Linkmeister

Yes, Virginia, global warming is here

Via Wolfrum at Shakespeare's Sister comes this useful link to the New Scientist's article Climate Change: A guide for the perplexed. It lists 26 claims the global warming deniers make and debunks each one. Here's what it says:

With so much at stake, it is right that climate science is subjected to the most intense scrutiny. What does not help is for the real issues to be muddied by discredited arguments or wild theories.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

• Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter

• We can't do anything about climate change

• The 'hockey stick' graph has been proven wrong

• Chaotic systems are not predictable

• We can't trust computer models of climate

• They predicted global cooling in the 1970s

• It's been far warmer in the past, what's the big deal?

• It's too cold where I live - warming will be great

Those are the first nine items; if you go to the article, you'll see that each is linked to a discussion, as are the remaining seventeen.

By the way, for a fictional representation of what could happen if we don't do something about the phenomenon, you could try reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy, "Forty Signs of Rain," "Fifty Degrees Below," and "Sixty Days and Counting." I just finished the first one; the other two are on the table waiting for me. "Forty" is a precursor to later disasters; it concludes with Washington digging itself out from a weekend of rain that caused the Anacostia and Potomac rivers to overflow their banks, flooding the Mall and Rock Creek Park. The main characters are scientists trying to grapple with the idea that very few governments are paying any attention to their warnings, particularly the US government (yes, this does sound familiar, doesn't it?) and trying to find the proverbial two-by-four to get said governments off the dime.