by James Boyd

Created on: June 29, 2010

Why do so many people believe in catastrophic global warming? Mainly because the evidence is overwhelming that it is actually happening. What is more remarkable is the number of people who refer to “believing” in global warming. It is like “believing” in gravity. This is not a question for belief or faith. Scientific endeavors generally do not work that way. If you get into the deeper levels of advanced physics, then you will find some physicists who believe one version to be a more accurate portrayal than another. When you talk about quantum mechanics, string theory, dark energy, and similar esoteric subjects, the math is very difficult and there is a great deal of uncertainty. But in that case you are talking about an idea with a lot of ambiguous evidence, and physicists like to go back and forth with, “Well, it could be this way” and “No, that doesn’t work because the math blows up in these circumstances, so it must be this other way.”

Global warming is not a controversial subject among scientists. The details of the process are very much under discussion. Climate is an exceedingly complex subject, with many variables. There are almost certainly several variables that have not even been considered yet, simply it has not occurred to anyone in the scientific that those variables might be significant. But the question as to whether the planet is getting warmer or not has been definitively settled.

Recent data from NASA shows the past year was the warmest since at least the 1880s. This past April was the hottest on record. Glaciers are retreating all over the world. Yes, there are a few (very few) that are actually growing, but they are exceptions that in no way disprove the overall pattern of glacial retreat.

The Arctic ice is dwindling. Some are concerned about this as a loss of habitat for polar bears. Some view it as an opportunity because it opens up previously impassable areas for shipping. Some view it as opportunity to explore for and retrieve minerals. But nobody disagrees that the Arctic ice pack is greatly diminished.

Sea level is beginning to encroach on many low-lying islands. Some of those islands may disappear under the water in the next several years.

The evidence is overwhelming that our planet is getting warmer. It is not a matter for “belief” any more than the idea that rivers flow toward the sea, rather than the other way around. Global warming is a natural process, in that it occurs in nature rather than in a laboratory. The causes and effects are still very much under discussion. What, if anything, we could do to slow or stop the process is also wide open for debate. But whether or not it is happening has nothing to do with belief. Everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion, but facts are facts.

The glitches in data and the (supposedly private!) discussions among scientists about  what should be presented and how are red herrings. They have been used to support an unviable proposition that an error somewhere in the data or the point of view of some particular investigator somehow negates the entire body of work. It is similar to the arguments by some people (many of them the same people who deny global warming—there seems to be a pattern among certain folks that they claim reality is whatever they say it is, no matter what the evidence shows) that evolution is a false theory because there are gaps in the fossil record.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck—it is a duck, regardless of your deeply-held conviction that it is a horse.

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