From: Jim Whitehead (ejw@cse.ucsc.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 10:42:44 PDT
> The stuff I've sent was only marginally related to the election--and only
> because I was trying to refute the leftist rants re: Gore's exaggeration
in
> helping to "create the Internet".
Can you truly say, with a straight face, that the timing of your recent
emails over the past 2-3 weeks has had *nothing* to do with the upcoming US
Presidential election? I think not.
> Frankly, I do not understand why people are so concerned with global
> warming. I think we should be more concerned with GLOBAL COOLING.
> After all, the long term trend tends to be warm intervals shattered with
> mini-ice ages.
The long-term trend does not include massive anthropogenic inputs of CO2
into the atmosphere. For your elucidation, I recommend the following
report, produced by the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The IPCC has as contributors a large number (around 100-150) scientists who
perform research on climate change, from many institutions worldwide, and
are well respected based on their contributions (which, due to academia, are
in peer-reviewed journals and conferences). Thus, the IPCC reports can be
viewed as representing the scientific consensus view on climate change.
They are widely regarded as being extremely authoritative.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/sr97.htm
The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability
I think you will find that this report paints a very nuanced picture of the
likely effects of global warming, with some regions benefitting, some not.
What you will not find is any disagreement that global warming is occurring.
None. In the second Presidential debate, the moment when Bush really looked
dumb was when he asserted that some scientists believe global warming is a
farce. Yes, there are some such scientists. But, they are generally not
respected in their fields, and have not published peer-reviewed work that
would present evidence that global warming is not occurring. I generally
find that people who are informed on the issues take the position that
global warming is real. YMMV.
- Jim
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