ask any kid on the street what it is that makes the weather warmer, and he will answer "the sun". ask an adult and they will probably say something along the lines of "global warming, caused by the greenhouse gases produced by humans". what is the truth?
I just saw a documentary that really made me rethink things, especially after seeing al gore's
an inconvenient truth the day before yesterday (
here).
the great global warming swindle is a british documentary which produces the other side of the global warming story. with interviews of quite many scientists from renowned universities and graphs, they present their case. and it is interesting, to say the least.
the first issue that they deal with is the question if global warming is happening. next, what is the reason for it? third, why are we being told what we are?
in the 1970s, there were claims that we were on our way to a global cooling period and an imminent ice age. now we are being told the opposite. what is happening?
the answer they provide is that these are cyclical occurances in the normal climatic processes of the earth. there have been periods of much warmer climate (the medieval warm period, between 800-1300), which were generally considered times of great prosperity in europe. what is happening is normal and natural, and quite expected to happen.
needless to say, there is a lot of controversy in this issue as to what the truth is in regards to global warming. this documentary essentially disregards all human influence on climate, claiming that it's mostly solar activity and its influences on cloud forming that is responsible for the changes in temperature. carbon dioxide and temperature is only loosely related, and only in the opposite way than what has been stated - higher temperature causes more carbon dioxide to remain in the atmosphere, and sometimes with an extreme delay of a couple of hundred years.
and why? enter a few conspiracy theories... to start with, there is a lot of money in this industry, for the scientists, journalists and activists that have careers and professions that depend upon this. if scientists are writing a paper and relate it to global warming, there is a much greater chance for them of receiving funding for their research.
there are claims that much of the whole environmentalist agenda is essentially political and against capitalism, globalization, the US, etc etc. there are also theories that margaret thatcher used global warming to promote nuclear power.
and finally, what I found most disturbing, that the global warming campaign is used as a tool to restrict the developing countries from being able to develop. since non-fossil fuels (solar/wind power, etc) are so expensive and inefficient, a "luxurious experimentation", these countries have no chance of reaching up to the standards of the modern, developed countries. this is described as "the most morally repugnant aspect of the Global Warming campaign."
there is naturally loads of controversy in regards to this documentary. how much of it is true and truly scientific, and what is fabricated? read
this for a good start, but I think everyone should see the movie and form their opinion...
(and the topic is of course from queen's song scandal.)
