Our member presentation

You rocked Dave. (And I'm not just sucking up because you're my boss.)

Keep going. We need to hear it.  

I would just like to make a comment about why some renowned scientists who formerly believed in man made global warming are now becoming skeptics. Among them renowned geophysicist Claude Allegre. He states that the cause of climate change remains unknown - this man is a prolific author and environmentalist. Prof. Bob Carter Australian paleoclimate researcher and geologist is also among the skeptics he formerly believed in global warming now says that it stopped in 1998 and that there have always been cooling and warming trends on this planet.

You do us proud, Dave!

Any chance VanCity would do a campaign to make using public transit sexier?  I am a proud user as my way of addressing climate change .. but I still feel a stigma attached to it, and it's driving me nuts.

Could VanCity do some kind of "VanCity Members get a free bus ride day" or something - a campaign to encourage waaaaay more people to use it?  To destigmatize it? 

Hello Dave, we've never met although I somehow managed to marry into the Vancity Cult Union. My wife will reprimand me {hopefully } extensively for embarrassing her but I am a man of talk first then apologize. Marta Bukmeier {Branch 42} and myself, Troy, have seen the presentation with Al Gore. It has a lingering impact on us, one , because the information is blunt, like fighting Mike Tyson... it hurts. Second, one has to acknowledge how difficult it must be to persevere against ignorance. Even though it's overwhelming as an individual, to speak to be heard, if you want change be persistent. Case in point, congrats to you Dave and all that have helped you. From what I've heard you have what it takes to persevere. Best wishes for the future.
Sincerely, Troy, Marta, and Cole Bukmeier

Terry-Lynn

I attended Dave's presentation and I can attest to how effective it was. I was really impressed with the way he made it personal; and perhaps even better than the original movie, offered relevant and specific ideas of what we can do to make a difference. I particularly appreciated the follow up on the "world wheel" showing how collectively we really can make a difference.

Thank you Dave. Good luck on all your future presentations.

Terry-Lynn

i attended the lecture and was very impressed. thank you dave, you inspired me. since the lecture i wrote in my blog about climate change and have had some interesting counterpoints. most notably, a link to a documentary done by the bbc. although i still believe global warming is accelerated because of industrialization, i do think the bbc documentary does present an informed alternate view. the documentary can be seen on google videos by typing in climate change swindle
or by copying this
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831...

i think the other side of the arguement offers valuable insight into where this debate is going to go in future years.

dave,
i applaud your enviromental conciousness. However, i'm an engineer and have always had problems with many of the common arguments for man-made global warming. I would like to second the recommendation to check out the bbc documentary "The great climate change swindle". It's overall very well done and does make a lot of sense.
I support environmental issues, just not this one.

How many ice and warm ages has there been before man? Why do we think the earth will stop changing now?

Carbon is the most common element on the planet, CO2 also acts as a plant fertilizer and is buffered in ocean water... apparently changes in CO2 levels are the result, not the cause of temperature changes.

And btw. Polar bears can and do normally do swim quite well.

Thre is so much more, so please keep an open mind and have a look.

Dave,
i'm an evironmentalist and Vancity member, but do not believe Gore. Based on my science training the man made warming argument does not hold water.
Check out what a growing number of scientist refusing huge climate change funds and speaking out on priciple, are saying.
The BBC docu someone else mentioned is a good place to start "The great global warming swindle", i believe.

Please support cleaner technologies (that make sense), oppose polution and manipulation of food supply and preserve our wildlife, but check out the other side of the global warming argument.

Only change is constant.

I believe it was actually a Channel 4 documentary. Nevertheless it's good to see come comments challenging Goraphopia.

The documentary points out a couple of striking facts, among many others:

1) Many renowned scientists who disagree with the UN IPCC reports had their names put on the list of contributors, even though they did not want to be on the list as the were not in agreement with the "findings";
2) Changes in the earth's temperature are the result of the warming of the sun, not activity on earth.

Think what you want everyone, let me just say that it's good to see some debate on this largely one sided media saturated issue.

Hi everyone,

This thread reminds me of another thread on this site where Rob Cottingham writes the following...

Submitted by Rob Cottingham on March 23, 2007 - 3:12pm.

As it turns out, at least one of the scientists quoted in that "documentary" says his views were profoundly misrepresented and calls it "one-sided, anti-educational and misleading":

In the part of the "Swindle" film where I am describing the fact that the ocean tends to expel carbon dioxide where it is warm, and to absorb it where it is cold, my intent was to explain that warming the ocean could be dangerous---because it is such a gigantic reservoir of carbon. By its placement in the film, it appears that I am saying that since carbon dioxide exists in the ocean in such large quantities, human influence must not be very important --- diametrically opposite to the point I was making --- which is that global warming is both real and threatening in many different ways, some unexpected.

Many of us feel an obligation to talk to the media---it's part of our role as scientists, citizens, and educators. The subjects are complicated, and it is easy to be misquoted or quoted out context. My experience in the past is that these things do happen, but usually inadvertently --- most reporters really do want to get it right.

Channel 4 now says they were making a film in a series of "polemics". There is nothing in the communication we had (much of it on the telephone or with the film crew on the day they were in Boston) that suggested they were making a film that was one-sided, anti-educational, and misleading. I took them at face value---clearly a great error. I knew I had no control over the actual content, but it never occurred to me that I was dealing with people who already had a reputation for distortion and exaggeration."

"one-sided, anti-educational, and misleading"

Hmm...sounds like another movie on this subject.

By definition it is "one-sided, anti-educational, and misleading" to only look at one side of the debate.

So check out more than one view, think critically, and keep an open mind.

And read something, because only watching passsivly tends to be anti-educational, and misleading and the TV is quite one-sided, anyone got any ideas why?

Also, why is Greenland called green-land?

I'd like to comment on the above by "anonymous"

"And btw. Polar bears can and do normally do swim quite well."

The issue is not their ability to swim, it's the availability of their major food source - seals. Polar bears catch seals while they are on the ice. No matter how well they swim, the bears have no chance to catch seals in the water, and so with less and less Polar ice it becomes harder and harder for the bears to catch and consume enough seals.

The evidence is very clear. Polar bear populations are declining and their average weights are dropping drastically.

Some articles of interest on the topic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/521451.stm

More on the polar bears....
If they are so hard up for food,
hope you can englighten me why are we still allowing the yearly clubbing of seals.
I maybe uniformed about all the details, but clearly remember this is still a reoccurring event to cull the seal population.
Should we not try and relocate some seals or bears and let nature take its course instead?

Also, wondering about this US senate committee release, i found through Canadian Free Press. I'm skeptical about gov't claims, but this does not look like tinfoil hat non-sense. Maybe worthwhile to check out the individuals named and their claims.
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.B...

Titled:
"Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics
Growing Number of Scientists Convert to Skeptics After Reviewing New Research" by Marc Morano

What most these researchers seem to say is that when they consider the sun as a climate driver the models start to make more sense. Quick, what's warmer: day or night? summer or winter?
Can we have a real discussion now instead of scare tactics and ad hominem attacks?

Cheers