Objections

• Nature of Science
• Why should we trust the scientists?
• Why not simply look at the evidence?
• Why should we listen to the scientists now, if they have been wrong before?
• Scientists can't even predict the weather, so why should we listen to them about something even bigger, like the climate?
• There is no consensus amongst scientists on global warming.
• Climate Models are just models, just PREDICTIONS about the future. So they're just conjecture and therefore useless.
• Risk Management
• Stop telling me what to think!
• One hundred years of data is not enough to know thousands of years of the past climate.
• Well, we can't just surrender control of our lives to a bunch of eggheads who we don't know and we never elected.
• But that's just a PREDICTION!
• There are tons of sources out there; how do we know which ones are credible?
• So let's hear those "Slam dunk" statements from those eggheads - AAAS and NAS.
• The IPCC is just a UN hack. They have no credibility.
• That's just argument from authority!
• There is little argument on the existence of global warming, but there's still a lot on its causes.
• There are at least 3 documentaries on YouTube alone disproving AGW.
• The statements from AAAS and NAS shouldn't be taken as any big deal, because scientists are biased. Their grant money depends on them crying wolf.
• You underplayed the negative consequences in the upper left!
• What about the Copenhagen Consensus?
• If action on climate change is such a good deal, how come businesses aren't doing it yet?
• What about the Heritage Foundation?
• The grid is useless without actual numbers assigned to the probabilities.
• I think we'll innovate ourselves out of any problem.
• That grid is just Pascal's Wager.
• Whatever negative economic consequence show up in the upper left, should show up in the lower left too, so if we choose action, we're doomed to economic harm.
• I'd rather not take action on an uncertain threat, so that we can face any real threats that DO materialize down the road with the wealth that an unfettered economy would bring us.
• That grid is so grossly oversimplified that it's useless.
• Mechanics of GCC
• CO2 is an insignificant greenhouse gas compared to methane and water.
• What about "the Great Global Warming Swindle?"
• There is little argument on the existence of global warming, but there's still a lot on its causes.
• If we take action and climate change doesn't happen, how will we know whether it was ever true in the first place?
• How arrogant to think that we can change the globe. We're too small to have an effect.
• The water vapour from HFC cars would replace the CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
• Scare Tactics
• You're indulging in irresponsible scare mongering.
• The picture you paint is unlikely to happen. How could it be so bad?
• I've heard predictions of temperature DROPS. How does that come from global WARMING?
• We can't even predict the weather tomorrow, so why are we making predictions about 20 years from now?
• Humans are too small to have any effect on the climate.
• What's wrong with a degree or two? How is that like flipping a light switch?
• It's the sun, stupid. Or cosmic rays.
• Climate has always changed, so why are we suddenly the bad guys?
• What's the explanation for the disaster scenarios on the Red Bull cans? How do we get 'epidemics' and 'wars' from Climate Change?
• Who's to say what the RIGHT climate is? Birds and bees build nests and homes out of raw materials in their environment, just like we do. How is this different? If there were no beavers, there wouldn't be any beaver dams disrupting the natural course of a river - is that good or bad or just the way it is?
• The climate has done fine before without us.
• But it's been warm in the past. Where's the evidence that that's bad?
• Why should we (that is, America) change? It won't make a difference unless China and India are stopped.
• But CO2 lags temperature in the ice core data, so those silly scientists have got it backwards!
• But there are so many problems and only finite resources and time! Why start with Climate Change?
• So if Climate Change is such a nasty deal, why haven't the alarm bells gone off yet?