moderation is a good thing. Originally Posted by Old-T

Even if we have proof that the Earth is warming, that's not the same thing as proof that humans are causing it. It's also not proof that the warming will continue. There is a tendancy to take a change in temperature over a period of time and project future temperatures based on "if the current trend continues." That's the tactic that junk scientists were using in the seventies when they warned that we were headed into an ice age.

Dramatically cutting back on carbon dioxide and methane emissions will produce an uncertain, very likely negligible, benefit. The effect it will have on our economy is much more certain; it will be devastating.

+1 First sensible suggestion you've had in a long time, WTF. I like it. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

I need to buy you some glasses!

Make sure they have Jack Daniels Black Label in them. Both of them.

Take the computer away from Marshall... Originally Posted by WTF

incompetent people are too ignorant to know so they (marshall) copy paste articles about ignorant/incompetent people ... which makes them think they know ..

:ro flmao::roflm ao: