moda0306 wrote:
And not to take this to an even higher dick level, but it is stuff like this that makes me want to completely write off everything any conservative has to say about climate change and just have liberals move on like technocratic dictators on the topic of climate change. Conservatives are either obfuscating facts, or relying on those facts without asking ANY questions.
It is certainly true that there is a group of people who ignore the scientific consensus on AGW. From a purely political perspective, I believe this is a mistake, and those who do so are unaware of the ill will it produces.
However, I think to move on as technocratic dictators and impose solutions would be a mistake in a similar vein.
Or, to put it differently... if someone is being a dick, being an even bigger dick is not the best response.
I understand. My post was a somewhat sarcastic response to discussions of needing "technocrats" to govern rather than elected goofballs.
In the end, I totally understand that "absolute power corrupts, absolutely." It's human nature. But we still have to call bs arguments out when we see them and start to realize when some people simply aren't arguing in good faith. We can move on without them.
"Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds."
doodle wrote:
So when the temperature monitoring stations pump out numbers that show a cooler summer the deniers cite this as evidence that global warming is a farse. Yet, when the stations put out warmer than average numbers they are broken and dont work well.
I make similar observations from the skeptical side of things all the time. For example, in 2004 when Florida was hit by so many hurricanes we kept hearing how global warming was causing hurricanes to increase in frequency and intensity. That hurricane season was immediately followed by the longest recorded stretch of time without a hurricane in recorded history - nearly 10 years now and still counting.
So what to make of this? Move along, nothing to see here.
Here is a nice chart that seems to indicate both the highs and lows are getting a bit cooler ... but who really knows? Is this something you would be willing to spend massive amounts of money on? What "programs" will suffer from insufficient resources if we plow large sums into studying how to influence the climate in a significant way? What would you be willing to give up out of your personal pocket to fund that study ... 10% of your income, 20%, 30%? I think we need to think really big here if we are to have a snowball's chance. Assumption is that the globe's monetary resourses are relatively fixed in the shorter term ... unless somehow we undergo some type of rapid economic growth that expands the value of everything.
Mountaineer wrote:
"Or, to put it differently... if someone is being a dick, being an even bigger dick is not the best response."
Oh my, I thought this discussion had devolved to debating the merits of Dick Cheney, Dick Nixon, and Dick Tracy! Then I realized bigger is not always better.
... Mountaineer
That reminds me of the famous bumper sticker from the late '60s: "Dick Nixon... before he dicks you."
