Originally Posted by
Purple Drank
Well Spud, my brother is also a biologist (PhD), and he says "we don't know if it's real. If it is ever proven to real, given the small sample size of the available data, we can't possibly know conclusively what might have caused it."
We could go round and round. You won't change my mind, and I won't change yours. I'll leave it there.
The key words in that state statement are "sample size".
Any statistician worth a s--t, would say that looking at the dynamics of a 6 billion year old planet and using the last 200 years of weather data and, 1. Thinking you had enough data to know what was truly going on, and 2. What was causing the fluctuations, is crazy talk.
Is the climate changing? Yes. I live outside Chicago and if I compare this winter to the one two years ago, when I could leave the house with just a sweatshirt on most days, If that was the only information I used in my decision, I would be featured on next years "Doomsday Preppers". But I also remember 1976, and a lot of winters in between.
We do know that back in the 1500-1600s that Europe went through a mini ice age, (They didn't call them the dark ages for nothing) while Greenland was fit for agriculture during the summer. This was because the Gulfstream that keeps Ireland and England relatively moderate during the winter actually reversed for a time and warmed Greenland and cooled Ireland, the UK, and Northern Europe, and this happened way before Internal combustion engines were invented or coal burning power plants.
The climate is changing, but are we to blame? I think no.
I can't remember who said it on here a few pages ago but, if this were truly about saving our environment, and not about grant money and carbon emission taxes, then the powers that be would be leaning on the biggest pollution culprits (China) to stop screwing up our environment, instead of just trying to scare us and profit from the whole thing. These guys that preach global warming/climate change don't seem to have a problem being the only passenger riding in a G-V while they do their National tour to promote environmental issues...why is that? They don't start throwing stones at China...why not? Because there isn't any money in that.
Why did you try to rob that bank, sir?
Cause that's where the money is.
It is very important to preserve our Natural resources and protect our environment, don't get me wrong, but until someone rides their high horse over to Beijing and tells those guys to stop polluting our planet, unplugging my cable box every time I leave the house isn't going to guarantee a healthy environment for my kids.
And if I unplug my cable box, my DVR won't record Real Housewives of (insert any city) for my wife.
On second thought, maybe I do need to start being more environmentally conscientious.