by Peter Payne

Created on: November 21, 2011

The Liberal View of Global Warming

Global warming is based upon arguments that those not trained in science cannot easily understand so to be uncertain as to whether it is caused by man or a consequence of natural causes is honest and understandable. However, the intelligent way to behave when one does not understand something is to defer their opinion to what the experts have to say. Since few people admit to honest uncertainty, they are vehemently convinced that one or the other is true based upon their political and economic inclinations. Overwhelmingly, the right-wingers either (1) deny outright that global warming is occurring, or (2) admit that it is occurring but insist it is the consequence of natural variation rather than caused by man, or, (3) admit, very rarely, it is caused by man but it is not serious enough to worry about. 

Corporations that emit carbon dioxide, and do not want their profits impinged upon, have this obvious reason for their bias. Liberals, as a general rule, have no profit-induced motive for believing that global warming is caused by human activity; they are merely worried about the consequences. Commonly, the right-wingers accuse pro-global-warming scientists of faking their evidence so they can get more grant money, whereas anti-global-warming scientists, who work for carbon dioxide-emitting corporations and almost certainly get paid more that their counterparts, are known to be honest. Although it can be difficult to determine if one side of a liberal-conservative political argument is actually correct, global warming is not, or at least has no business being, a political argument. 

We can dismiss the first claim, unreservedly and unapologetically, as simply stupid. Satellite photos of the North Pole show that it has shrunk considerably over the past two decades, the Northwest passage is now passable for the first time in centuries, and glaciers that have existed for centuries have melted. Though it is hard to imagine how somebody might be honestly ignorant of these facts, but if so, (s)he has no business expressing an opinion about global warming.

As to the second, liberals claim that only 3% of scientists believe that global warming is natural, while “conservatives”* claim that it is 7% and rapidly growing.  Either way, the vast majority of scientists are convinced that global warming is caused by man, and the “conservatives” choose to believe

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