The overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring can't possibly compare to this overwhelming straw man argument.
Ergo, climate change is not occurring.
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The thing that bugs me about this is that the Conservative argument seems to be that we can't possibly be affecting the environment with our huge levels of Co2 release and massive pollution. You're free to argue that the impact might not be as severe as some argue, or that it might be more severe, but you can't act like we can't cause damage to the planet as a whole.
I'm not sure what the argument even is against global warming in this toon.
Doesn't matter. Because of the politics of America, I am now subject to the rather embarrassing hemming and hawing around the issue when it's discussed in a solar physics class in Europe. They don't know where I stand and don't want to provoke me. But they clearly believe in it with more information than a movie and a politician.
The argument is a conflation of climate with weather. And, no Michael, it's exactly the opposite. He is ridiculing the idea of climate change by using unseasonable cold weather as a counter-argument.
This is an example of the willfull ignorance of conservatives.
WV: ducoing - repeating the drivel you hear from Blallard
The temperature of the planet is cyclical. Sure, evidence shows we're moving beyond the cycle we've had the last few hundred thousand years. But what about the 4.5 billion year cycle? The earth was a ball of magma when it first formed so I shouldn't worry about global warming until the street melts under my Hummer.
dragoknight - In more general form, the Conservative argument is "If *I* cannot understand or imagine something, then it's not true."
If I can't imagine how the universe could exist without supernatural intervention ...
If I can't imagine how humanity could affect the environment ...
If I can't imagine why foreigners would resent being bombed into democracy or would lie under torture ...
If I can't imagine how cigarettes could cause cancer ...
If I can't imagine being fooled by a president who blurts out any-old-thing ...
... why, then, it doesn't happen!
Conservatives, as represented by Mallard, is the last defense of the kids who spent their high school years getting drunk instead of doing their homework.
Was it here that someone linked to a blog consisting of nothing but a long series of political cartoons asking the question "if there's global warming why is it cold out?" I wish I could find it, because it was pretty great--the unbearable vapidity of global warming denialists in a nutshell.
You know, the real issue here isn't even climate change at all. It's disrespect for and disbelief in the process of science. You know, the process by which we've learned everything we know about our world and our universe? Their rejection of climate change is a rejection of that process; an arrogant assertion that their "understanding" is equal or superior to that of the scientific community. That's what bothers me!
Because climate change could be totally wrong; 100 years from now, science could have a totally different idea of what happened now. But that doesn't mean that you can just reject it now! We as a society follow the word of the scientific community because they've proven themselves on many occasions. We see the tangible benefits of their work. We know that scientists have spent their lives studying to become experts; they challenge one another, and their understanding evolves as a result. Sometimes, science is wrong. Look back at history and know that is true. But science is a process, the best we have, and I HATE THE IDEA THAT CONSERVATIVES THINK THEY CAN JUST REJECT IT IN THE NAME OF THEIR STUPID IDEOLOGY.
8 comments:
The thing that bugs me about this is that the Conservative argument seems to be that we can't possibly be affecting the environment with our huge levels of Co2 release and massive pollution. You're free to argue that the impact might not be as severe as some argue, or that it might be more severe, but you can't act like we can't cause damage to the planet as a whole.
By extension, isn't he also ridiculing people who say that global warming can't be happening because it's cold outside?
Interesting angles of the quotation marks in this one.
WV: smoggra. This deity is the real reason global warming is happening.
I'm not sure what the argument even is against global warming in this toon.
Doesn't matter. Because of the politics of America, I am now subject to the rather embarrassing hemming and hawing around the issue when it's discussed in a solar physics class in Europe. They don't know where I stand and don't want to provoke me. But they clearly believe in it with more information than a movie and a politician.
The argument is a conflation of climate with weather. And, no Michael, it's exactly the opposite. He is ridiculing the idea of climate change by using unseasonable cold weather as a counter-argument.
This is an example of the willfull ignorance of conservatives.
WV: ducoing - repeating the drivel you hear from Blallard
The temperature of the planet is cyclical. Sure, evidence shows we're moving beyond the cycle we've had the last few hundred thousand years. But what about the 4.5 billion year cycle? The earth was a ball of magma when it first formed so I shouldn't worry about global warming until the street melts under my Hummer.
dragoknight - In more general form, the Conservative argument is "If *I* cannot understand or imagine something, then it's not true."
If I can't imagine how the universe could exist without supernatural intervention ...
If I can't imagine how humanity could affect the environment ...
If I can't imagine why foreigners would resent being bombed into democracy or would lie under torture ...
If I can't imagine how cigarettes could cause cancer ...
If I can't imagine being fooled by a president who blurts out any-old-thing ...
... why, then, it doesn't happen!
Conservatives, as represented by Mallard, is the last defense of the kids who spent their high school years getting drunk instead of doing their homework.
Was it here that someone linked to a blog consisting of nothing but a long series of political cartoons asking the question "if there's global warming why is it cold out?" I wish I could find it, because it was pretty great--the unbearable vapidity of global warming denialists in a nutshell.
You know, the real issue here isn't even climate change at all. It's disrespect for and disbelief in the process of science. You know, the process by which we've learned everything we know about our world and our universe? Their rejection of climate change is a rejection of that process; an arrogant assertion that their "understanding" is equal or superior to that of the scientific community. That's what bothers me!
Because climate change could be totally wrong; 100 years from now, science could have a totally different idea of what happened now. But that doesn't mean that you can just reject it now! We as a society follow the word of the scientific community because they've proven themselves on many occasions. We see the tangible benefits of their work. We know that scientists have spent their lives studying to become experts; they challenge one another, and their understanding evolves as a result. Sometimes, science is wrong. Look back at history and know that is true. But science is a process, the best we have, and I HATE THE IDEA THAT CONSERVATIVES THINK THEY CAN JUST REJECT IT IN THE NAME OF THEIR STUPID IDEOLOGY.
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