Why I roll my eyes when I hear about global warming
From the March 26, 2006, edition of Time Magazine:
Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast--when the emergency becomes commonplace--something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming.
Scientists have been calling this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global temperatures.
Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would give us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem.
"There will be no polar ice by 2060," says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation.
Ocean waters have warmed by a full degree Fahrenheit since 1970,
Compare this with the June 24, 1974, edition of the same magazine:
As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.
Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F.
the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since
Man, too, may be somewhat responsible for the cooling trend. The University of Wisconsin's Reid A. Bryson and other climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the earth.
So you'll have to excuse me if I don't buy into "global warming." Considering that just 30 years ago the "experts" were sounding the alarm of a coming ice age, caused by the same things (emissions, etc.), I think I'll just ride it out rather than get into an uproar about it.
Methinks the emperor has no clothes.

MyDerbe wrote,
My husband read information that says the edges of the ice are getting thinner and melting, BUT the middle is getting thicker and thicker. Hmmmm. . . . . .
Global warming has been repeated and repeated so much that everyone just assumes it’s a real thing. When you tell people you think there is no global warming, everyone thinks you’re nuts —- even conservative people and especialy mainstream people.
You know, if something is repeated often enough and loudly enough, it becomes “truth.” And if it works its way into our universities, then it’s accepted as fact. Even if it’s all just a bunch of bunk.
Link | January 9th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Oh, those are great! Thanks for sharing.
Link | January 9th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I whole-heartedly agree that not everything we read is the truth or even resembles the truth. However, in the first article you cite, people are finally starting to agree about the fact that global warming is an actual event that is gathering serious momentum even as this debate rolls on. In the first article from several decades ago, scientists are just beginning to put things together and point to things to come… which have indeed begun happening as they predicted. Global warming isn’t an overnight thing, but something scientists and others who really understand the data have been warning about for ages. But, like you, most folks just decide to “ride it out”. There are many major corporations who stand to lose profits if enough people demanded the changes needed to reduce greenhouse emissions (mostly carbon dioxide) and they have thrown massive amounts of money and energy into confusing the issue and reconfiguring data to suit their pocketbooks. For years independent scientists and not-for-profit organizations have been trying to educate the public about this situation and it’s been an uphill battle. Even when they do manage to make strides, some people choose to ignore the problem rather than fully examine it. Understanding this issue means people have to take action, and some people would rather turn a blind eye than do something about it. I’m sorry, this is one instance in which a “let’s wait and see” approach won’t work.
Link | January 10th, 2007 at 1:48 am
“In the first article from several decades ago, scientists are just beginning to put things together and point to things to come… which have indeed begun happening as they predicted. Global warming isn’t an overnight thing, but something scientists and others who really understand the data have been warning about for ages.”
But that’s not what that article from 1974 was saying. It was saying the exact opposite of what the 2006 article was saying. In 1974 they were predicting a coming ice age. Now they are predicting a coming meltdown. In 1974 anyone talking about global warming would have been a laughingstock, based on the scientific evidence.
Hence why I’m riding it out, since in 30 years, they’ll probably be saying something else.
Link | January 10th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Dollymama wrote,
http://www.playmasters.info/businessseminarset.html
Hey–thought of you when I saw this today. Thought you might be interested.
Link | January 15th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Serena wrote,
I had a great laugh reading that. Weather does go in cycles and I’ll just ride it out with you. This is a political thing, not a scientific thing. It is too bad that scientists get involved in politics and don’t really be seekers of truth in the realm of science.
Love and shalom,
Serena
Link | January 15th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
molly wrote,
Probably the only thing disturbing to me is the idea that all these emissions, etc, (and they are LEGION) aren’t going to have any effect…that we just just rape the earth and it’s no big deal…
I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Adam’s seed ended up blowing up their own earth. If the earth is going to go up in flames, I bet it will be with the help of Adam’s hand. Seriously.
And while I didn’t believe the global warming hype a while back, I’ve been reading up on it lately (a lot, actually) and am starting to really buy in. The latest data is profoundly disturbing. I mean, really—thinking that we can just slash rainforests like crazy and dump poison into the ocean and release all sorts of toxin into the air, and then think that nothing’s going to happen…?
That’s my super opinionated 2 cents, anyway!
Link | January 15th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I definitely agree with you there, Molly…we DO still need to be good stewards as the Lord commanded. It’s just all the “hype” I’m not buying…especially since just 32 years ago they were saying the exact opposite. But yes, we do still need to do our best to care for God’s creation!
Link | January 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm