John Coleman is a local, um, person (yeah, we’ll go with “person”) who presents the weather forecast (and presentcast) on the independent tv station KUSI here in San Diego. The fact that he’s not on one of the major network stations might tell you something, and if you’d like to see a clip of him in action, here’s a link.
Coleman is a little bit older than I am, and he certainly has more hair.
He predicts the weather pretty well, but not as well as he claims to and certainly no better than his counterparts on all of the other television stations. My wife would rather get her teeth drilled than listen to him.
Coleman has recently taken a stand on the global warming issue, and to say that he has “taken a stand” is rather understating it. He has posts in about a dozen locations on the KUSI website, has posted on ICECAP, and has participated on the Rush Limbaugh comedy show. Oh wait, I don’t think Limbaugh regards it as comedy show. Oh, well.
Here is, in part, what John Coleman has to say about the issue,
It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims.
and,
I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct.
And your mother wears combat boots. So there.
Like John Coleman, I am something of an old fool. Unlike John Coleman, while I never flat out know that I am wrong (if I did I would take corrective steps), I always have lurking in the back of my mind that I might be wrong. Other people, gasp, might be right. So I try to avoid what I call absolutism.
The title of this blog is “On My Mind,” not “What Is Absolute Fact.”
So, I’ve studied about the global warming issue. I have thought about it. I think Al Gore is onto something. I’m not as certain that Al Gore is right as Coleman is that Al Gore is wrong, but I strongly suspect that Al Gore is onto something and that it is really important.
The global warming deniers claim that we cannot alter something so massive as the earth’s atmosphere, but I have seen with my own eyes that the mighty Colorado River no longer reaches the Sea of Cortez. We are using it up in its entirety. I can be sure of what I’ve seen with my own eyes. Mankind can change the Earth.
Are we having a similar effect on its atmosphere? I can’t be sure, but I have very little doubt that it’s possible and there is a great deal of evidence that it’s happening as we debate the issue.
And I have a suspicion lurking in the back of my mind that it’s happing a great deal faster than we know.
Now here is an odd thing: your sister taught me to not believe every thing I was told, and to think for my self. And she and my father encouraged me to learn how to do my own thinking. And I think that Al Gore is a bit of a blow-hard. But I also tried to learn, for myself, over 40 years ago, how climates worked and changed. (Specifically, during the ice-ages, in case any one is wondering.) Because of that, and reading about the history of science and technology, I figured out, by myself some 30 years ago, that global warming was theoretically possible, and that we were running that risk. I also figured out, again for myself about 10 years ago, that the signs were that it was starting. Al Gore is a late-comer to the party!
ReplyDeleteAs to your "suspicion...that it’s happing...faster than we know", I am certain that it is, and am pretty sure that it is speeding up. I also suspect that there are tipping points, after which catastrophically rapid (and irreversible) changes can happen. (Be afraid, be very afraid!)
The models of past years predicted a range of possible consequences. I find it amazing, and extremely disconcerting, that the actual recent observations of climate phenomena are at or worse than the most extreme scenarios of those past predictions. And many of the mechanisms have thresholds, the first of which we only hit a couple of years ago.
I am rather afraid that Bush's war debts are going to prove the least of our children's problems. And that the world may become so unlivable there may not be many grand-children.
[Arthur]
I do realize that man can change the earth.. terraforming, growing capability, erosion, yes even the climate. Many of the ones in a position to DO something about it either scoff at it, or there is not enough of them to form a coalition big enough to have momentum. And I agree about Bush's war debts, and have little hope about that, because ALL politicians have little will about changing the budgetary process.. after all, it's not "their" money..
ReplyDelete