Ok Kev, I sat through the video finally.
Fairly well crafted arguments. Honestly, somewhat compelling. Some quick thoughts:
- No data was actually hidden, though. He was easily able to obtain it from public sources, after all. One would certainly hope that professionals, scientists, and policy makers will do their basic research and understand trends beyond the narrow confines of a chopped summary document.
- Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to constrain a trend chart to a certain range. For example, emissions of aerosols did have a real effect on keeping global surface temperatures cooler in the '30s-70s before we curtailed them with regulation. So trends since then are arguably more important.
- The video makers examples were rather narrow.
No one is blaming all current sea level rise on human activity alone. We know that increased global temps will melt more ice, so future sea level rise is FEARED to be worsening. It's not an instant feedback loop. But one only need look to the artic sea to observe a rapidly changing situation over the last decade. It kind of looks like the trend is increasing lately to me. For the majority of adults who agree that human carbon emissions are helping raise global temperatures, its a very easy connection to see how this will accelerate going forward.
- 90 degree days in a random little Ohio town? awesome. How about 100 degree days in Phoenix? Sure looks like a trend here:
Look at the under 32F and over 110F days too. Sh*t is changing, man.
So look, surely there are climate alarmists who are exaggerating their positions to win the battle of public opinion and bring investment to their cause. I wish they wouldn't. Personally, when I examine the data sources of the climate deniers/skeptics, they are much easier to disprove, or trace their funding directly to the fossil fuel industry, who obviously has a vested interest in disagreement on climate change.
I must always acknowledge the possibility of my own confirmation bias. I promise you guys that I really do try to always look at data sources and the motivations behind them. I don't have time to refute everyone's points in here... usually there are some allies willing to pull up the data as well lol.
In a related tangent, the past 2 years has seen my opinion of medical and pharmaceutical science change dramatically - and not for the better. Stay objective, folks.
