Did anyone watch PBS Frontline's Climate of Doubt?

[IanC]

It certainly could have been worse.

when I watched it there was one part that I wondered about. they were sort of dismissing the Oregon Petition as made up of no-names with bachelor's degrees. they actually put up one of the signatories but blurred the name. someone on the sceptical side actually looked it up and guess what they found?


it was Edward Teller!!!!!

the father of the atomic bomb with more awards than you can shake a stick at! why on earth would PBS be so lazy that they couldnt find some signatory that wouldnt end up being so embarrassing?

 

[IanC]

There is some legitimate uncertainty, of course, but that is whether the climate will warm four or eight degrees over the coming century.

this is a quote from Andrew Dessler. hahahahaha. what world does he live on? do you think he was talking about degrees farenheit or celsius? he should go back to ignoring actual temperature measurements in favour of using wind shear as a proxy. these guys think they can get away with saying anything. hmmmm....actually they may be right. without an active investigative journalism they can get away with saying anything. so they have.

 

[flacaltenn]

How much scotch would I need to get thru this show WITHOUT damaging the household effects??

Is it a couple shots or most of the bottle.. ?

 

[IanC]

How much scotch would I need to get thru this show WITHOUT damaging the household effects??

Is it a couple shots or most of the bottle.. ?

compared to other shows of its kind it wasnt terrible. the usual tobacco, big oil nonsense but it kinda showed sceptics as real people rather than monsters. an inquiring mind would have picked up on some discrepencies.

 

[Wroberson]

Yes I did. I have doubts that mankind is responsible for climate change. All the pollution we put into the atmosphere is offset by volcanic eruptions. The gases we produce is less than historic amounts. The amount of methane escaping from the sea floor is way more than the pollution we produce. As for offset by volcanoes, these things are said to cause little ice ages. Remember the Iceland Volcano followed by massive snowfall in Europe? If we as a people has that ability, the ability to put so much pollution in the air over 6 days, to cause that, we would be done.

 

[skookerasbil]

the whole "man-made" narrative has been marginalized here in 2012. In fact, since 2007, the whole concept of "global warming" is met by the public with a great yawn. The doomsdayers with the bomb throwing went off the reservation too many times with the dopey predictions that fell flat on their faces.

 

[daveman]

Heartland critiqued the show here:

Critique of PBS Frontline’s ‘Climate of Doubt’ Program

It wasn't journalism. It was cheerleading for the AGW cult.

 

[waltky]

Granny says between CO2 an' air pollution we ain't got a prayer...

Air pollution a top 10 killer: study
Wed, Dec 19, 2012 - FATAL DISEASE: More than 2.1 million people in Asia died prematurely because of the minute particles of soot and gases emitted by cars and trucks, a report says

An explosion of car use has made fast-growing Asian cities the epicenter of global air pollution and become, along with obesity, the world’s fastest growing cause of death, a major study of global diseases showed. In 2010, more than 2.1 million people in Asia died prematurely from air pollution, mostly from the minute particles of diesel soot and gases emitted from cars and trucks. Other causes of air pollution include construction and industry, the study published in The Lancet said. Of these deaths, 1.2 million were in East Asia and China, and 712,000 in South Asia, including India, it said. Worldwide, a record 3.2 million people a year died from air pollution in 2010, compared with 800,000 in 2000. It now ranks for the first time in the world’s top 10 list of killer diseases, the Global Burden of Disease study says.

The unexpected figure has shocked scientists and public health groups. “That’s a terribly high number — and much more people than previously thought. Earlier studies were limited to data that was available at the time on coarse particles in urban areas only,” said David Pettit, director of the southern California air program with the Natural Resources Defence Council. “There is hard evidence now to act urgently to reduce the public health risks to all, particularly children, elderly and the poor,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of air pollution at the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based environmental group. “No one can escape toxic air.”

The full effects of air pollution on health in Asian cities may not be seen for years, she said. “Toxic effects like cancer surface after a long latency period. Therefore, exposure to air pollution will have to be reduced today to reduce the burden of disease,” she said. According to the report by a consortium of universities working in conjunction with the UN, 65 percent of all air pollution deaths are now in Asia, which lost 52 million years of healthy life from fine particle air pollution in 2010. Air pollution also contributes to higher rates of cognitive decline, strokes and heart attacks. If the figures for outdoor air pollution are combined with those of indoor air pollution, caused largely by people cooking indoors with wood, dirty air would now rank as the second-highest killer in the world, behind only blood pressure. Household air pollution from burning solid fuels such as coal or wood for cooking fell noticeably, but not having clean cooking and heating fuels remains the leading risk in South Asia.

Fine particle air pollution in India is far above the legal limits of 100 micrograms per cubic meter. This can rise to nearly 1,000 micrograms during festivals like Diwali. Improvements in car and fuel technology have been made since 2000, but these are nullified by the sheer increase in car numbers. Nearly 18 million are expected to be sold this year alone. In Delhi, there are now around 200 cars per 1,000 people compared with 70 to 100 per 1,000 population in Hong Kong and Singapore. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and director-general of the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, this week suggested the need to “demand restraint measures” in Delhi, to put a check on the growing number of cars so that there was a check on pollution.

Air pollution a top 10 killer: study - Taipei Times