Debate a Climate Denier

Gary:    I thought that you might enjoy this article.  I checked it on Snopes, and it was published in the Washington Post

      

GLOBAL WARMING The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulate, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.  Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds. Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable. * * * * * * * * *

I must apologize. I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post - 96 years ago.

Me:  Wow. Nearly 100 years. All the while, the retreat of glaciers and loss of species have continued. Even so, many people doubt the evidence.

True, the prediction's timing was off, just as Malthus's predictions of humanity's demise due to over-population were famously premature. But Malthus did not have the luxury of population studies that are available now. Here's one of those studies. A small herd of deer was introduced to St. George's Island in the Bering Sea. There were no predators on the island. Based on the food available, the sceintists predicted that the population would increase, and eventually stabilize between 1200 and 1500 deer. Indeed, popuation did increase just as predicted. But then it continued to grow, to 2,000 (Look, the sceintists are wrong!)  to 3,000 (Oh, those stupid scientists. They know nothing.), to 4,000 (I'm gonna vote for Trump. Overpopulation is a hoax), eventually reaching a population of 5200 (You see. Scientists are idiots.). The deer were thin, weak and highly stressed. Then, a calamitous decline began. Eighteen months later, absent any predators, absent war and social unrest, absent sea rise and global warming, there were only 5 deer stll alive.

Here's another way to look at it: a man who is skeptical of science and scientific evidence jumps off the Empire State Building wearing home-made wings. "He'll crash into the pavement very soon," predict the scientists. As the man plummets past the 10th floor, people could hear him shouting, "Scientists know nothing. Look at me. I'm doing just fine."