The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

The “Fox Attacks” website has come out with a new video asking Home Depot to stop advertising on Fox.  The website is petitioning that “If Home Depot is serious about protecting the environment, they must stop advertising on Fox — a network that consistently spreads misinformation about and denies the existence of global warming.”  The video is comprised of Fox news footage covering a range of global warming skepticisms including guest Sterling Burnett of the NCPA saying “You don’t go see Joseph Goebbels’ films to see the truth about Nazi Germany.  You don’t want to go see Al Gore’s film to see the truth about global warming.”  The Sierra Club is trying to pit one corporate behemoth against another with their Fox Attacks project.  Sometimes these “grassroots” campaigns catch on; many times they die on the vine. 

But what do you do when your next-door neighbor expresses skepticism trying to tell you that global warming is a hoax or that it’s a natural cycle caused by the sun?  The Gristmill blog has a very helpful series titled “How to talk to a Climate Skeptic” which contains responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming.  Arguments range from “There is no evidence”, “What about mid-century cooling?” and “Global warming is nothing new!”  Here’s one that I found helpful the other day:

Objection: Current warming is just part of a natural cycle.

Answer: While it is undoubtedly true that there are natural cycles and variations in global climate, those who insist that current warming is purely natural - or even mostly natural - have two challenges.

• First, they need to identify the mechanism behind this alleged natural cycle.  Absent a forcing of some sort, there will be no change in global energy balance.  The balance is changing, so natural or otherwise, we need to find this mysterious cause.
• Second, they need to come up with an explanation for why a 35% increase in the second most important greenhouse gas does not affect the global temperature.  Theory predicts temperature will rise given an enhanced greenhouse effect, so how or why is it not happening?  Read more.

The blog has arguments categorized by stages of denial, scientific topics, types of argument and levels of sophistication.  With links to graphs, statistics and documents, the information is comprehensive and very helpful to become more versed in how to respond to our favorite Fox-like skeptics.