RE: Typical Topic Tapdancing
As usual, Steve, you've done a good job of dancing around a subject you don't want to discuss but you'd like to diminish.
Nice try, but that's horse manure (I'd add as usual, but no ad hominem from me today).
Instead of zooming over to 'www.junkscience.com' for some ad hominem 'ammo,'...
First, I'm not sure why you are belittling JunkScience.com, since it's aim is to debunk using factual, scientific information, a goal it manages to accomplish well. Because the site skewers one or more of your pet causes with scientific data and rational investigation doesn't mean its use as a resource is invalid. Second, how is that ad hominem? Offering germane past performance of an author in order to support skepticism of his argument is a perfectly valid line of reasoning and doesn't even remotely constitute a personal attack on anyone.
...maybe you'd like to address whether there is a valid link between increases in ocean temperature and the increasing amount of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes?
That's just the point I was making. Of course there is a valid link between ocean temperature and increased intensity of hurricanes. That is accepted everywhere, even at JunkScience.com. What has not been demonstrated is that there is any link between the current gulf ocean temperatures and the global warming theory, and Bazell offers nothing in his article (as I pointed out in my original post) that supports such a link. Bazell says that "recent studies" suggest a trend of ocean warming, but he hasn't offered any references for these studies. He then provides a quote from a climatologist from Stanford without bona fides. Slice it any way you like, but that is a media huckster hyping junk science.
Maybe we should just leave those discussions up to professionals, such as Dr. David Adamec - who has worked as a physical oceanographer for NASA since 1988...
This is exactly what I was talking about in my first post. Dr. Adamec said nothing about global warming nor did he offer any suggestions for why the Gulf of Mexico is warmer right now, other than the fact that the Sun is shining on the water. All he said was that warmer water makes stronger hurricanes. That is stipulated by everyone. In fact, the second half of Dr. Adamec's quote actually has some inflection indicating that he is not comfortable with assigning any macro cause to the phenomenon. Bazell carefully placed Dr. Adamec's quote in such a way that it appeared to say more than it did and your very fertile imagination did the rest.
I don't believe I'm the one tapdancing here. The facts are pretty simple: no one knows whether or not we are in a macro-trend of global warming. Even if we are in such a trend, no one knows what is the cause or what the eventual effect will be. No one knows that even if the most dire of the global warming theories are true, whether we can even do anything about it. There are plenty of theories on each side. There are plenty of junk scientists getting their 15 minutes, promoted by "journalists" like Bazell. And there are plenty of liberals who need yet another cause to shout about and with which to bludgeon the rest of us. For myself, rather than running around screaming about something that may not even exist, I'd rather wait for some rational data. I certainly don't need Bazell to "help" me with that.
Nice try, but that's horse manure (I'd add as usual, but no ad hominem from me today).
Instead of zooming over to 'www.junkscience.com' for some ad hominem 'ammo,'...
First, I'm not sure why you are belittling JunkScience.com, since it's aim is to debunk using factual, scientific information, a goal it manages to accomplish well. Because the site skewers one or more of your pet causes with scientific data and rational investigation doesn't mean its use as a resource is invalid. Second, how is that ad hominem? Offering germane past performance of an author in order to support skepticism of his argument is a perfectly valid line of reasoning and doesn't even remotely constitute a personal attack on anyone.
...maybe you'd like to address whether there is a valid link between increases in ocean temperature and the increasing amount of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes?
That's just the point I was making. Of course there is a valid link between ocean temperature and increased intensity of hurricanes. That is accepted everywhere, even at JunkScience.com. What has not been demonstrated is that there is any link between the current gulf ocean temperatures and the global warming theory, and Bazell offers nothing in his article (as I pointed out in my original post) that supports such a link. Bazell says that "recent studies" suggest a trend of ocean warming, but he hasn't offered any references for these studies. He then provides a quote from a climatologist from Stanford without bona fides. Slice it any way you like, but that is a media huckster hyping junk science.
Maybe we should just leave those discussions up to professionals, such as Dr. David Adamec - who has worked as a physical oceanographer for NASA since 1988...
This is exactly what I was talking about in my first post. Dr. Adamec said nothing about global warming nor did he offer any suggestions for why the Gulf of Mexico is warmer right now, other than the fact that the Sun is shining on the water. All he said was that warmer water makes stronger hurricanes. That is stipulated by everyone. In fact, the second half of Dr. Adamec's quote actually has some inflection indicating that he is not comfortable with assigning any macro cause to the phenomenon. Bazell carefully placed Dr. Adamec's quote in such a way that it appeared to say more than it did and your very fertile imagination did the rest.
I don't believe I'm the one tapdancing here. The facts are pretty simple: no one knows whether or not we are in a macro-trend of global warming. Even if we are in such a trend, no one knows what is the cause or what the eventual effect will be. No one knows that even if the most dire of the global warming theories are true, whether we can even do anything about it. There are plenty of theories on each side. There are plenty of junk scientists getting their 15 minutes, promoted by "journalists" like Bazell. And there are plenty of liberals who need yet another cause to shout about and with which to bludgeon the rest of us. For myself, rather than running around screaming about something that may not even exist, I'd rather wait for some rational data. I certainly don't need Bazell to "help" me with that.
posted by Anonymous | 11:51 AM
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