In this article, Richard Black reports that recent research has shown a correlation between less ice covering a warming Arctic Ocean and such unusually cold weather as "persistent above-normal snow cover" (2012, ¶ 10) in much of Europe, North America and East Asia. The most recent study, by a Chinese and US team of scientists, both establishes the link between global warming at the Arctic, and the severe European winters in recent years, which have even seen snow falling as far south as Greece. The scientists explain that the correlation is in fact causal. They argue that the warming Arctic area reduces the usual flow of warmer weather from the south because the temperature difference is smaller than it used to be, so all the cold air remains over the northern areas, along with increased water vapour from the warmer sea, which in turn result in much colder winters for the northern countries, along with higher snowfall. However, Black also cites another report to confirm that climate change is a very complex issue, with multiple interacting factors.
I've been thinking about climate change and global warming for some time now, and wondering about many of the questions that people do argue about. Unfortunately, it is a very complex issue, and that is the main reason I now think that global warming is both real and probably human caused, at least in part. One of my American friends is sure that global warming is not real, that in fact the world is getting colder, as, for example, the much more severe recent winters suggest. And to be honest, that does, prima facie, seem like good evidence. But I think such arguments are seriously flawed for a couple of reasons. First, there is no good reason to think that scientists are all telling lies as my American friend seems to believe. The consensus of scientific opinion is that global warming is real and that at least in part is caused by humans. Could most scientists be lying or fudging data to get more money for more research? I don't think so. Science and academic journals respect free speech, so any such lies or mistakes, whether deliberate or accidental, would be quickly uncovered and revealed by the peers of people making such erroneous statements. Second, even if we had some reason to wonder about the motives of scientists and others who believe in global warming, that is not a good reason to think that they are wrong: just because someone has a motive to lie, doesn't mean that they are actually lying. In order to prove that the scientific consensus on global warming is wrong, it is necessary to analyse the data to show the mistakes. And I certainly can't do that, so I think the sensible option is to have faith that the current majority opinion of the competent specialists is correct. Of course, they might all be wrong, and scientists often are, but unless we can actually do the analysis at least as well as them, we can't have any good reason to doubt them, unless their free speech was being interfered with.
And that last point is very important. Knowledge always requires free speech. We can be 100% sure that on every topic where there is censorship, that the people whose access to sharing ideas, opinions and information is censored are ignorant. They cannot have knowledge about the topic protected by censorship from free speech. For example, in Soviet Russia, biologists were not allowed to freely publish material about evolution, but were only allowed to publish praise for a false theory by a Russian scientist, Lysenko, for political reasons ("Trofim Lysenko", 2012). The result was that Russian people were largely ignorant of the most important theory underlying biology, so of course all of their opinions on that topic were worthless. Because of the censorship that did not allow any criticism, the frauds, errors and lies could never be corrected. We see exactly the same thing in North Korea today: the press and citizens are not allowed to say anything critical or negative about their weird leaders, so the ordinary people are ignorant and, I guess very sincerely, belief a lot of lies about their leaders, but the censorship means they cannot have any knowledge about those leaders and that their opinions about them must be worthless because their countries strict laws enforce such ignorant and worthless opinions. Violating the right to free speech isn't just immoral, it's seriously irrational.
Thankfully, the academic press in most Western countries zealously guards its freedom to publish without any political interference or forced censorship, even if governments often hate what gets published or when it offends many people. And this free speech is absolutely essential to all honest academic work. And it is also the reason I am now prepared to believe that global warming is both real and to some extent caused by human beings.
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References
Trofim Lysenko. (2012, February 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:15, February 28, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trofim_Lysenko&oldid=478595502
Climate change and global warming is a embarrassing issue for the government and the publics in China.Even everyone concers the issue, they does nothing.For of all,people can't make sure that emisson carbox dioxide leads to temperature higher or temperature becoming higher leads to higher content of carbox dioxide,so it is very difficult for the government to take action to reduce emission carbon dioxide.Secondly,some climatologists claimed temperature changed in a period which is more than 800 years, so people are reasonable to suspect Climate change and global warming are caused by human being.lastly,even people confess our life style did impact climate some how,it isn't easy to change our life style.can we don't buy a car?can we don't eat so much food?can we don't use chopstick? Most people will say no.Afterall,Climate change and global warming is a little bit far away from routine life. In one sentence,Climate change and global warming is an academic issue rather than an urgent issue for the government and the public.
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