Global warming: Wishing it ain't so is not going to make it go away
LEIGH POMEROY
One of the primary methods of global warming naysayers is to cite a handful of sources questioning the phenomenon. In a recent such letter to the Mankato Free Press the writer, a scientist and professor, cited four studies over five years old and one from 2003.
While the theory of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a precursor to global warming has been around for over a century, only very recently have the overwhelming number of studies proved a positive correlation. Then the question has been: What is causing the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere? Again, the research is just beginning to mount up, but the culprit seems to be us -- the human influence on the ecosphere.
As any scientist knows, running an experiment 100 times is not going to yield unanimous results. Nor is researching the same physical phenomenon. However, as evidence mounts conclusions can be drawn to a higher and higher degree of probability. This is what is happening today. The evidence is now becoming overwhelming that: (1) global warming is occurring and (2) the human lifestyle of the fossil fuel age is the cause.
We constantly should be questioning our scientific assumptions, for only by this means does science advance. But once overwhelming evidence exists, then we must make the paradigm shift to encompass it into our belief structure. To do otherwise is to deny reality, which could, especially in the case of global warming, lead to human catastrophe.
One of the primary methods of global warming naysayers is to cite a handful of sources questioning the phenomenon. In a recent such letter to the Mankato Free Press the writer, a scientist and professor, cited four studies over five years old and one from 2003.
While the theory of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a precursor to global warming has been around for over a century, only very recently have the overwhelming number of studies proved a positive correlation. Then the question has been: What is causing the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere? Again, the research is just beginning to mount up, but the culprit seems to be us -- the human influence on the ecosphere.
As any scientist knows, running an experiment 100 times is not going to yield unanimous results. Nor is researching the same physical phenomenon. However, as evidence mounts conclusions can be drawn to a higher and higher degree of probability. This is what is happening today. The evidence is now becoming overwhelming that: (1) global warming is occurring and (2) the human lifestyle of the fossil fuel age is the cause.
We constantly should be questioning our scientific assumptions, for only by this means does science advance. But once overwhelming evidence exists, then we must make the paradigm shift to encompass it into our belief structure. To do otherwise is to deny reality, which could, especially in the case of global warming, lead to human catastrophe.
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