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Glenn Beck misses the point on global warming. AP Photo Evan Agostini
The following clip illustrates a classic "Beck" moment in which he supplies just enough evidence to fool some into thinking "that makes sense." As part of his episode yesterday Beck seems to seriously try and refute the existence of global warming by citing the relative cool summer this year in New York. Let me outline the problem with Beck's argument.
The evidence Beck provides is simply too small of a sample size to really refute anything in global warming. The sample size in small both in time (a matter of months) and in geographical size (one city). Does a cool summer in New York city disprove global warming if a majority of the rest of the world was warmer? Does a cool summer disprove global warming if the rest of the year is in NYC is warmer than normal?
To his credit Beck has in the past cited more evidence refuting global warming. Chief among his former arguments was the contention that some 700 scientists refuted global warming. Still even then Beck's look into global warming was too narrow-minded. He did not account for the lack of climatology expertise among many of the experts. Beck also missed the fact that the 700 scientists reflect a very small fraction of all the scientists in the world.
Despite Beck's argument I will still stand by my contention that the consensus of the scientific community believes global warming is real and dangerous. Is there conclusive proof which has eliminated every single doubt in the scientific community? No there is not. However we waited forever for scientists to "prove" the dangerous effects of cigarettes while thousands died from smoking. Still today you can find scientists who dispute the connection between cigarettes and cancer. I fear that if we wait until people like Glenn Beck are convinced on global warming it will be too late to solve the problem.
Comments
"The evidence Beck provides is simply too small of a sample size to really refute anything in global warming. "
Your right. But using even the past century or two which is widely done is too short a time.
Try a few hundred thousand years. Like when we had the Little Ice Age. The Dark Ages. When the planet cooled and millions died.
And Glenn Beck can't spell either.
Is GW real? Yes it is. Can it be proven that man is responsible for it? NO it can't. Just as the planet has warmed and cooled many time before, it will continue to do so long after HomoSapiens are no longer the dominate species.
What I don't understand about GW sceptics is how they think that spewing poisons into the air over the past 150 years or so (since the onset of the Industrial Revolution) WOULDN'T have an effect on climate?
Why has Glen not addressed the rumors that he may have raped and murdered a young girl in 1990? A clear denial and possibly some documentary evidence of his innocence would do a lot to make him more credible on global warming and other issues.
More than 50 Million Africans have died since the BAN ON DDT. I think you environmentalists have used dangers of DDT to kill Blacks. You Racists. Being African American, I am grateful to Glen Beck for his research. Even the White House could not deny any of the things Glen Beck has said. Being honest is what I look for. I have seen no honesty lately in my Democrat Party. I am honest to admit that. Why can't you be honest too. I wish my liberal crowd was as honest as BECK was. I don't protect my own children if they commit a crime, why would I turn a blind eye to my party. I have lost interest in being liberal. Now, I see only liars, tax cheats, corruption, every Democrat that broke the law has not had to go to jail. Even Charlie Rangle of NY gets away with his criminal activities. Chris Dodd, Diane Finestein, Ted Kennedy (too late) Sandy Berger, (stealing and shredding secret papers from the National Archives, Congressman William Jefferson got $80,000 dirty money, etc. etc. Dems done.
@Jessica Brown
Amen sister
Jessica, don't try to pretend that you were once a liberal, Your rhetoric gives you away.
Saying that the democrats are the thieves is throwing a blind eye to the republican scandals that led to the downfall of their party.
DDT use in Africa in order to stave off malaria isn't something to be politicized. What have you done to stop the genocides caused by corrupt governments? What about blood diamonds or oil companies funding extremists that willfully kill people? Do you even care about those deaths which overwhelmingly destroy your DDT argument? What about AIDS? Do you really care about Africa's problems?
And please Glenn Beck does research? HAHAHAHA!!!!! Anyone can do some fact-checking and find his straw-men, ad hominen attacks, and logical fallacies are weak.
Follow his advice and ask questions. Stop letting yourself be spoon fed his fear-mongering nonsense.
GB is the man
"spewing poisons into the air over the past 150 years": this epitomises the false paradigm on emissions, human and otherwise, which pervades our lives. The earth is not a closed system, a box into which we can only put so much and from which we can only extract so much. The Gaaia idea is actually nearer to reality than might be expected as the earth is a dynamic chemical factory in its own right. It produces, absorbs, destroys, and re-makes chemicals. Waste is produced, it breaks down, it regenerates into something else. Matter is neither created nor destroyed it just changes form. The bulk of the atoms that made up the earth at the time of the Big Bang are still there, (some may be lost to space) but they have been re-organised many times, from fish to birds to dinosaurs to man, all based on carbon. We cannot do without carbon, we are carbon.
Not since Joe McCarthy shuffled off this mortal coil in 1957 has anyone made a career by accusing people of being communists. Glenn Beck has resurrected the practice. Not only has he found a cabal of secret communists, he has uncovered an entire communist corporation chock full of commies. The name of this company, you may ask?
THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY!
You heard me right, boys and girls. The network that gave us Uncle Miltie and Ma Perkins has apparently been secretly sending subliminal messages endorsing Marxist doctrine since it was formed in 1926. This would make perfect sense to me. Every time I watched the Rockford Files I had an unexplainable desire to read Das Kapital. But seriously, folks....
www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan, Goshen, NY
BS Zone is right on. Ryan, you're argument against the GB argument is ironic since the small sample size is precisely why the global warming theory is just that, a THEORY. It is not a FACT that human activity is the cause of RECENT temperature rise. How do you explain the historic tempature fluctations that occured BEFORE humans were on this earth?
Robert Moon is spamming The Activity Pit again: twi.cc/lAlq
"BS Zone" and "CAH" argue that the planet has warmed and cooled many times before and that humans had nothing to do with it. Their argument is that natural changes are responsible for the current warming. The problem is that the usual contributors to natural variability - solar activity, cyclical changes in the earth's orbit, and volcanoes - are absent from the current warming trend. The vast majority of scientists concede that humans are playing a role in this recent warming. See here:
skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm
Obviously the emails out of England are not proof enough that Global Warming is a farce. It's all coming out now in ClimateGate 2009. Wahahhahahahahhahahha!
Glen beck says the extreme cold weather in New York was his evidence that global warming is actually (global cooling?), on the contrary I think it is caused by the rise in the earths temperiture.The cold weather was the result of the earth trying compensate for the rise in temperiture , the more rise in the global temperiture the more violent or extreme the weather.
Eventually the earth will settle in a state of equilibrium at a higher temperiture than now and there will be milder weather, but then sea level will rise when the ice melts!
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