James Delingpole & Global Warming

[flip_flop]

What do people think of the essay in the link?

planet.htmhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art
icle-2096277/Global-warming-James-Delingpole-
claims-green-zealots-destroying-planet.html


I don't understand enough (anything) about global warming to form an opinion one way or the other - but Delingpole's writing seems pretty convincing, so much so I will buy his book.

[flip_flop]

http://www.dailymail....estroying-planet.html

[ladyalex]

i wouldn't buy anything written by this man.
He used to (may still do) write for the Telegraph on pop music and suchlike trivia.
I have also occasionally seen him on TV and he comes over to me as an opinionated loud mouthed rich boy who will jump on whatever is the next bandwagon.
Just a personal view.

[rojash]

"but Delingpole's writing seems pretty convincing, so much so I will buy his book"

Righto - always better to take the opinions of someone who majored in English Lit., rather than those of a scientist.

[flip_flop]

So from your rather condescending tone Rojash, I assume I shouldn't buy his book to find out more about what he thinks.

Perhaps you'd be good enough to recommend a book about the subject that you've decided is the right answer. That way I will know what to think.

[trt]

How many years in the past have we been told about Global-Warming, yet we are all still here!

[jake-the-peg]

And exactly who told you you wouldn't be trt?

It's called a "straw man argument"

You invent the position of your opponent and then show it to be ludicrous

A bit like saying

"Global Warming skeptics told us there'd be glaciers in regent street - look there aren't they must be wrong!"

And Rojash is right

Would you go to a journalist to get a diagnosis on your broken leg?

Would you go to a journalist to do your tax return?

So why go to one for an opinion on Global Warming?

Unless it's because he's telling you what you want to hear?

I guess there's plenty of money in telling people what they want to hear - you can sell them books and all sorts

[jomifl]

It's bl00dy freezing here!

[jomifl]

The job of a journalist is to produce saleable print,if they have to tell the truth, well it isn't really a problem but it is easier not to bother.

[Khandro]

He writes an article each week in the Spectator; usually quite entertaining. There is no reason to suppose an intelligent journalist doesn't have an understanding of matters geophysical, historically speaking, scientists don't always get it right, wouldn't you agree jake ?

[jomifl]

Just had a look at Delingboles 'essay', it is just a lot of emotive conspiracy-esque claptrap. No relevant facts are presented, just his view of facts to which are not presented in his article. What most journalists do not understand is that most scientists are funamentally honest, especially those whose employers do not have an 'agenda'. I used to work for the power industry and I know that our reports were factually truthful. I do not see why university scientists would be less so.

[Khandro]

During the last few years there has been many jobs created to enquire into global warming, by governments, Universities and county councils etc. If it was shown that it was not a man-made phenomenon, then these people would be unemployed, and so it is a matter of self-interest to keep stoking the fire of uncertainty by distorting 'facts' and even lying.

[jomifl]

Of course scientists are always lying to keep their research grants, they can't hold a candle to the selfless honesty of our devoted journalists.

[Khandro]

jomifl, Re.our sarcasm about journalists; There are many journalists out there risking their lives every day, while scientists have a pretty cosy time of it.

[smart1]

My own opinion based solely on various programmes, articles etc over time, is that there are probably serious climactic changes afoot, but probably no more than before say. the last ice age. I feel that what is being described as global warming does exist, but is a natural occurrence. Part of the planets' life-cycle. Please note before anyone starts with the sarky comments - this is just MY opinion, and I am entitled to it.

[LazyGun]

Not a big fan of Delingpole, personally speaking.This is the guy who blustered his way into a corner in an interview with Paul Nurse, and was later to claim that he was "intellectually raped". This is the guy who claims not to read peer reviewed science papers on the subject of climate science, but is merely the interpreter of interpretations.

So - nothing wrong with a journalist presenting a story, but this guy seems like a blowhard with an agenda, and one hardly offering any scientific credibility.Nothing wrong with reading his book either - always good to read and add to knowledge - but you should always consider the source and the qualifications, the references, how current those references are, and how authoratative they are.

And for those who continue to claim that climate scientists are deliberately manipulating or falsifying data or creating scare stories to maintain their research grants - are you actually, seriously, claiming that all the major national science institutions, all the professional scientific bodies, all of the IPCC - Are you actually, genuinely saying you believe that every single reputable, authoratative climate scientists s just lying? really?

http://thinkprogress....ate-scienc/?mobile=nc

[Khandro]

When someone is accused of being the often quoted " interpreter of interpretations." All they are saying is that they don't travel the world with a bag full of scientific instruments, but rely on the findings of those who do. Which is exactly what scientists who are not in that field have to do as well.

[Brenden]

Agree with you smart1, a natural phenomenon, there was a time when ice caps did not exist -until the ice age came along.

[Gromit]

Delingpole is batty. He boasts of his lack of scientific knowledge but dismisses climate change as a conspiracy theory. But he is prepared to fully sign up to some conspiracy theories, take this nonsense that he recently penned...

// "isn't it only fair that we should be a bit more considerate to the sensitivities of other races, religions and creeds? No, it's an act of cultural suicide. Most of us may not realise this but the ideological Left certainly does, for it has long been part of its grand plan to destroy Western civilisation from within. The plan's prime instigator was the influential German Marxist thinker ('the father of the New Left') Herbert Marcuse. A Jewish academic who fled Germany for the US in the Thirties, he became the darling of the Sixties and Seventies 'radical chic' set. He deliberately set out to dismantle every last pillar of society – tradition, hierarchy, order – and key to victory, he argued, would be a Leftist takeover of the language, including 'the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care etc'. In other words, those of us who believe in smaller government or other 'Right-wing' heresies should be for ever silenced." //