re: #175 Walter L. Newton

You must have me confused with someone else. I am not a skeptic, get that straight right now. The actual science behind it all is a bit confusing to me, even though I have read most of what Charles, Ludwig and others have linked to.

Occasionally, you will find me not swallowing hook, line and sinker every new pronouncement that comes my way, but I never just dismiss the issue out of hand.

People like Ludwig carries no force with me. Just as Palin’s association with certain people decrease her credibility, Ludwig’s attitude is enough for me not to care one wit about any of the science he brings to the table. Not that the science he references and discusses is problematic, but he is, and I have no respect for him. Not more than I have any respect for Palin and others, considering the kind of people they cavort with.

And I will play devils advocate as much as the next one when I come across someone who treat this science like it was a religion.

But deny, no I do not deny, even though I don’t fully understand.

And yes, your statement to me offends, very much so. But, I suspect as you expected no better from me, I didn’t ecxpect any better from you.

So, we are even, aren’t we?

Ludwig is a scientist. He’s also a prickly guy, and not inclined to suffer fools gladly. You are welcome to find this personally off-putting, but it doesn’t make him wrong on the science.

The science stands or falls on its only logical and evidential merits. The merits of AGW are very strong. Glaciers cannot be made to un-retreat by cherry picking quotes from emails at East Anglia University. The glacier was there, way down the valley, but now it ends here, well up the slope, and tomorrow, it’ll be a cirque glacier, snug against its mountain wall. Or gone. And this is happening pretty much everywhere there are glaciers. CO2 levels were at 280. They were at 280 1000 years ago, and 2000 years ago, and 5000 years ago. Now they’re at 380 and rising. (380 parts per million.) Not only are these levels rising, the rate at which they continue to rise is rising. This isn’t a result of a sudden spate of volcanic activity. It’s us. East Anglia emails cannot unwrite this fact that we have written on our own atmosphere.