JLF/Reese Institute climate change forum: Part 3 of 8

The John Locke Foundation and Lenoir-Rhyne University's Reese Institute for the Conservation of Natural Resources hosted A Forum on Climate Change: Opposing Views, Feb. 11. 2009, at the Hickory (N.C.) Metro Convention Center. Dr. William H. Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and Dr. John R. Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, offered the opposing views. In this clip, Schlesinger finishes his prepared remarks, and Christy begins his prepared remarks.

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• christy

[anoniab]

You'd have a 10 degree increase that still wouldn't melt ice in Antarctica.

[dossthane]

Sure, it's nothing, like your argument. What part of the word "rising" is beyond your comprehension, though? If the respective temperatures are 110 and -90 a year later, you've got 10 degrees of warming. If one holds steady but the average rises, the other rises more. [Given your troubles with "rising," the 3rd law of thermodynamics is beyond hope!] Just give it up, man/woman. Strings of logical fallacy just have no persuasive power. You're wasting your time; by responding, I'm wasting mine.

[anoniab]

Can you answer this: You can actually have a temp of 100 in Des Moines on a summer day and a temp of -100 in Antarctica on that same day. Ok, now average the two. Please tell me what the average would mean to either of those places.

[dossthane]

Yes, you need to check again. Let me suggest you check in peer-reviewed journals, as I've suggested many times previously, and suggest that rather than choosing one singular location or region--as the term "summer" indicates you must be doing--and that you consider global averages if you want to discuss a global phenomenon. (Hint: You can find a ton of references to 2009 as the 5th hottest year on record.) Again, let's quit if you're not willing to use scientific journals.

[dossthane]

Let's just quit. If the oceans boiled away and took the atmosphere with them, you'd be saying it wasn't "global" with your last breath.  Choosing to believe something because it's more likely wrong than right (vastly more people truly studying the matter conclude that it's wrong than believe otherwise) borders on psychosis.

[anoniab]

"Winters are warmer"

I can assure you that a 1 degree increase from what we've been experiencing wouldn't melt ice anywhere on the planet - much less here.

[dossthane]

It's been a long time since the majority thought the world was flat--ancient Greeks solved that. There is a persistent myth, which you seem to be prone to, that many people believed this into the Renaissance (still pre-scientific method). The earth indeed was once unable to support human life, with an atmosphere much like Venus's. As one who'd like humans to continue existing, I don't find that comforting. Again, get your science from scientific journals. Your last sentence--false dichotomy.

[anoniab]

"Winters are warmer and summers are warmer, too, in both hemispheres"

Not any more they're not. The last 3 years have been colder. Last winter was 32 of 136 they've been keeping records for. Snow in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Alabama, etc. I need to check again, but I believe they said last summer was the 2nd coolest we've had. What does it take to make a trend?

"whose math skills aren't very advanced"?

[anoniab]

@dossthane The majority once thought the world was flat. What was created from thin air is the idea that man influences the climate when CO2 levels were higher in the past (when humans presumably weren't around) and it's been warmer before. We don't control the climate: it controls us.

[dossthane]

What is "many"? Why should the minority always be more influential than the majority, as your arguments require? Of James Inhofe's list goes, John Christy is the only person on it who was also on the IPCC and who has actually criticized the report--but he hasn't asked his name be removed. The Heartland Institute's list appears to've been created from thin air, as well--angry letters from persons included on their list who wholly disagree with the positions HI assigns them keep rolling in.