Global warming is a complex issue and a decision as to whether you believe it is a political issue demands your attention.

The sky is falling . . . and it's damn hot too.

According to some sources, it's a given. Global warming is real. Just ask Al Gore or watch An Inconvenient Truth. Probably more convenient to just rent the movie. Al's busy researching, mulling over his poorly kept piles of paper and referencing his three large monitors full of scientific data. But his opinion is of the popular variety, that which is also advocated by many well-respected scientists. But what about those equally respected scientists who oppose? Who's right? Well, I guess we can start by asking the question, have intelligent well-informed people ever been wrong before? Let's take a look.

Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver! Thomas Edison

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Ken Olson , President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

640Kb ought to be enough for anybody. Bill Gates, 1981

In a few years, all the great physical constants will have been approximately estimated, and ... the only occupation which will then be left to the men of science will be to carry these measurements to another place of decimals. James Clerk Maxwell, 1871

The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote. Albert A. Michelson, 1894

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. We know that light is propagated like sound through pressure and motion. The radio has no future! Lord Kelvin

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

Space travel is bunk Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of Britain, 1957, two weeks before the launch of Sputnik

Also in your pondering, consider how difficult it is to determine certainty. For example, you read in the news that researchers say coffee's OK for you . . . then it's bad . . . No wait! It's the best thing since the vegetable. Then let's consider wine. We hear researchers say it's good . . . it's bad . . . it's good . . . it's . . . (pause here for the worm to turn). And even second hand smoke is seeing a comeback. Many are hearing in the corridors of doubt that negative reports are merely unproven speculation seen as unmitigated fact.

But what about those who oppose Global Warming? What's their story?

According to Christopher C. Horner, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, he says "The Earth has often been hotter than it is now," "Only a tiny portion of green-house gases are man-made," "Most of Antarctica is getting colder," "The media only recently abandoned the 'global cooling' scare," and "' Global Warming' hasn't made hurricanes worse" ( The Politically Incorrect Guide (PIG) to Global Warming and Environmentalism, 2007 Regnery).

Dr. Richard S. Lindzen (Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, MIT; member of the National Academy of Sciences; and former lead author, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control) states "Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early twenty-first century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age" (qtd. in PIG to Global Warming and Environmentalism, 2007 Regnery).

So where do you stand? Well, unless you have an advanced degree in science or have done extensive research you best stand clear of supporting one side or the other based merely on emotion. You're familiar with emotion, yes? It's what your purchases are based on and then later explained away with rationalized logic. "Of course I needed that $7000 112 inch flat screen. It's the first of its kind!"

One of the things a good critical or rigorous thinker must do is his / her homework. Don't jump on a bandwagon mis- or under-informed. A good critical thinker is disciplined at the art of self-examination. Don't believe that your assumptions are fact. You may want to believe a particular "opinion" merely because you can relate. "Of course those damn Yankees are lucky. How else do you win 16 more World Series than the next closest team?" We know who made this statement? Or "Of course nuclear energy is a viable alternative source of energy!" Who said this? Obviously someone who doesn't have a nuclear reactor in their backyard.

Most likely, there will never be a definitive or absolute answer. Why? Well, because of assumptions, those opinions that make republicans see liberals as diseased and democrats see conservatives as only thinking about their bottom line. But regarding an issue of such political importance, especially considering how tax dollars may be spent, it is something you need to research, keeping in mind that time determines your answer not discerning all absolute facts.   

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