Those who are skeptical about the 'potentially catastrophic effects' of human CO2 emissions, are often ill-informed amateurs pretending to be better informed than climate scientists who have spent their adult lives studying and analyzing the mechanisms and effects of climate change. In order to distract from their lack of knowledge, they will sometimes engage in transparently phony attacks on climate scientists.
How often? Please provide a reference to the studies which show that such skeptics are often ill-informed amateurs pretending to be better informed than climate scientists. Skepticism is a fundamental requirement for the progression of our scientific understanding. It should not be dismissed. There are many well-qualified scientists who are skeptical about the exaggerated alarm about Anthropogenic
Climate Change.
Everything that I know about the history of climate on our planet, comes from scientists, such as Geologists and Paleoclimatologists. I don't make things up, or pretend to be better informed than them. I read their peer-reviewed studies, or at least the Abstracts and Summaries, search for other studies that confirm their results, and make an interpretation based upon logic and rationality.
When the alarm that our CO2 emissions would cause rising temperatures which could result in catastrophic consequences, first appeared in the media, and was supported in the media by interviews of certain 'famous' scientists, I accepted that claim as true, and wondered why governments were not taking more rigorous action. This would have been in the 1980's when I knew very little about past climate changes.
I can sympathise with many of the young people today who are very worried and concerned about their future because of the lack of government action on climate change, and this, unfortunately, has psychological consequences for them.
Such young folks probably spend most of their time chatting on the iPhone, playing video games, watching sporting events, and reading all the bad news about global warming and extreme weather events on the daily news.
With little understanding of history, and no confidence to investigate 'climate change' issues for themselves, by searching for scientific information on the internet rather than personal opinions on blogs, it's not surprising that many of them are seriously alarmed and depressed about their future.
One of the turning points for me was in 2011 when Queensland, Australia, was inundated by massive floods which caused billions of dollars worth of damage. It was reported in the media as the worst flood on record and a confirmation of the results of 'human caused' climate change. I was personally caught in the floods and had to travel by canoe to get home to my house.
After the flood event had settled, I decided to investigate on the internet if that flood really was the worst on record. The Bureau of Meteorology is a fairly reliable organization, wouldn't you think? Their records showed that the 2011 flood was the
7th worst on record. The worst flood on record occurred in 1893, over a hundred years ago when CO2 levels were much lower.
Attached is a photograph taken in 1893, of people canoeing in the centre of Brisbane. There still exists a monument in the city centre showing the flood height in 1893. Attached is also a BOM graph showing previous flood heights in Brisbane.
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/fld_history/brisbane_history.shtmlThis is just one example of the misinformation propogated by the mass media, regarding climate change. I've discovered many more.
