White House issues new dire climate report: Scientists: Extreme weather will worsen if pollutants aren't curbed

[pedroh 21]

now dont provoke him steven..

I will solve global warming, by posting 80's rock videos...

Journey and Boston have the answer

dont stop believin!

[Peikko 1,575]

The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.

Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.

When confronted with these exaggerations, some of us say that they are for a good cause, and surely there is no harm done if the result is that we focus even more on tackling climate change. A similar argument was used when George W Bush's administration overstated the terror threat from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

This argument is astonishingly wrong. Such exaggerations do plenty of harm. Worrying excessively about global warming means that we worry less about other things, where we could do so much more good. We focus, for example, on global warming's impact on malaria – which will be to put slightly more people at risk in 100 years – instead of tackling the half a billion people suffering from malaria today with prevention and treatment policies that are much cheaper and dramatically more effective than carbon reduction would be.

Exaggeration also wears out the public's willingness to tackle global warming. If the planet is doomed, people wonder, why do anything? A record 54% of American voters now believe the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is. A majority of people now believe – incorrectly – that global warming is not even caused by humans. In the United Kingdom, 40% believe that global warming is exaggerated and 60% doubt that it is man-made.

But the worst cost of exaggeration, I believe, is the unnecessary alarm that it causes – particularly among children. Recently, I discussed climate change with a group of Danish teenagers. One of them worried that global warming would cause the planet to "explode" – and all the others had similar fears.

In the US, the ABC television network recently reported that psychologists are starting to see more neuroses in people anxious about climate change. An article in the Washington Post cited nine-year-old Alyssa, who cries about the possibility of mass animal extinctions from global warming. In her words: "I don't like global warming because it kills animals, and I like animals." From a child who is yet to lose all her baby teeth: "I worry about [global warming] because I don't want to die."

The newspaper also reported that parents are searching for "productive" outlets for their eight-year-olds' obsessions with dying polar bears. They might be better off educating them and letting them know that, contrary to common belief, the global polar bear population has doubled and perhaps even quadrupled over the past half-century, to about 22,000. Despite diminishing – and eventually disappearing – summer Arctic ice, polar bears will not become extinct. After all, in the first part of the current interglacial period, glaciers were almost entirely absent in the northern hemisphere, and the Arctic was probably ice-free for 1,000 years, yet polar bears are still with us.

Another nine-year old showed the Washington Post his drawing of a global warming timeline. "That's the Earth now," Alex says, pointing to a dark shape at the bottom. "And then it's just starting to fade away." Looking up to make sure his mother is following along, he taps the end of the drawing: "In 20 years, there's no oxygen." Then, to dramatise the point, he collapses, "dead", to the floor.

And these are not just two freak stories. In a new survey of 500 American pre-teens, it was found that one in three children, aged between six and 11, feared that the earth would not exist when they reach adulthood because of global warming and other environmental threats. An unbelievable one-third of our children believe that they don't have a future because of scary global warming stories.

We see the same pattern in the United Kingdom, where a survey showed that half of young children aged between seven and 11 are anxious about the effects of global warming, often losing sleep because of their concern. This is grotesquely harmful.

And let us be honest. This scare was intended. Children believe that global warming will destroy the planet before they grow up because adults are telling them that .

When every prediction about global warming is scarier than the last one, and the scariest predictions – often not backed up by peer-reviewed science – get the most airtime, it is little wonder that children are worried.

Nowhere is this deliberate fear mongering more obvious than in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth , a film that was marketed as "by far the most terrifying film you will ever see".

Take a look at the trailer for this movie on YouTube. Notice the imagery of chilling, larger-than-life forces evaporating our future. The commentary tells us that this film has "shocked audiences everywhere", and that "nothing is scarier" than what Gore is about to tell us. Notice how the trailer even includes a nuclear explosion.

The current debate about global warming is clearly harmful. I believe that it is time we demanded that the media stop scaring us and our kids silly. We deserve a more reasoned, more constructive, and less frightening dialogue.

Link

[one...two...tree 2,762]

now dont provoke him steven..

I will solve global warming, by posting 80's rock videos...

Journey and Boston have the answer

dont stop believin!

Careful pedroh....Charles doesn't want us to brow-beat Marc for trolling the boards.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

now dont provoke him steven..

I will solve global warming, by posting 80's rock videos...

Journey and Boston have the answer

dont stop believin!

When the waters rise up to mullet level - even the 80's rockers will take note

[pedroh 21]

run to the hills and have HOPE son!! don't stop believing, and keep wearing ur sunglasses at night!! it doesn't let u see here comes the sun!! it's a bad moon rising! and only the reps can see that!! now go back cryin to proud mary, and she'll teach u to walk the line! son son

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

run to the hills and have HOPE son!! don't stop believing, and keep wearing ur sunglasses at night!! it doesn't let u see here comes the sun!! it's a bad moon rising! and only the reps can see that!! now go back cryin to proud mary, and she'll teach u to walk the line! son son

Its like the last 10 minutes of The Wrestler!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

run to the hills and have HOPE son!! don't stop believing, and keep wearing ur sunglasses at night!! it doesn't let u see here comes the sun!! it's a bad moon rising! and only the reps can see that!! now go back cryin to proud mary, and she'll teach u to walk the line! son son

lol

[pedroh 21]

im sure u can recognize the artists lol

[GaryC 7]

The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.

Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.

snip......

Link

MC, could it be that your not buying into the GW nonsense? This and your other post points out some of the things I have issues with in regard to the GW debate. First of all, ever notice how these GW scare stories always say will, may, someday ect...? They have been making predictions about this for decades now and so far none of them have come to pass. Since the 40's the earths temp has only risen by 0.3 C when all the models say it should be more like 1C each decade. The predictions say we should be seeing a rise in the oceans levels by now. Florida is still there though. My point is that none of the dire predictions have started to come true. Its all still in the future they say. And when the "future" they predict comes and nothing has happened they just push it further back and make it sound even scarier. I am sorry guys, I just don't buy it. I post a story that cites facts that refute the theory and they are dismissed and a flat earther nut case. All I see from your side is dire predictions without any facts to back them up. How long will it take before you admitt that nothing is happening?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

im sure u can recognize the artists lol

I'm a little lost on son....maybe Kenny Rogers' Coward of the County?

[pedroh 21]

im sure u can recognize the artists lol

I'm a little lost on son....maybe Kenny Rogers' Coward of the County?

oh cmon the songs are not that hard

[nowhereman 1]

The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.

Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.

snip......

Link

MC, could it be that your not buying into the GW nonsense? This and your other post points out some of the things I have issues with in regard to the GW debate. First of all, ever notice how these GW scare stories always say will, may, someday ect...? They have been making predictions about this for decades now and so far none of them have come to pass. Since the 40's the earths temp has only risen by 0.3 C when all the models say it should be more like 1C each decade. The predictions say we should be seeing a rise in the oceans levels by now. Florida is still there though. My point is that none of the dire predictions have started to come true. Its all still in the future they say. And when the "future" they predict comes and nothing has happened they just push it further back and make it sound even scarier. I am sorry guys, I just don't buy it. I post a story that cites facts that refute the theory and they are dismissed and a flat earther nut case. All I see from your side is dire predictions without any facts to back them up. How long will it take before you admitt that nothing is happening?

Gary global warming may very well be blown out of proportion, but don't you think that its sensible to take care of our environment?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

... in regard to the GW debate.

Gary, that's where you are dead wrong. If you had 10,000 neurosurgeons all telling you that you have a brain tumor, you have a brain tumor...no matter how many quack doctors you find that say otherwise. Not only that...you'd have to believe that all those neurosurgeons are in cahoots with one another in trying to bilk you out of insurance money for unnecessary surgery. Your position teeters on lunacy.

[GaryC 7]

The continuous presentation of scary stories about global warming in the popular media makes us unnecessarily frightened. Even worse, it terrifies our kids.

Al Gore famously depicted how a sea-level rise of 20ft (six metres) would almost completely flood Florida, New York, Holland, Bangladesh, and Shanghai, even though the United Nations says that such a thing will not even happen, estimating that sea levels will rise 20 times less than that.

snip......

Link

MC, could it be that your not buying into the GW nonsense? This and your other post points out some of the things I have issues with in regard to the GW debate. First of all, ever notice how these GW scare stories always say will, may, someday ect...? They have been making predictions about this for decades now and so far none of them have come to pass. Since the 40's the earths temp has only risen by 0.3 C when all the models say it should be more like 1C each decade. The predictions say we should be seeing a rise in the oceans levels by now. Florida is still there though. My point is that none of the dire predictions have started to come true. Its all still in the future they say. And when the "future" they predict comes and nothing has happened they just push it further back and make it sound even scarier. I am sorry guys, I just don't buy it. I post a story that cites facts that refute the theory and they are dismissed and a flat earther nut case. All I see from your side is dire predictions without any facts to back them up. How long will it take before you admitt that nothing is happening?

Gary global warming may very well be blown out of proportion, but don't you think that its sensible to take care of our environment?

Absolutely!!!! Real pollution like heavy metals, SO2, pestisides ect. are messing up the planet. We should do everything to reduce or elimanate that. It's just that CO2 isn't a pollutant, it's a by-product of life and isn't causing the "end of the earth" like some predict.

... in regard to the GW debate.

Gary, that's where you are dead wrong. If you had 10,000 neurosurgeons all telling you that you have a brain tumor, you have a brain tumor...no matter how many quack doctors you find that say otherwise. Not only that...you'd have to believe that all those neurosurgeons are in cahoots with one another in trying to bilk you out of insurance money for unnecessary surgery. Your position teeters on lunacy.

You are working on a false premise. There is no consensus ( or 10000 surgeons ) It's more like a 50 - 50 split. That has been shown to you many times but you still cling to the idea that every reputable scientist agrees. It just isn't true.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well it is if the natural balance between oxygen producers and CO2 producers gets disrupted.

75% or so of our atmosphere's oxygen comes from sea algae (at least that's what Mr Attenborough said ). Ocean acidification is a real concern and ties directly to human activities.