At What Point Will "Global Warming" Believers realize they were wrong?

Question

Scientists now predict that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next 20 years as solar activity slows and the planet drastically cools down. They suggest this could potentially herald the onset of a new ice age following the end of the sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years as the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend.

Would the believers STILL think the planet was warming after 30 years of cooling?

If they believed "Global Warming" was real because the temperatures increased 1 degree over 100 years, would they be convinced that the Earth was cooling if the temps went down 2 degrees in 20 years?

At what point would "Global Warming" believers realize that just isn't happening, that "Global Warming" was just mass hysteria like the Y2K "problem" was?

Answer 1

NEVER

Answer 2

Global Warming is happening!

We need to do stuff to help the enviroment!

Get your info right

it is happening

Go buy a hybrid and recycle and plant a tree

GOSH!

Answer 3

You lost any minuscule shred of credibility you might have once had when you tried to pass off an isolated Denver weather report of a record low temperature as "proof" that there's no such thing as global warming.  Since you're not even trying to back up your wild unsubstantiated claims with facts this time, there's nothing to do but laugh at your foolishness.

As Bob pointed out above, the Y2K problem was a very real one and would have caused worldwide chaos if programmers hadn't worked 80-hour weeks changing code to avert the problems (I know because I was one of them).  Likewise, we can't just ignore this situation and expect it to go away on its own.

[edit]

It's a very sad statement about people's attitudes when the number one top contributor in this category is a right-wing extremist who's probably getting paid by an oil company to post this propaganda.  Think for yourselves.  Who stands to gain more, the environmentalists who are asking you to reduce your fuel consumption and save money in the process, or the deniers who want you to keep buying gas guzzlers and spending half of your income on fuel?  If there's a conspiracy here, it's not what the right wing wants you to believe it is.

Answer 4

"scientists" predict?  If that were true it would be front page news.

What you mean is a few guys with oddball ideas predict cooling.

"Scientists" are still predicting warming, as has been going on for the last 30+ years, although a few years are unusually cool.  That includes the last 10 years:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

The Sun's "active" period refers to sunspot activity.  Sunspots don't cause significant warming or cooling.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/arc...

The analogy with Y2K is an excellent one.  Y2K was a very real problem that took years and billions of dollars to fix.  The only glitch was that the programmers weren't confident enough they'd got all the bugs.

The real question is when will the deniers admit they're wrong?  When half of Florida is gone?  After it's too late to do anything about it?

EDIT - Boatman - That article from a business magazine is the political c**p.  Solar radiation received on Earth has been decreasing for the past 30 years (scientific reference below), while temperatures have been increasing.  It's a mixture of quoting a few oddball scientists, and misquoting people like the Max Planck Institute, who've been quite annoyed by it.

Lockwood, Frohlich, Recent oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature, Proc. R. Soc. A, doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1880

Answer 5

uh, no. because there is proof of global warming. look at the polar ice caps.

if the earth is gonna cool, that's good. but we should still try to help our planet.  all of the toxins in our atmosphere are bad anyway. the ozone layer is thinning.

where did you get that info, anyway?  

Answer 6

when h**l freezes over probly...

Answer 7

r u serious? global warming is not a mass hysteria, some people have taken it to the extreme but it is a valid problem created by us and our disregard for the environment.  Maybe the temperature is lowering again because more people are doing the right things and recycling, going green etc.

Answer 8

Bob wrote

"Solar radiation received on Earth has been decreasing for the past 30 years (scientific reference below), while temperatures have been increasing. It's a mixture of quoting a few oddball scientists, and misquoting people like the Max Planck Institute, who've been quite annoyed by it."

I have already explained to you how a negative trend in TSI can still cause warming. It isn't that complicated. And I am not sure why you continue to conclude that the trend in TSI has been decreasing: 1) The trend is essentially zero anyway, and 2) ACRIM shows a slightly positive trend, so the title of L&F's paper hinges on which dataset you use.

Answer 9

When there is sufficient evidence to show a reverse in the current trends.  That is how science works.