What must it be like to live as a disbeliever? To discredit science, to discredit your own eyes...

[NRaleighLiberal]

Whether it is melting ice, extreme temperatures, extreme weather, Katrina, Sandy, Haiyan....

Al Gore picked a superb phrase for this - Inconvenient Truth. Be it local legislatures that refuse to even discuss, never mind consider, impact of sea level rise on coasts (take a bow of idiocy, North Carolina), industries and businesses who just kick the can down the road as an ever increasing population ever increasingly spews various matter into the atmosphere...how inconvenient it is indeed that consideration of the impacts of our industries and lifestyles could even possibly hamper our need for more ocean side cottages....in general, more stuff. Because for the very very few it means more and more money. heaven forbid they ever think of doing with a bit less than the way, way too much they already have.

I recall the destruction of Katrina and Sandy, and am aghast at the horrifying radar scans of Haiyan....and can find no way to even imagine how horrendous it must be for the people in the Philippines going through this nightmare. I can't imagine the Faux watchers, Rush listeners, and other flat earth society members seeing this and not wondering what the hell is going on....that perhaps they are being lied to.

Granted, I probably have such confidence in science because a scientist is what I am. I am also a skeptic, often a cynic. I am also a lover of nature, a bleeding heart for people. But it is the cognitive dissonance that drives me crazy.

Do I worry about the earth? Nope - it is clearly pretty unhappy with us, and will go on just fine...after it finally decides to render things a wee bit inconvenient for life when it completes its adjustments that are now underway. But given some time, it will fix itself and go on and on and on....

As for us? Well, now....that's the big question, isn't it.

[pscot]

1. It must be pretty easy

There are so many of them.

[NuclearDem]

2. Well, God would never let it happen.

Unless he was really pissed at the gays or abortion. Then he would send hurricanes and tornadoes to hit really religious areas.

...what was I talking about?

[CFLDem]

3. I don't worry about things that I can't control.

Plus I feel I have a pragmatic and historically appropriate view of it.

Pragmatic in that we should strive to live as green as technologically possible so that we leave a better world for the future.

Historically appropriate in that no matter how green we live, 99.99% of all life forms go extinct regardless of humanity's impact.

Even we will go extinct one day. So I live green, promote green, but try to stay humble enough to accept that everything in nature is ultimately temporary.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Religion. The mind killer.

INHO

[mountain grammy]

5. I will be forever mystified by people who believe whatever bullshit

they hear in spite of what they see happening before their very eyes.

[Deep13]

6. A true skeptic suspends belief pending an evaluation of the evidence.

So what is the evidence?

Combustion puts millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The breathable atmosphere is no more than 5 miles thick. Scaled to a 12" globe, that is like the thickness of a sheet of xerox paper.

The earth was once much warmer than it is now. Scientists have found evidence that Antarctica was covered with thick forests during the Jurassic era.

The surface of the Earth was once frozen solid.

The previous two facts suggest that the climate is inherently unstable and that great changes in temperature require only small changes.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Venus's atmosphere is mostly CO2. It is the size of the Earth but about 2/3 the distance to the sun than we are. This should make Venus about 30 deg. hotter than Earth.

The surface temperature of Venus everyplace on Venus all the time, day or night is 900 deg. F.

On average, the temperature is a few degrees warmer on Earth than it used to be.

Permafrost is melting.

Permafrost releases methane when it melts. Methane is a greenhouse gas significantly more potent than CO2.

The North Polar ice cap is far smaller during summer than it was in the 1970s.

Ice reflects solar heat, water is darker and absorbs it.

CONCLUSION: The Earth is getting warmer because of a rise in the amount of atmospheric CO2.

[jeff47]

9. Nitpicking:

The earth was once much warmer than it is now. Scientists have found evidence that Antarctica was covered with thick forests during the Jurassic era.

Antarctica wasn't at the South pole during the Jurassic era. It was at a latitude similar to where Australia is today.

[Deep13]

13. Okay then. nt

[hfojvt]

7. what IS going on then?

There have been many big, and deadly storms in the past.

7 super-typhoons in 1964 and 11 in 1965 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon

229,000 Chinese died from Typhoon Nina - in 1975 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Nina_(1975)

Not to mention the storms of the early 1800s

1839 - 300,000 dead
1847 - 75,000 dead
1864 - 60,000 dead
1874 - 70,000 dead
1876 - 200,000 dead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-1980_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_seasons#November_1839_Coringa_cyclone

Seems to me that the earth is no more displeased with us now than it was back in the 19th century, and that if it wants to get rid of us, it is going to need some help - from an asteroid or something.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

8. I don't know the facts

But I was thinking that back then, no one had warnings and were very ill prepared. With this latest storm there were warnings for people to take cover. Furthermore, now there are extensive searches, rescues and aftercare. Back then people were pretty much on their own. Many more people would have died as a result of starvation, thirst, injuries and diseases.

[jeff47]

10. Numbers killed is not a terribly good measure

For example, meteorology has massively advanced since the 1800s. Back then the warning of an incoming tropical cyclone was "it's getting kind of cloudy".

Numbers killed depends on two things: evacuation and the power of the storm. We've made massive strides on the former in the past few decades. We're losing ground on the latter.

[hfojvt]

11. presumably some of the "super typhoons" of the 1960s

were quite powerful too.

There is no other way to measure the strength of typhoons of the 1800s. There are no satellite photos or other meteorological records.

For all we know there were some really huge storms in the 1300s too. Or maybe the Chinese would have some record of that.

[jeff47]

12. They were, but again dead is not a good measure.

There were quite powerful storms during the modern meteorology era. But they were usually quite spread out. They're becoming more common and breaking records.

For example, this storm broke the record for highest wind speed in a typhoon.