06-22-2006, 07:28 AM
Notable Skeptic Michael Shermer, from an article in Scientific American. Shermer recently organized a skeptically-oriented environmental conference, featuring Michael Crichton, among others, as major speakers.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID...DB783414B7F0000
His past experience is no doubt typical of intelligent, skeptically-minded people faced with this debate. However, I continue to hope his conclusions will also be typical. Skepticism is, in the end, about favoring evidence over unsupported assumptions. After a certain accumulation of evidence, we must accept the probable conclusions, and, doubts kept under consideration, actually do something about the consequences.
The scientific case for anthropogenic global warming is easily strong enough to endorse preventative measures. We either move forward with them now, or play Russian roulette with our one and only biosphere. If these predictions turn out to be wrong, then we will be lucky. An economic slowdown is not the worst price I would pay to not take such a chance.
-Jester
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID...DB783414B7F0000
His past experience is no doubt typical of intelligent, skeptically-minded people faced with this debate. However, I continue to hope his conclusions will also be typical. Skepticism is, in the end, about favoring evidence over unsupported assumptions. After a certain accumulation of evidence, we must accept the probable conclusions, and, doubts kept under consideration, actually do something about the consequences.
The scientific case for anthropogenic global warming is easily strong enough to endorse preventative measures. We either move forward with them now, or play Russian roulette with our one and only biosphere. If these predictions turn out to be wrong, then we will be lucky. An economic slowdown is not the worst price I would pay to not take such a chance.
-Jester