Global warming and thoughts about trends

Filed in Thoughts on December 15, 2008



On the way out the door this morning, I read the AP article claiming that global warming has sped up and we are approaching a point of no return (whatever that means).

Put me down as someone on the fence about global warming.  I am not a conspiracy theorist and I do not believe that most scientists are godless zealots on a mission to undermine Christianity.   So, I tend to believe that global warming is a cause for concern even if there is still some debate about whether it really exists.

Conservatives of course are skeptical.  By most standards, I am a conservative.  However, conservatives have a real weakness that undermines their credibility--they have a history of rejecting progress even when progress is a good thing.  The issue of racism within the United States is a good case study that illustrates my point.

I just wish there was a bit more integrity on both sides.  For example, I wish I had a dollar for every time that someone tries to prove that global warning does not exist because some town recorded a record low temperature on a given day.  The global warming zealots are just as likely to point to some heat wave in some significant place to try to prove their point.

Conservatives have laughed a lot because the past few years, there has been snow at some big global warming convention in Washington. Of course, the snow proves nothing.  Neither does a cold day in a town in Montana or a hot day in some town in Alaska. 

A cold day does not make a trend.  Neither does a cold season.  Signficant trends are longer than that, and we are clearly in a warming trend.  The question however is whether the trend is just short term or part of a long warming trend.  The answer to that question is unclear, and that is why I consider the possibility of global warming to be worthy of concern.

So, take today's Drudge Report headlines about record lows in Denver and Montana with a gigantic grain of salt.  Unless you live there, it really doesn't matter very much.

 



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