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I am 'the other kind' of skeptic about global warming. I look at climate charts, past predictions, and the many PF threads and come away unconvinced that global warming is occurring at all -- to speak nothing of cause. But global warming opponents are even less convincing to me, using outdated science and cherry-picked statistics. (Admittedly, both sides use the latter.) So I remain skeptical -- probably because I'm accustomed to greater proof from more established fields.*
But it occurred to me that most of my skepticism can be traced to the apparent lack of verifiability, in particular predicting future temperatures. This led me to ask myself: is the theory of global warming falsifiable?
Here's what I'd really like to see, in an ideal world. Two models, one using the scientific consensus about global warming and the other assuming no global warming. They could even include various future events (measured sunlight intensity and atmospheric particulates, for both, and concentrations of various greenhouse gasses for the GW model). Even better would be if there was just one model, where actual GW data could be replaced with average data from (say) 1980 to 2000 for the non-GW model.
More realistically, I'd be interested to see any falsifiable predictions or models about climate change. In the likely case that there is no paired non-GW prediction, average temperatures could be taken from some reasonable recent time.
Past papers would give me a head-start -- I wouldn't need to wait 10 years to see how they pan out. But I would naturally have some concern about cherry picking. If I read that a study from 30 years ago predicted a steep rise in temperature that would lead to Florida being under water about now, how could I know if that was the accepted consensus or just one paper a GW opponent dug up? (Suggestions on how to avoid this bias would be appreciated.)
* The evidence for tectonic theory and phrenology was weak when they were first proposed; research showed the former but not the latter valid. Some came to the conclusion faster than others... I suppose I'm one of the slow ones here.
But it occurred to me that most of my skepticism can be traced to the apparent lack of verifiability, in particular predicting future temperatures. This led me to ask myself: is the theory of global warming falsifiable?
Here's what I'd really like to see, in an ideal world. Two models, one using the scientific consensus about global warming and the other assuming no global warming. They could even include various future events (measured sunlight intensity and atmospheric particulates, for both, and concentrations of various greenhouse gasses for the GW model). Even better would be if there was just one model, where actual GW data could be replaced with average data from (say) 1980 to 2000 for the non-GW model.
More realistically, I'd be interested to see any falsifiable predictions or models about climate change. In the likely case that there is no paired non-GW prediction, average temperatures could be taken from some reasonable recent time.
Past papers would give me a head-start -- I wouldn't need to wait 10 years to see how they pan out. But I would naturally have some concern about cherry picking. If I read that a study from 30 years ago predicted a steep rise in temperature that would lead to Florida being under water about now, how could I know if that was the accepted consensus or just one paper a GW opponent dug up? (Suggestions on how to avoid this bias would be appreciated.)
* The evidence for tectonic theory and phrenology was weak when they were first proposed; research showed the former but not the latter valid. Some came to the conclusion faster than others... I suppose I'm one of the slow ones here.