Your Breathing: Soon to be Regulated by the EPA?

It must be! How else to explain the existence of reasonable commentary on global warming?

Often people only hear the "Gore viewpoint" in the media, which usually seems like fearmongering. (Media fearmongering, say it ain't so!) If the mainstream media provides an alternative point of view at all, they seldom do any in-depth coverage.

Recently a British TV channel broadcast a piece which went into some depth on an alternate point of view. It presented scientists discussing another explanation. Instead of going into all that here, I think The Independent Institute provides a good summary and place to start with comprehensive links to other materials concerning that alternative.

I agree that ending regulation and subsidies should be the place to start and that state intervention in society has helped to create many, if not most, of the environmental problems in today's world.

I'd take both Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and The Great Global Warming Swindle with a big grain of salt. The flaws with Gore's movie are all over the place, and I know of at least one scientist who says that Swindle misrepresented his views. So, as with most anything like this, a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing for both.

I've not often failed to live up to my name of Thomas (doubting, etc. It caused me all sorts of trouble in parochial school decades ago). I agree about salt, but more diverse information can only improve the situation.

I've also read about the Wunsch controversy. However, whatever his intent was in saying what he did, that doesn't change the point made by the filmmakers in using his statements about the oceans absorbing and releasing CO2 (BTW Deity: if you're reading this, allowing sub and superscripts might be handy and seems like no security exposure to me). I haven't heard that Wunsch claims to have been misquoted, only quoted at less length than he would have liked.

Perhaps because they include him in their program they may appear to imply he also advocates their point of view. However, another criticism offered of that program states that it only presents one point of view.
How many viewpoints does Gore present?

Why should these filmmakers present anything other than their point of view when doing so appears to be the reigning style for this "debate"; especially considering one other point of view gets tons of coverage? I admit that treating this issue ideologically may not be good science, but what good science gets shown on TV or in documentaries these days? Where can one find a non-ideological survey of this topic in a form accessible to most people?

The program to which I provided a link also ties in explanations based in Public Choice for the economics behind the entire hubbub. It hints at the disruption that State funded research brings to the area of science. I offered it here because I found it interesting; not because I'm completely accepting of all its conclusions. It does provide more material and at least one other viewpoint.

In any case, the Nazgul have spoken. I suspect that will show how science actually gets done in today's Western world. (Galileo would not be proud.) It does not speak well for the future of western civilization and reminds me of when questions of belief were settled in Rome. Today they get settled in Rome on the Potomac. I don't expect the difference in geography to matter much.

My point was that all sources regarding something that has become so politicized and polarized need to be regarded with a skeptical eye, not that Swindle has no value. It saddens me that unbiased information is so difficult to come by for those of us who are non-scientists. Our media seems to delight in creating panic and controversy. I guess it's good for ratings. It has no interest in a sober examination of the entire spectrum of the issue so we can come to some sort of sensible conclusion.

What bothers me about the whole debate is that there seems to be no room to consider the possibility that someone on the other side may actually be sincere. Or that some people may not be on either extreme!