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Originally Posted by IROC
Here in TN it was the warmest year in my memory. It was brutal here in the summer (the warmest summer on record for TN, IIRC).
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Thank you for sharing. (Seriously.) I think this is relevant evidence that should be considered.
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I think people deny climate change due to a phenomena whereby if they personally don't understand it, then it obviously isn't occurring. It's just like people who deny the theory of evolution. I realize that it is a natural human reaction to deny things that they do not understand (or that are difficult to understand), but just because one person (or a group of people) doesn't understand something, that doesn't mean that no one understands it.
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I don't intend this as a criticism, but it is not rational to completely blow off years of research by thousands of scientists as "an inaccurate process and/or fraud". That simply exposes your lack of understanding.
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I think there's a big difference between not understanding and questioning. It would be a lot easier to just go along with it, and I think that's what most people do. They don't understand it, so when somebody claims some type of intelligence or expertise they say "okay, you must know better than me, I'll just accept what you say at face value".
But, as mentioned in posts above, I'm not convinced that their extrapolation from a small period of evidence is valid, or even if it is valid, I'm not sure it's relevant. So 1) I don't trust the evidence because I think those behind it have an agenda, and 2) even if the evidence is accurate how does that make the current time and different from previous long-term climate fluctuations? I don't buy into the "I'm really smart and you just don't understand" argument. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I'm not an idiot either. Learning Calculus and Differential Equations doesn't mean I'm smart, but I'd like to think I can understand the math behind averaging a bunch of temperatures. But the math is easy. What I really question is the methodology. Receeding polar ice caps to me is easily measurable and quantifiable, but this idea of a global temperature to me has way too many variables going into it for it to be the basis of an entire belief.