This week I discovered that apparently I am retarded and if that wasn't enough I also have severe mental problems. This according to someone whom I have never even met; who doesn't know I exist, but along with thousands of others I was still fair game for his armchair judgement. Who was this person? He is a blogger with a following of several hundred on Twitter who doesn't "believe" in man-made global warming (AGW). I won't link to his blog because I prefer not to drive traffic to a blogger who speaks purely from a personal bias that directly contradicts tested scientific evidence on the subject he wrote about - in this case the current cold winters being proof that global warming is a hoax (see link at bottom of post for scientific explanation of negative Arctic oscilliation and the weakened polar vortex). In comparison to other bloggers on the subject, he was relatively tame with his rant. Some are virulent in their hate speak. Some have the hallmarks of extremism. To these "believers" of anti climate change if you subscribe to the possibility of AGW then you are automatically judged in the most derogatory terms. Those of us who want to ask reasonable questions and look to the scientific community for answers are relegated to the realms of the simple; the unthinking; the gullible and the outright stupid. That's a lot of insults from people I haven't even had a chance to express my views to.
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Irresponsible Reporting. The Damage. The Consequences.
"The thing about science is first of all it's after the way the universe really is and not what makes us feel good. And a lot of the competing doctrines are after what feels good and not what's known."
Carl Sagan
Today in Japan, there is a volcano experiencing one of its biggest explosions since it became active again after 52 years. Today there is an evacuation of the low lying parts of North Queensland and its off shore islands in advance of Cyclone Yasi, a category 4 cyclone that is due to hit what has already been designated as a disaster area tomorrow or the next day. Today the US National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Chicago. Yesterday 2 people died and 29,000 were evacuated because of floods in Johor, Malaysia. The media has not been short of fodder for articles concerning the heatwaves, floods, droughts and heavy snowfalls that have recently plagued mankind. So many things are happening all at once that it's likely not practical for all of it to be widely reported. This means only a percentage of what is happening in the world due Climate Change is being made common knowledge. There are things happening we will never know about. But even if those of us trawling the Internet for information don't know about it, the scientists do, and later on we'll realise why that's more important than most people realise. But first let's talk about responsible reporting.
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