Global Warming Poll

[gotmuddy]

no

[ness]

Hard to know. It's such a contentious issue that everybody seems to scurry over to their favorite political/ideological side and hide behind a wall of hyperbole.

No doubt 9 billion people burning stuff makes it a little warmer.

[eric1978]

Let me just point out that, given the demographic of this forum, it won't be any surprise when the "no's" win in a landslide. Pose the same question on a forum for people with solar panels on their houses, or Prius owners, and you'll get wildly different results.

[Outside Bend]

Every action has consequences.

[stlfisher]

I voted yes.

[ness]

Let me just point out that, given the demographic of this forum, it won't be any surprise when the "no's" win in a landslide. Pose the same question on a forum for people with solar panels on their houses, or Prius owners, and you'll get wildly different results.

Yep those kind of forums would definitely slant it, but I've got a little more faith in the OA community. We're outdoorsy folks by definition, with a better-than-average understanding of the world around us, I'd guess. Polls always have issues. This one, for example, would likely lean more heavily toward the "yes" side if the word "MAJOR" wasn't in there. That implies we know the extent of our impact, when most of us simply don't.

The problem for most of us (I know me personally, for sure) is most everything we hear on this topic has been so heavily filtered through someone with an agenda, that none of it passes the smell test in the end. Personally, I don't really care to hear what Al Gore or Rush Limbaugh have to say on the topic. I just don't consider them authorities on the matter.

Somebody show me a distilled version of some real-live science dudes who've looked at this pretty hard and have made a determination that doesn't make me wanna say 'Oh, bull****!' and I'll happily read it. But, I'm withholding my vote for now.

[eric1978]

Personally, I don't really care to hear what Al Gore or Rush Limbaugh have to say on the topic.

I agree with that to an extent, except one of those guys got his information from the scientific community, and the other guy got his inforomation from his you-know-where.

I'll leave the following trainwreck for the rest of you to have fun with.

[podum]

ness, Dr. John Everett's site is the best I've seen at pulling together the data with an effort to avoid bias. There are good links to the component studies from which the data is drawn. It won't give you a complete resource, but is as good a summary as I've found.

http://www.climatechangefacts.info/

[Danoinark]

I tend to look it as more climate change than what has become known as global warning.

[ness]

Dano -- I tend to lean that way too. We really need to look long-term, but that's not a popular stance on this thing -- or anything these days. Temperatures have been rising for thousands of years. How much is 'natural' and how much is man-made? How much can we change, and how much is beyond our power? How much is a threat, and how much is just the way it's gotta be?

Podum -- thanks, I'll take a look. There's a 'truth' here somewhere that shouldn't tick anybody off. At least anybody with an open mind (who are the ones whose opinions matter most to me).