Climate Change is Real and...

unless you are a scientist the discussion is over until the scientific community brings us evidence to the contrary.

Tonight I engaged in a conversation with someone that does not believe climate change is real. It came to a head when they said to me "if we can agree then I will agree with your liberal science if you can agree with my conservative science, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle."

My head is still spinning from this declaration.

I am not writing this blog post tonight for this individual. This person is not reachable. They told me in no uncertain terms that they believe science is politicized and controlled by our government. They also think most of our news is fake news. I am writing this for majority of conservatives that I can can have a conversation with, where both side can agree on the same set of basic facts.

Science is not conservative, nor is it liberal. Science is science and scientists are (or should act as) scientists. There is a thing called "The Scientific Method". Further, science is validated via a
process known as peer review.

Regarding climate change here are some basic pages from credible, well documented sources that deal with the business of science by following the terms and conventions of science. These three sites will lead you to numerous other sites that follow the rigors of science and peddle facts and data.

1. NASA
2. Skeptical Science
3. Scientific American

Climate Change is Real. The consensus of climate scientists based on scientific methodology and science is that climate change is real and it is largely man made. Climate change is not a US Government conspiracy. Here is a list of hundreds of scientific bodies across the planet that hold the position that climate change, based upon the rigors or science, has been caused by human
action.

What most non-science folks need to understand and accept is that very little science (save for laws) ever gets to 100% consensus. But, conservatively 9 out of 10 climate scientists have concluded though rigorous research that climate change is real and being caused by increased carbon dioxide levels caused by man. Let me put this into terms you can understand without being a scientist or needing to become a student of science...

You go to your doctor and she diagnosed you with stage 1 cancer and suggests a course of treatment. Instead of just getting a second opinion, you go to 9 other doctors. They examine you and 7 more doctors diagnose you with stage 1-2 cancer. 80% of the doctors have diagnosed you with cancer and suggest a plan of care for you. Are you going to get treated for cancer, or are you going to listen to the 20% that concluded you do not have cancer?

Conservatively speaking, 90% of climate scientists believe climate change is real. You can likely find 10% of climate scientists that believe climate change is not real. How many of those work for the fossil fuel industry? You can go out and find non-scientific sources like the National Review that spin facts that try to make people believe this is not real.

Climate change is not only real it already is having affects we are experiencing. It is an existential threat to our planet. Think of climate change as you would a freight train with 15 cars moving down the track at 60 miles and hour with 20 miles of track left before reaching a bridge that is 100 feet high and has collapsed.

There will come a point applying the brakes will be too late and the train will go over the bridge. Depending on the point that the train crashes all the cars will likely derail but not all the cars will go over the threshold of the bridge and plummet 100 feet. But, there is also a point along the track that even if we start to break most if not all of the 15 cars will go off the bridge into the abyss.

This is serious shit. I am getting tired of dealing with people that normally are bright in other areas of their lives but for whatever reason have decided to act and speak in ignorance, devoid of any rational facts and data on this matter. If you have evidence that somehow the last administration was directly influencing the scientific community in how they practice their craft please present it for our review. If you think there is peer reviewed science that is not being presented in the mainstream media please show it to the rest of us.

You are free to have feelings on this subject. You are free to believe that there are unicorns, or that 2+2=7. This however does not make your beliefs true or that you should expect the rest of us to somehow validate your beliefs as having any shred of credibility. Science is science. There is no such thing as liberal or conservative science.

Now, there are special interests like the fossil fuel industry that hire hacks to create non-peer reviewed science. We lived through this nonsense with Tobacco and the Tobacco industry regarding smoking and its link to lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.

If you are a scientist, by all means keep studying climate change. If the science community discovers new evidence of peer reviewed science that changes the consensus on climate change then we need to hear it.

If you are not a scientist and wish to believe that climate change is not real that is your prerogative. The rest of us, however are done listening to you and including you as part of the discourse on this particular matter.

In the mean time we need to start solving the problem of climate change at a greater pace than is already happening. Given that we now have a POTUS that believes climate change is a hoax this is going to be an uphill battle.