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I regularly have discussion about climate change with my dad. He doesn't deny that human interference does influence weather and climate, but he says there isn

I regularly have discussion about climate change with my dad. He doesn't deny that human interference does influence weather and climate, but he says there isn't enough evidence that this is the only reason why the climate is changing. The Greenhouse effect once was something natural and positive - we couldn't live on a planet without the Greenhouse effect. But now the meaning changed and it includes that human race is guilty, because of air pollution. He doesn't deny an effect, but he says other possible explanations like water vapor (which apparently is one of the biggest impacts for the Greenhouse effect) aren't regarded that much in the discussion. He says, the ice around the Antarctic even grows, but almost nobody talks about that. And volcanic activity north of Greenland might also boost the temperature there.

draw_down 9y ago
Ok. Who is your dad?
WhitneyLand 9y ago
I’ve upvoted your comment. It’s flawed logic, but I see it as highly counterproductive to downvote people who seem to be reasoning about a problem or discussing their perceptions in good faith. So many revered scientists have made comments that today would sound jackass silly. I doubt anyone here doesn’t have such comments under their belt. Thinking or asking alone can never be wrong. As long as it’s well intentioned and open to the possibility of accepting counter arguments.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  I upvoted your comment because we need more people like you who are able to disagree without turning the other person into a villain or idiot just because they disagree. Personally, I have become more skeptical of not climate change or even whether humans have an effect but of whether it's catastrophic and I have shifted my thinking quite a lot to accept that humans will not only have an effect on earths climate, we will conquer it and control it. That and not stopping the world, is the moral thing to do.
  - WhitneyLand 9y ago
    Thanks Thomas. Sometime let’s have a beer and drink to intellectual curiosity over ego.
bigbugbag 9y ago
Your dad would benefit from a crash course in critical thinking. Climate is changing humans or not is one thing, but that current climate change is a consequence of human activity is another which as factual as the first. We even named the mass extinction accompanying the anthropocene mass extinction event to point out that it's man made.[1] The greenhouse effect is still the greenhouse effect and its meaning has not changed a bit. But the anthropogenic greenhouse effect (additional greenhouse effect caused by human activity) came on top of the natural one and push the system towards a tipping point where the current climatic system loses its balance and evolves into a different system. For example a positive feedback loop in greenhouse effect, called a runaway greenhouse effect, could make the oceans boil away. It does not take much effort to find out that water vapor is actually taken into account in the discussion as water vapor strengthen other greenhouse gases such as CO2 through forementioned positive feedback[2]. warmer world means more water vapor in the athmosphere whichs means more potent greenhouse gases which means warmer world, etc. I don't know where your dad got the idea that nobody talks about the growing ice in Antarctica, it's been discussed and studied and we know that ice melting in the arctic far exceeds the ice growing in the antarctic so global sea ice is rapidly diminishing[3][4] Volcanic activity release of CO2 is about 1% that of human activity[5] so it's a non starter, but then interesting detail is that this is also a positive feedback loop as climate change is likely to increase volcanic activity[6]. [1]: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/4605229 https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/46052... signed by 15,000+ scientist from over 184 countries. [2]: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.energy.25.1.441 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.energ... [3]: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-new-record-maximum https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reach... [4]: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-study-shows-global-sea-ice-diminishing-despite-antarctic-gains https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-study-shows-global... [5]: https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warming-intermediate.htm https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warmin... [6]: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/22/572795936/climate-change-likely-to-increase-volcanic-eruptions-scientists-say https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/22/572795936... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/30/climate-change-lifting-iceland-volcanic-eruptions https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/30/climate-...

draw_down 9y ago

Ok. Who is your dad?

WhitneyLand 9y ago

I’ve upvoted your comment. It’s flawed logic, but I see it as highly counterproductive to downvote people who seem to be reasoning about a problem or discussing their perceptions in good faith. So many revered scientists have made comments that today would sound jackass silly. I doubt anyone here doesn’t have such comments under their belt. Thinking or asking alone can never be wrong. As long as it’s well intentioned and open to the possibility of accepting counter arguments.

ThomPete 9y ago
I upvoted your comment because we need more people like you who are able to disagree without turning the other person into a villain or idiot just because they disagree. Personally, I have become more skeptical of not climate change or even whether humans have an effect but of whether it's catastrophic and I have shifted my thinking quite a lot to accept that humans will not only have an effect on earths climate, we will conquer it and control it. That and not stopping the world, is the moral thing to do.
- WhitneyLand 9y ago
  Thanks Thomas. Sometime let’s have a beer and drink to intellectual curiosity over ego.

bigbugbag 9y ago

Your dad would benefit from a crash course in critical thinking. Climate is changing humans or not is one thing, but that current climate change is a consequence of human activity is another which as factual as the first. We even named the mass extinction accompanying the anthropocene mass extinction event to point out that it's man made.[1] The greenhouse effect is still the greenhouse effect and its meaning has not changed a bit. But the anthropogenic greenhouse effect (additional greenhouse effect caused by human activity) came on top of the natural one and push the system towards a tipping point where the current climatic system loses its balance and evolves into a different system. For example a positive feedback loop in greenhouse effect, called a runaway greenhouse effect, could make the oceans boil away. It does not take much effort to find out that water vapor is actually taken into account in the discussion as water vapor strengthen other greenhouse gases such as CO2 through forementioned positive feedback[2]. warmer world means more water vapor in the athmosphere whichs means more potent greenhouse gases which means warmer world, etc. I don't know where your dad got the idea that nobody talks about the growing ice in Antarctica, it's been discussed and studied and we know that ice melting in the arctic far exceeds the ice growing in the antarctic so global sea ice is rapidly diminishing[3][4] Volcanic activity release of CO2 is about 1% that of human activity[5] so it's a non starter, but then interesting detail is that this is also a positive feedback loop as climate change is likely to increase volcanic activity[6]. [1]: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/4605229 https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/46052... signed by 15,000+ scientist from over 184 countries. [2]: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.energy.25.1.441 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.energ... [3]: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-new-record-maximum https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reach... [4]: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-study-shows-global-sea-ice-diminishing-despite-antarctic-gains https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-study-shows-global... [5]: https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warming-intermediate.htm https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warmin... [6]: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/22/572795936/climate-change-likely-to-increase-volcanic-eruptions-scientists-say https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/22/572795936... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/30/climate-change-lifting-iceland-volcanic-eruptions https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/30/climate-...