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Confessions of a Global-warming
Skeptic
The
New Hampshire
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Recently after an on-campus political event I was chatting with
a
fellow participant. When he learned that I was skeptical of global
warming claims he scoffed, declared "The debate is over.",
and walked away with zero curiosity about why I might feel that
way.
The debate is not over, at least for me.
Please allow me more time to decide, without branding me a heretic
or a denier. The arguments on both sides are so convincing that
whenever I listen to one side alone I find myself agreeing with
that side. Since currently the "alarmed" side of the
debate seems to be leading, let me support the underdog for the
moment and bias my reasons for indecision toward the "not
alarmed" side. These are merely my personal, unscientific
intuitions, but see if you find yourself nodding in agreement
with any of them.
To me the global warming debate merits caution because...
1. The debate feels more fanatical than other debates, say, about
health care or the war in Iraq. I sense some unconscious emotional
forces at work, including an in-group mentality. Being on the
wrong side of this debate can affect your social relationships,
as it did in the incident above.
(Article continues below)
2. There are likely hidden agendas. What was once a scientific
debate has migrated into the political realm, where stakes are
high in research funding, corporate profits, political careers,
and possibly even geopolitical strategy. (Do powerful nations
unfairly handicap underdeveloped nations by holding them to higher
environmental standards than they themselves upheld?) Disinformation
could be lurking anywhere.
3. There is a Luddite contingent that unconsciously *enjoys*
carbon dioxide being considered a deadly substance because that
slows industrialization. The calls to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
which warm the earth, far outnumber the calls to *increase* aerosol
emissions, which cool the earth. Why?
Full
article here.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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