Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
SonofJoe, since you seem to be fairly knowledgeable about several things, I want to ask you a question about the veracity of "climate change & global warming". If the US military has been doing it since the '60s, and
China admits that they have been "modifying" weather, especially for the Olympics, how much of Al Gore's world do you think is contrived and manipulated onto us vs. what is naturally occurring? This is not a political question, it's asking to step back and look at things scientifically. As Linctex's signature says, the evidence demands a verdict, and I'm willing to bet it's not the same spiel we hear on the news everyday.
Okay, while I'm waiting for wifey to do her Xmas shopping, I'll have a go at answering your question...
Yes, I read about the US military seeding clouds. I didn't hear about the Chinese playing with the weather for their Olympics but yes, I could believe they used cloud seeding as a way of getting rain clouds to dump their rain away from the sports arenas. However IMO it's a bit of a waste of expensive silver iodide when nature does essentially the same thing for free. Whilst this is 'interesting', it's not something that's ever going to be widely used. Also it's really a form of 'local weather change' as opposed to 'global climate change' which is what Brother Gore was prophesying all those years ago.
I think most folks understand about 'the greenhouse effect'. Greenhouses 'trap' heat by letting light through the glass one way but not out again. If you're not a gardener, then you'll know the phenomenon by the act of getting in your car or truck. Always wondered why the inside is always so bloody hot? Greenhouse effect! Now just scale up your car to the size of the Earth and imagine instead of glass windows, a layer of carbon dioxide. Light from the Sun passes through the layer to get in but carbon dioxide (and other stuff like methane) restricts it's passage back out to space. The more CO2 you have, the greater level of energy retention. This bit is really simple schoolboy physics.
The complicated bit is what all that trapped energy does to the climate? If we all got a uniform bit of extra energy, uniformly all the time, I for one would be v happy as it might improve The UK's damp & dismal climate! But that's not how it works. Weather systems are inherently chaotic. Just like boiling a kettle, adding more energy, drives the chaos with and increased risk of extreme weather events like hurricanes, heatwaves, snow storms, etc.
One of the things that genuinely puzzles folks like me is given that Americans coined the terms global warming & climate change (50 years ago as I recall) and you see terribly destructive fires in California, massively powerful hurricanes hitting the southern states & massive dumps of snow storms on the Eastern Seaboard, why so many of you don't believe in GW/CC? Given that you are an advanced country blessed with so many brilliant scientists, why don't you believe what they're telling you?? Why are you so readily accepting of 'alternative theories' which reek of skullduggery & conspiracy? If you were seriously ill & needed an operation, would you really question the competence & motives of your brain surgeon because if it was me going under the knife, I might think this guy knows a lot more about this than me so I'll trust what he says!
Sorry for the long winded reply but can I say one last thing. IMO opinion, the evidence DOES NOT demand a verdict! This clever but glib phrase might play well in a court of law but in my experience, science doesn't work this way. With science, you generally don't know more than you know but you still have to try and make sense if it. Developing engine oils is EXACTLY like this and unless you can live with masses of uncertainty & contradiction, you better not try and be an oil formulator because you will be expected to deliver some kind of end product, even if it's performance is uncertain. Climate change scientists face exactly the same challenge.
Hope that helps.
