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• Monday, June 30, 2008 01:39 PM

  A Simple Query

  I admit to not being persuaded by all the brainpower arrayed on the side of human-induced Global Warming that says real, unimaginable peril is in our collective futures.

  However, I remain open to being convinced that such dire warnings have merit so long as the discourse is rational and devoid of name-calling vis a vis "stupid" "Ignorant" etc.

  I have a simple question. The last Ice Age (one of many) presumably started about 15,000 years ago because of some sort of Global Cooling event that occurred. It ended about 10,000 years ago presumably because of some Global Warming event that occurred. Now, I don't think Fred Flintstone powered his stone car by burning dead dinosaurs, so the last Global Warming event can be assumed to have had natural causes.

  If this is true, then at least one Global Warming event occurred without human intervention, and given that there is a warming event going on now, what is unique about this event that makes it possible to conclude it is caused exclusively by human activity?

  That is, unless it can be shown (by scientific comparison to a similar event) that this event is somehow uniquely different from past events, the conclusion that it is human induced is not logical.

  Now, given that there has been no similar event in the past (that is human activity involved in global warming) there is no basis for comparison, and thus the conclusion that this event is human caused is illogical.

  So, if you want to convince me that global warming is real and is caused by burning dinosaurs, you'll have to find another argument. But keep trying, my mind remains open.

  —thedailyllama Read thedailyllama's other letters
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