Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Dogmatic

That's a pretty silly argument
Larry J — (archived)

I bet RL is dogmatic about the theory of gravity, too...

The effects of gravity can be measured with tremendous accuracy, even when the cause of gravitational attraction isn't understood. Using the present understanding of gravity, we can send space probes billions of miles and (most of the time) put them within 20 miles of the intended aiming point. You couldn't do that without a very thorough understanding of gravitational effects.

Our understanding of climate change effects is hardly as well developed. The Earth's climate has changed throughout geologic time. We've had ice ages that predated human existance. When those ice ages ended, the Earth went though global warming on a scale that's almost mind boggling. What caused this to happen?

Global warming is taking place on Mars right now. Is human activity responsible for that? If not, then we have to consider what the Earth and Mars might have in common that could be causing the climate of both planets to rise at the same time. One possibility is an increase in solar activity.

Cause and effect for something as complicated as climate change is a bit harder to determine than looking at a single factor like CO2 levels. That isn't to say that CO2 levels are a factor, it's simply to point out that this is a multivariant problem that defies such simplistic analysis.

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