Maritime Morning - Andrew Krystal

It always amuses me, and somewhat infuriates, that I still receive emails from Global warming naysayers.

Despite the scientific analysis of over 6,000 experts in the field, all of whom say the jury is in when it comes to human carbon emission contributions, despite the clear facts of human environmental impact (effects that we see all around us), despite our own empirical knowledge of pollution and climate change, there is a loud minority of people, (the same who believe man never landed on the moon), that maintain that global warming has two sides to it, that there should be a “debate”, that Al Gore is a phony and that the scientists are all wrong.

The simple fact of the matter is that there is no “opinion” when it comes to scientific method(s). Scientific process is there to achieve quantifiable evidence that is tested. People will say to me “Well, my opinion is that”. But what they fail to realize is that anyone can have a point of view on anything, but that doesn’t make it valid, or even listenable.

Anti-global warmers will try and trot out other “evidence” from researchers (many of whom come from the energy lobby in some form), that points to the opposite notion.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has more than dealt with the evidence. Moreover, the world scientific body has no axe to grind economically – they do not profit one way or the other when it comes to their conclusions. Certainly, the fossil fuel sectors — the coal, gas, and oil lobbies — have much to gain by playing down the effects of greenhouse gas emissions that traps heat from the sun. They want as much coal and gas and oil used as possible — and these folks are in the world of record profits right now.

The most obvious problem with the nay sayers, is their total lack of scientific understanding. What exists, generally, with these people is newspaper knowledge — no books read; no studies read; no real work — just the internet.

The problem with the internet is that you can find anything about everything: talking dogs, alien visitations, Elvis clones, to the notion that the Holocaust was a hoax. Any view can find reinforcement, no matter how crank-strewn.

But forget the scientists for a moment.

You know when Stephen Harper comes in from the cold on this one that there must be something to it.