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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by raveneye
OK, since you asked the question, I'll answer it.
In my opinion, what you need to do is to open your mind to the science, and to think more critically. If you do, then you will reject every argument that you made above that the current warming is part of a natural cycle and that we have no significant effect on it.
Each of your arguments is easy to reject. ENSO is a short-lived cycle that can't explain the longer-term rise in temperature over the last 30 years. The current rise can't be explained by the causes of the ice age interglacials, we're in a cooling period in the ice-age cycle (a downward phase of the Milankovitch cycle in the Northern Hemisphere), not a warming period: the natural warming period ended 10,000 years ago. And human beings are not insignificant, we know from physical experiments that certain gases trap radiation very efficiently and we know from the past ice-age cycles that small increases in greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere cause immediate increases in temperature. In fact it's easy to predict how much our emissions will raise the temperature; predictions made in the late 1980s have turned out to be very accurate. We also know that increases at the rate that we are currently experiencing (10x the average rate in past ice ages) can be dangerous, because they have caused mass extinctions in the fossil record.
What you do in your personal life is largely irrelevant (despite its effect on the cockles of my heart). Your personal actions can't have a measurable effect on any global atmospheric phenomenon.
Some people, however, simply feel better about themselves and their lives if they know that they're not part of the problem. Your mileage may vary.
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I see, because I don't subscribe to your or in this case science's point of view, I'm not critically thinking? The point of critical thinking is to be able to think about something and come up with one's own thought. There's nothing within the realm on critical thinking that I've ever been read or taught that stated I had to agree with the rest of the group.
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Critical thinking consists of mental processes of discernment, analyzing and evaluating. It includes all possible processes of reflecting upon a tangible or intangible item in order to form a solid judgment that reconciles scientific evidence with common sense.
Critical thinkers gather information from all senses, verbal and/or written expressions, reflection, observation, experience and reasoning. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual criteria that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance and fairness.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by reaveneye
Your personal actions can't have a measurable effect on any global atmospheric phenomenon.
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wait a minute, so now let me get this clear, MY personal actions have no effect, so then conversly the guy who drives the Hummer and lives alone in a 3,000sq ft. house doesn't have any measurable afect on global atmosphereic phenomenon.
So again, what are we talking about here? The only thing I'm distilling from your posts is that I don't subscribe to the global warming theory and that I'm not "critically thinking" to accept it.
And you've still not stated where I'm irresponsible. Where's that fit into your points? I'm irresponsible because I don't agree with the rest of the group?
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Last edited by Cynthetiq; 10-08-2007 at 03:53 AM..
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