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  1. #26
    e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 MannyIsGod's Avatar
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    Very interested in Climate Science, Not at all interested in debating climate science. The political situation with climate science is nothing like the scientific situation and most people are only familiar with the political version.

    As far as the politics are concerned the deniers have won. Why? Because its easy as to muddy the waters as opposed to actually addressing the situation. Yonivore can make claims that no predictions have come true (which is outlandish as it gets) and people read them and take it as fact. Obstructed view can make a claim that there has been a falsified information and data and people accept it as fact.

    They've won, thee is not going to be any political action taken regarding climate change.

    The military, however, seems to be taken climate change very seriously. Pretty ionic, actually.

    Enjoy the thread.
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  2. #27
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Or is the fact that you are a human being independent of whether I am nearly certain about it?
    So by implication, someone can believe that it is a fact that global warming is caused by human activities even though nobody is certain of it and act on that information. The word for that is "faith", which is religion, not science. If you'd like to start an environmentalist religion and begin prosthelytizing I will certainly do my best not to stand in the way of your beliefs.
    That is not an answer to my question.

    The answer to the question as asked is:

    The truth is independent of my belief.

    That is not a good faith attempt to answer my question.
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  3. #28
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    You stated rather clearly that there is no link between human activity and climate change.

    Is there a chance you are wrong about that?
    Actually, I stated rather clearly that a link still hasn't been found, which is not saying there is no link. If you're going to characterize what I say, I'd appreciate if you'd do it properly. And no, I'm not incorrect about that, of that I am 100 percent certain. The link still hasn't been found. If it had, people wouldn't have to resort to "nearly certain".
    Fair enough. You stated the link has "not been found." My charactorization of your post was in error.

    What would qualify, in your view, finding that link?
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  4. #29
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Is it possible to make reasonable decisions based on incomplete information?



    If the environmental movement is any indication? No, it isn't possible. I think, by definition, it has more in common with religion than science.
    The answer is:

    Yes, it is possible to make decisions based on incomplete information.

    I would offer decisions by CEOs and military leaders every day as evidence.

    That was not a good faith answer to my question.
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  5. #30
    Out with the old... Obstructed_View's Avatar
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    That is not an answer to my question.

    The answer to the question as asked is:

    The truth is independent of my belief.

    That is not a good faith attempt to answer my question.
    Actually , it was completely a good faith attempt to answer your question.

    You suggest that there's an underlying fact that exists whether or not you, as the scientist, can prove it. The implication seems quite clear to me that you want to accept a fact even though science can't prove it.

    Looking at it scientifically, in your analogy, I could be a clever computer program. You don't know, and cannot state with any degree of certainty either way, but you picked what is most likely to you, that I am a human being, and have married yourself to that position. There is nothing scientific about that. The fact that you know that I am actually a human being in real life is completely irrelevant. From a scientific standpoint, you have not been able to prove anything. You just assumed that one of your choices is correct and have convinced yourself that you were scientific about it.
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  6. #31
    Out with the old... Obstructed_View's Avatar
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    The answer is:

    Yes, it is possible to make decisions based on incomplete information.

    I would offer decisions by CEOs and military leaders every day as evidence.

    That was not a good faith answer to my question.
    I thought we were talking about science. CEOs and military leaders aren't scientists.

    This is the second time you've implied that I'm somehow being dishonest in my answers. It's funny that I came in here trying to give you exactly what you want but you seem to be more interested in playing word games and changing the rules as you go. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Have fun with your debate.
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  7. #32
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Correlation and causality.

    Your theory is that observed CO2 changes are the result of temperature changes, not the other way around?
    I have no theory. Correlation has been adequately proven, causality has not.
    Fair answer.

    Is it possible then, to make the following statement about causation:

    Cause must proceed effect.

    ???
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  8. #33
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Actually , it was completely a good faith attempt to answer your question.

    You suggest that there's an underlying fact that exists whether or not you, as the scientist, can prove it. The implication seems quite clear to me that you want to accept a fact even though science can't prove it.

    Looking at it scientifically, in your analogy, I could be a clever computer program. You don't know, and cannot state with any degree of certainty either way, but you picked what is most likely to you, that I am a human being, and have married yourself to that position. There is nothing scientific about that. The fact that you know that I am actually a human being in real life is completely irrelevant. From a scientific standpoint, you have not been able to prove anything. You just assumed that one of your choices is correct and have convinced yourself that you were scientific about it.
    My questions have been rather simple.

    They have definite answers, and I seek no explanations beyond a simple attempt to get to mutually agreed precepts. If I ask what color the sky is, there is only one real answer to that question.

    I have not attempted to "prove" anything, merely restate the logical argument you seemed to be attempting to make, in order to see if it is logical.

    If I can think of an instance in which the same logical form is false then it is safe to discard it.
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  9. #34
    俺はまんこが大好きなんだよ baseline bum's Avatar
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    If you're going to reply to a statement like that with a series of pictures with no explanation and no caption then you're really telling everyone that you have any interest in debating facts, muchless coming to a scientific conclusion.
    Is it really hard to figure out a series of pictures of a melting glacier refers to predictions of glaciers melting due to global warming?

    There appears to be more ice on the 2009 picture than the 1938 picture, even though, judging by the snow on the mountains in the back, the 1938 picture is taken in a colder season than the 2009 picture. If that's all the more scientific standard you require for evidence, it's no wonder people question those on your side of the debate. You're welcome to write me off as "snarky" but you might, at some point, start to make the connection between responses like yours and people questioning your motives.
    In what world is there more ice in the 2009 picture? You can't be serious here. Stick with the insults I guess.

    I'm not on the "nothing is happening" boat, but it would be nice if you included some explanation of what it is. Glaciers come and go, and always have. There's certainly not any prediction that it confirms. In the 1970s the prediction was of an approaching ice age. Again, if there's actually a melting glacier in that series of photos, it fits with the global temperature change, which conforms with the CO2 fluctuations, which conforms with the cycle of the orbit of the Earth around the sun.
    You're moving the goalposts. Yonivore specifically said none of the doom and gloom predictions have come true, even though the continued melting of glaciers all over the northern hemisphere is exactly what has been predicted and observed all over the Rockies, in California, and in Greenland.
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  10. #35
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Looking at it scientifically, in your analogy, I could be a clever computer program. You don't know, and cannot state with any degree of certainty either way, but you picked what is most likely to you, that I am a human being, and have married yourself to that position. There is nothing scientific about that. The fact that you know that I am actually a human being in real life is completely irrelevant. From a scientific standpoint, you have not been able to prove anything. You just assumed that one of your choices is correct and have convinced yourself that you were scientific about it.
    You are correct. I cannot really know for certain you are not a program.

    I can though, decide to act on the "nearly certain" assumption that you are human enough to bother talking to. I base this on nothing more than my knowledge that computer programs currently do not have the sophistication to produce the kinds of answers you have given so far.

    In this case, I can act on incomplete information. I do no have to know for certain you exist to respond to your posts.
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  11. #36
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    I thought we were talking about science. CEOs and military leaders aren't scientists.

    This is the second time you've implied that I'm somehow being dishonest in my answers. It's funny that I came in here trying to give you exactly what you want but you seem to be more interested in playing word games and changing the rules as you go. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Have fun with your debate.
    The question was not:

    "Is it possible for scientists to make decisions based on incomplete information?"

    You answered the question you wanted to, not the question I asked. That is a rather standard evasive tactic used by people who do not like the implications of questions posed to them.
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  12. #37
    俺はまんこが大好きなんだよ baseline bum's Avatar
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    He made a fair point. Your post was simply regarding the shrinking snowcap in one place, but that did not address a prediction of "doom and gloom".
    'Doom and gloom' is the sarcastic reaction from Yonivore to anything negative that goes against his political religion. And one place? I could post pictures of Lyell Glacier in the Sierras, the Grasshopper Glaciers in the Beartooths, Schoolroom Glacier in Grand Teton, and tons of others, but I figured showing a series of pics of Grinnell Glacier's massive retreat was a pretty simple reminder of the general fact that our glaciers are retreating (and quickly) as a result of global warming.
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  13. #38
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    Obviously if it's so simple that humans are causing the temperature of the planet to increase, there should be loads and loads of very simple evidence to support that. You might spend the effort trying to explain the position. CO2 levels have mirrored global temperatures for thousands of years, yet it seems awfully hard to make the case of humankind's impact on global temperature. There is an increase in CO2 levels, about 2 parts per million per year. The case for the link between the relatively tiny changes in global temperature and the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit seems much easier to make and explain, and the theory that CO2 levels are the result of global temperature change rather than the cause seems to fit with that as well.
    Seems like you do.
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  14. #39
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    I want to predict the rest of this thread:

    You lie, repugs, able
    Why would you lie
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  15. #40
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    'Doom and gloom' is the sarcastic reaction from Yonivore to anything negative that goes against his political religion. And one place? I could post pictures of Lyell Glacier in the Sierras, the Grasshopper Glaciers in the Beartooths, Schoolroom Glacier in Grand Teton, and tons of others, but I figured showing a series of pics of Grinnell Glacier's massive retreat was a pretty simple reminder of the general fact that our glaciers are retreating (and quickly) as a result of global warming.
    Such evidence does indeed point to warming trends. I find that people who tend to claim "there is no warming, not nohow, no way" tend to be the ones who adhere most closely to the "Denier" dogma.

    Ceding any point of contention for a dogmatic is tantamount, in their minds, to ceding the entire debate.

    That is why Yoni et al. tend to ignore my questions.
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  16. #41
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    I want to predict the rest of this thread:


    Touche.

    Well played, sir.
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  17. #42
    I am that guy RandomGuy's Avatar
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    I want to predict the rest of this thread:
    Don't forget the inevitable reference to Hitler.

    Hitler and the nazis
    See:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
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  18. #43
    Believe.
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    You are exactly right. Your statement is 100 percent as scientific as the one made by one of the leading climategate scientists. "Nearly certain" is not a scientific term. Thank you for pointing that out for me. Are you wondering why someone claiming to be a scientist would use a term like that? If not, why aren't you?
    Actually it is very much indeed scientific. A good scientist is going to be skeptic and is not going to make statements of certainty when it comes to causation.

    If there is a very strong correlation of data to observations then a good scientist is going to say that things are nearly certain and be right.
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  19. #44
    🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 ElNono's Avatar
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    If there is a very strong correlation of data to observations then a good scientist is going to say that things are nearly certain and be right.
    Actually, a scientist would, at that point, pose a theory, which then would be scrutinized by his/her peers.

    But onto the topic at hand, I think it's very important to understand the scope of the problem domain. We're obviously talking mostly statistics and probability at this time when it comes to this topic simply because the problem domain is incredibly large (I would say it's realistically intractable with the current dataset, the quality of it and what we really know and don't know that affects climate).

    I personally don't discard a connection to man, as I wouldn't discard some explanation from a burst of gamma rays from two stars colliding 200 years ago, far far away.

    I just don't think we've enough information to make informed decisions about this topic yet. I think as we go along, and more scientists pose more theories on the subject, and back it up with more data, and some other scientists debunk those theories and pose their own, and we get a better understanding of the problem domain, we're going to eventually reach some workable, usable information.

    To me, the worst part is to see the natural scientific process being bas ized with political mud (from both ends), instead of letting it evolve as it should. It actually hinders advancement in this very interesting field.
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  20. #45
    Cogito Ergo Sum LnGrrrR's Avatar
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    I think we can all agree that science does not mean something has to be known, 100%. This is nearly impossible when you're dealing with activities that can have a wide variety of factors, or occurred over a long span of time.

    I mean, if I say I believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, that's based off known evidence, historical data, etc etc. Just because I won't know for certain if the sun will rise until I actually see it tomorrow does not mean that my guess is based off faith alone, as OV implies.
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  21. #46
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    For the Repugs, it's all about obeying their carbon-industry paymasters.

    How Did an Entire Political Party Decide to Reject Climate Change Science

    http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/...aign=alternet#

    So a key tactic of the carbon-industry and Repugs is to fog up the discussion, by saying it's the science, which is really a red herring, when in fact the "discussion" is really about protecting and increasing the carbon industry's profits.

    Texas' Valero and Tesoro are pouring $Ms into CA to defeat environmental regs, because of the "science".

    And their campaign $Ms are a tiny percentage of their current and future profits. As with buying cheap Congresscritters, defeating environmental regs provides a huge return on investment.

    The oil industry debates climate science? GMAFB
    Last edited by boutons_deux; 10-11-2010 at 06:18 AM.
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  22. #47
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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    However, in pseudoscience there is no real honest attempt to follow the scientific method, provide falsifiable predictions, or develop double blind experiments. Pseudoscientists often use the tactic of cheating the scientific method.
    That is the AGW scientists right there.
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  23. #48
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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  24. #49
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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    1938


    1981


    1998


    2005


    2009
    Looks like to me the soot, or what ever airborne aerosol has make the snow black is collecting sunlight and downward IR from the greenhouse effect, melting the snow and ice faster than if it were clean. Clean ice reflects most of the spectra, while dirty snow and ice absorbs something like 5+ times more of this heat.
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  25. #50
    Veteran Wild Cobra's Avatar
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    The point of the question was to get a general idea as to how many people would have to collude to "fake" the data involved. It was not to get at any real exact figure.
    Not many. How many people have access to the raw data?
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