Senator Inhofe your "Global Warming Hoax" is a hoax !

This post is an interesting sort of one way collaborative effort.  
You see, over the years I've communicated with a number of scientists and post grads.  Asking straight forward questions and receiving informative replies.  I try not to over do my welcome, after all these are very busy people with more important things to do.

But for this post I sent a grand shout out to a number of my correspondence pals and received more responses than I expected including some informative surprises for me. 

I have taken great liberty slicing and dicing their responses. Rewriting some, leaving other quotes untouched and giving all of it some order.

I mention this because I want to be clear the following List of "CO2 science dependent" modern marvels is not my own cleverness and I want to send out a big Thank You! to my informed anonymous heroes!  

Also see: February 21, 2016

Archive, Hanscom AFB Atmospheric Studies, Cambridge Research Lab

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/02/archive-usaf-atmospheric-studies-afcrl.html

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The increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 since preindustrial times is a given. Understand that the radiative physics of greenhouse gases are very well-understood.

Consider heat seeking missiles flying through different altitudes searching for a heat source who's signature is changing with altitude.  In order to program the computer, the programmer must know how to accurately compensate for the changing signature.  It requires a complete knowledge of the radiative properties of all the gases in the atmosphere, or all that hardware is for naught.

{Incidentally, there is not one contrarian "theory" or challenge to the physics that hasn't been looked at by informed individuals.  You just have to poke around*, you'll find that contrarian errors, omissions, and falsifications have been clearly explained.      *Or you can check out this resource:
 http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php?f=taxonomy

The Republican/libertarian PR machine makes its career out of ignoring all those treasure troves of valuable valid information, because they are scared of it.  It's very human, but cowardly just the same, but I digress.}

You may ask, by what right am I so sure about it? 
It comes down to, down to Earth reality. 
Please consider the real life modern marvels that would be impossible without such understanding:

Why People "Fly from Facts" - Scientific American 3/3/15

Here's another worth-reading article that fits right into my project.  I hope these excerpts encourage you to read the complete original.  Though I think they left out something important in their conclusions.  

Namely, the key roll of our innate  'personal ego' and 'self certitude'  - the feeling of revulsion at having to admit we are wrong about something, or don't know everything.

What's been lost (or was never found) is self-skepticism… or an appreciation that mistakes are learning opportunities… or god forbid a touch of healthy self-deprecation and humor and recognizing our own flaws.

_________________________________

I sent Dr. Friesen an email letting him know about this post, 

his response is worth sharing, so with his permission:

"… You mentioned 

"Namely, the key roll of our innate  'personal ego' and 'self certitude'  - the feeling of revulsion at having to admit we are wrong about something, or don't know everything." 

as playing a role about not wanting to admit when one is wrong and I think you're definitely right about that. We touched on that point in the original journal article but probably glossed over it for sake of length in the Scientific American article.

If I can offer a reading recommendation that I think you might find

interesting--I really enjoyed it--it's the book "Mistakes were made

(but not by me)" by social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot

Aronson.  They cover a lot of research on why people refuse to admit

they're wrong in order to maintain their feelings of self-worth.

Best regards,"

_________________________________

Why People "Fly from Facts"
Research shows the appeal of untestable beliefs, and how it leads to a polarized society

March 3, 2015 | By Troy Campbell and Justin Friesen

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-people-fly-from-facts/

...

Our new research, recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examined a slippery way by which people get away from facts that contradict their beliefs. Of course, sometimes people just dispute the validity of specific facts. But we find that people sometimes go one step further and, as in the opening example, they reframe an issue in untestable ways. This makes potential important facts and science ultimately irrelevant to the issue. 
...

In other words, we observed something beyond the denial of particular facts: We observed a denial of the relevance of facts. 

Senator Whitehouse schools Sen. Inhofe on climate change

As Republican Senators continue to cling to the 'script' handed them by their self-obsessed corporate sponsors, Senator Whitehouse makes a valiant attempt to acquaint them with what we are actually doing to our planet.

Please consider some of the lessons our Republican/Libertarian friends should take into consideration when clinking to their faith that global warming is some elaborate hoax ! 

I tip my hat to SkepticalScience, Phil Plait, and ThinkProgress!

Posted on 31 July 2014 by dana1981

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) throws down an epic schooling of Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) on global warming after Inhofe blocked a resolution from Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) simply acknowledging that global warming exists and poses a threat to the interests of the United States.  Whitehouse makes several points that seem to originate from Skeptical Science, like The Escalator steps.  Well worth taking 7 minutes to watch - hat tip to Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy.

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Whitehouse schools Inhofe on climate change

 ThinkProgress Video

Published on Jul 29, 2014

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) rips into Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) 

for blocking a resolution that would have acknowledged the reality of climate change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDL4Bs3NbB0
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