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Critical Thinking about Climate Change

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Everybody has a right to his own opinion . . . unless, of course, the opinion endangers the rest of us. The dangers of religiocentricism: it excludes critical thinking. 

Global Warming

TUESDAY, NOV 9, 2010 18:10 ET

And God said to Noah: Don't fret about global warming

A Republican seeking to chair the House Energy committee explains why devastating climate is impossible VIDEO

BY ANDREW LEONARD

Back in March 2009, when Nancy Pelosi ruled the House of Representatives with an iron fist, one could chuckle at Republicans who came to committee hearings quoting scripture as the rationale for their positions on energy policy.

Politics and Climate -- Our Dysfunctional System

 

The New Yorker magazine is one that it known for its in-depth articles. My guess is that none -- or very few -- of you have read an article of this length and depth.

Welcome to the mat.

This is hot off the presses. Read and comment.

THE POLITICAL SCENE

AS THE WORLD BURNS

How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change.

by Ryan Lizza

OCTOBER 11, 2010

 

 Lindsey Graham, Joseph Lieberman, and John Kerry each sought a kind of redemption through climate-change legislation.

ILLUSTRATION: PHILIP BURKE

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza 

On April 20, 2010, Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman, along with three aides, visited Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, at the White House. The legislators had spent seven months writing a comprehensive bill that promised to transform the nation’s approach to energy and climate change, and they were planning a press conference in six days to unveil their work.

 

124 Misconceptions about Climate Change -- And Counting

 

 Heard that climate change isn't happening?

You had to hear if from someone, right?

You've heard things like this:

"It's the sun."

"The climate has changed before."

"Last winter had record cold spells."

"CO2 is not a pollutant."

or simply "It's not happening."

These and 119 other misconceptions are addressed at this site: Arguments

Just scroll down the list until you find objection to climate change that you've heard, click on the short answer in the right-hand column, and you'll find a complete explanation of the misconception. 

And the site treats misconceptions from different sides of the argument.  You'll also find three levels of detail in the answers: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Check the list no matter what you think about global warming. Talk about what you find below.

The 11th Hour

In class today we had four topics:  

1. Something Hard

2. The Jefferson Family Syndrome 

3. The Great Chain of Information

4. The 11th Hour

I'm going to talk about all of these more on the Class Review page on the class website, but that page won't go up until later. I wanted to get this blog page up fast so that we could discuss the movie (and the other topics) while it was still fresh in our minds.

One question that came up in both classes is Why didn't the movie show both sides? 

My answer, as is often the case, is also a question: What both sides?

Global Warming, with a lot of links . . .

As we said in one of our morning sections, when we read arguments about global warming, they will not be neutral. They're not supposed to be. They are judgements, conclusions reached after studying the facts. As critical thinkers, we'relearning not only to make sound judgements and to offer sound judgement;  we're also learning todetect sound judgements when we see them. 

Below you'll find lots of positions and lots of links. You can't judge the soundness of these conclusions without checking out the links. Take you time. Comment more than once. Don't limit yourself just to these. But read. You can't reach a conclusion without information.

On climate change, it's the Republicans versus reality

by Laurence Lewis

Sun Sep 26, 2010 at 04:00:53 PM PDT

The Wonk Room at Think Progress has been taking a look at Republican Senate candidates on the issue of climate change, and it should come as no surprise that when it comes to Republicans and science, never the twain shall meet.