Driven Eco-Hysteria?

[monk222]

♠
While the public has been led to believe that "all" the leading scientists buy the global warming hysteria and the political agenda that goes with it, in fact the official reports from the United Nations or the National Academy of Sciences are written by bureaucrats -- and then garnished with the names of leading scientists who were "consulted," but whose contrary conclusions have been ignored.

-- Thomas Sowell at RealClearPolitics.com

Maybe denying much of the eco-scare concerning global warming is not exactly like denying the Holocaust. As Sowell points out, this is not to deny that we are warmer, but to question whether human causes are that determinative. Even if skepticism is warranted, of course, it is probably good policy to be more eco-conscious but to do so within reason and without dire panic.

xXx

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

I recently discovered that a) the polar icecaps on Mars (which are made of carbon dioxide, not ice, but the principle still applies) are melting, and b) a second red spot has developed on Jupiter - both clear indications that the whole solar system is getting warmer. Further investigations reveal that sunspot activity, which is known to be closely related to solar temperature, has been unprecedented in recent years.

Now that's not to say that we shouldn't be sensible about our use of resources; after all, there's only so much fossil fuel, and I have not yet seen clear evidence that human activity is not making the problem worse. But it's interesting that the sun is making such a huge contribution to the general warming and not many people have pointed this out.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Miss Next! Sowell quips about how the sun is rather beyond the reach of the Kyoto accords, but you really nail the point home for me. Though, that's actually a little scarier, since it is utterly beyond our control, but maybe this is just another sign of how easy it is to get into dramatics and hysteria, as I suppose reason dictates that it is more likely just a cyclical process, as we have had warmings before.