News Has Kristen Uncovered More Inconvenient Truths?

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The discussion centers around the credibility of Kristen Byrnes, a high school student who has presented her views on climate change through a project linked to her school. Critics question the validity of using a teenager as an authority on such a complex topic, arguing that it undermines the seriousness of the climate debate. They highlight logical fallacies in the arguments presented, including appeals to authority and hasty generalizations about youth competence. Some participants express skepticism about mainstream climate science, citing various experts who challenge the consensus on human-induced climate change. They argue that many scientists focus on climate impacts rather than causes, suggesting that the majority of climate experts may not be adequately addressing the root issues. The conversation also touches on the perceived alarmism in climate discourse, particularly in relation to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," with some asserting that it misrepresents scientific data. Overall, the thread reflects a broader skepticism towards established climate narratives and a call for more rigorous scientific debate free from sensationalism.
  • #101
NileQueen said:
Do you have a reference? What is your source for this view?

I don't think that there is definite proof that mammoths were hunted into extinction. They were ,however, definitely hunted in North America. Since we did hunt the bison into near extinction I think it was presumed that man did the same with the mammoth.

The culture is named for artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, where the first evidence of this tool complex was excavated in 1932. Earlier evidence included a mammoth skeleton with a spear-point in its ribs, found by a cowboy in 1926 near Folsom, New Mexico. Clovis sites have since been identified throughout all of the contiguous United States, as well as Mexico and Central America.

http://www.crystalinks.com/clovis.html

The intriguing mystery is the massive sudden disappearance of the mammoth in Siberia which Andre has mentioned.

I think someone has mentioned that horses also existed in North America.
Recently in clearing ground for a new Walmart in the phoenix area, the skeleton of a camel was found.
 
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  • #102
Andre said:
Impressive fight here. I guess it confirms that reason will never be able to overcome passion. So we probably have to wait for the moment that we all see that this cycle of natural global warming cycles has ended in 2002 and we can make up for the battle of the coming ice ages hype.

We could blame it all on science itself. Without the satellites with their impressive data and the technology to study ice cores, we would be sitting around with nothing to do.:smile:

Problem is that from that moment on, there is no incentive left for the masses to have anymore belief in science, that conned them into cutting emissions to prevent global warming.

People have always been skeptical of new science, especially scientists.:biggrin: But I do see your point, if AGW turns out to be a false alarm, people may feel that science has betrayed them.


So, there is no reason whatsoever to think green, they are not going to be dragged into it anymore. What left is pure survival in a dire energy crises following the folly and climate science will be dead.

We have used fossil fuels for over two hundred years. If there is no incentive to find clean energy, it won't be found. Remember the old saying: "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".

I don't see a dire energy crisis unless the conversion to new energy sources is manipulated by unscrupulous people.
 
  • #103
NileQueen said:
Do you have a reference? What is your source for this view?

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/772.html

I work at an arctic science institute. I don't study biology or climate (I study physics and infrasound) but I hear a lot about it, so I'm expressing the local view. Remember that I said 'I think' and not that 'i know'.

'i know' that Mt. Erebus is active (because that's what I study, professionally, with infrasound and wave-analysis technology.)

you can go here:

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/

and enter search term, "mammoth" to see more information about research on the Alaska mammoth.
 
  • #104
Pythagorean said:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/772.html

I work at an arctic science institute. I don't study biology or climate (I study physics and infrasound) but I hear a lot about it, so I'm expressing the local view. Remember that I said 'I think' and not that 'i know'.

Your source is written by a seismologist and at the very least he is careless. It is possible he knows something about paleontology, but he talks about Paul Koch and David Fisher at U Mich.
Sorry, there is no David Fisher at U Mich. That is likely Daniel C. Fisher, the tusk expert/geologist/paleontologist there. They are using high magnification
microscopes to find butcher marks, but I have not seen anything that refutes the Grayson paper.
Here is this abstract by Fisher, dating to 1984
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/geology/mastodon/journals/butcher2.htm
but refers to mastodonts in the Michigan area, not Alaska.
Also 1984, D.C. Fisher
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/geology/mastodon/journals/butcher3.htm
He cites "compelling evidence" for paleoindian butchery of mastodons

Grayson paper, 2003
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-02/uow-eac022403.php
Evidence acquits Clovis people of ancient killings, archaeologists say

"Of the 76 localities with asserted associations between people and now-extinct Pleistocene mammals, we found only 14 (12 for mammoth, two for mastodon) with secure evidence linking the two in a way suggestive of predation," write Donald Grayson of the UW and David Meltzer of SMU in the current issue of the Journal of World Prehistory. "This result provides little support for the assertion that big-game hunting was a significant element in Clovis-age subsistence strategies. This is not to say that such hunting never occurred: we have clear evidence that proboscideans (mammoths and mastodons) were taken by Clovis groups. It just did not occur very often."

What is the state of the research on mammoths/mastodons in Alaska I wonder? It was largely unglaciated at the LGM.

'i know' that Mt. Erebus is active (because that's what I study, professionally, with infrasound and wave-analysis technology.)
When was the last time it erupted, and what type of volcano is it? (I find it interesting).

you can go here:

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/

and enter search term, "mammoth" to see more information about research on the Alaska mammoth.
searching for "mammoth hunting" only brings up one article (the one you cited) on humans and hunting. That's a good site. I've read some of Ned Rozell's stuff.
 
  • #105
Pythagorean said:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/772.html

I work at an arctic science institute. I don't study biology or climate (I study physics and infrasound) but I hear a lot about it, so I'm expressing the local view.

Curiously enough, the local view should be generated by the local autority, which is Dale Guthrie. I have never hear him propagate overkill. On the work with the horses he did make a strong case for climate change
 
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  • #106
NileQueen said:
Your source is written by a seismologist and at the very least he is careless. It is possible he knows something about paleontology, but he talks about Paul Koch and David Fisher at U Mich.
Sorry, there is no David Fisher at U Mich. That is likely Daniel C. Fisher, the tusk expert/geologist/paleontologist there.

You may have a bias against him, I didn't pick up that Fisher was from U of Mich, here's the direct quote of the sentence, I can see how you misinterpreted it:

David Fisher and Paul Koch of the University of Michigan

Is that the only discredit you had for him?
NileQueen said:
What is the state of the research on mammoths/mastodons in Alaska I wonder? It was largely unglaciated at the LGM.

I must admit I'm not that interested in extinction or mammoths so I have little exposure to the state of research. I'm largely here (in this discussion) to study the AGW debate itself, and how people argue about science that's polluted with politics. I have made no real conclusions myself, but I do probe with an argument occasionally to study people's motives.

NileQueen said:
When was the last time it erupted, and what type of volcano is it? (I find it interesting).

I'm not sure. I'm studying data from January of this year. I'm not a volcanologist (nor do I want to be) I'm just a physics undergrad taking any physics job I can get. I'm more interested in the wave analysis (being able to identify and filter digital signals via techniques like Fourier transform and wavelet analysis) because it's a powerful tool that carried into many different fields of physics.

Even the group I work with aren't really volcanologists, they're an infrasound group. The volcanologists probably use our data though and we collaborate with them.

this is the cite to see for Mt. Erebus:
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/mevo/mevo.html

NileQueen said:
searching for "mammoth hunting" only brings up one article (the one you cited) on humans and hunting. That's a good site. I've read some of Ned Rozell's stuff.

I just meant to look up 'mammoth' for general info, wasn't really pushing the extinction by human hunting point. As I said before, there's no doubt harsh weather contributed too. I really can't say which was more significant, but cold weather is in every square foot during the winter (at least); humans only occupy about three square feet each, so It's not beyond my reasoning that weather was more significant.
 
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  • #107
edward said:
We could blame it all on science itself. Without the satellites with their impressive data and the technology to study ice cores, we would be sitting around with nothing to do.:smile:

I'm very grateful for the ice core studies etc It helps us to understand that the world is completely different.

People have always been skeptical of new science, especially scientists.:biggrin: But I do see your point, if AGW turns out to be a false alarm, people may feel that science has betrayed them.

That's the idea. BTW For a lot of people, including me, that "if" is a "when".

We have used fossil fuels for over two hundred years. If there is no incentive to find clean energy, it won't be found. Remember the old saying: "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".

But you need true necessity not a red herring or it will backfire. remember that the Margaret Thatcher approach of Global warming was to push nuclear energy and get rid of the coal riots. Energy security is the name of the game. You don't want to become hostage of instable energy source regions

I don't see a dire energy crisis unless the conversion to new energy sources is manipulated by unscrupulous people.

Here in Europe we are working very hard on it. Highly inefficient wind turbines, three times less effective at best, have priority above all. I still wonder if their life cycle is long enough to produce the energy that was required to build, maintain and decommision them. Nuclear reactors, the only hope of adequate future energy, are still phased out. Carbon taxes will cripple the economy further.
 
  • #108
Andre said:
But you need true necessity not a red herring or it will backfire. remember that the Margaret Thatcher approach of Global warming was to push nuclear energy and get rid of the coal riots. Energy security is the name of the game. You don't want to become hostage of instable energy source regions

This points is absolutely valid, but don't you think it would be damaging the other way too. If AGW had some significance and the oil companies knew it and fought it vehemently?

I guess the difference is that we really know that we need oil, so we'll still buy from the oil companies even if we don't like them. The public can chose to ignore scientists because not everyone sees the benefits of having them. In fact, many people already don't like science as it is, but practically everybody needs oil (myself included).
 
  • #109
P:You may have a bias against him, I didn't pick up that Fisher was from U of Mich, here's the direct quote of the sentence, I can see how you misinterpreted it:

Quote:
David Fisher and Paul Koch of the University of Michigan
P:Is that the only discredit you had for him?

I don't have a bias against him; I don't know him. If "David Fisher" is not
from U Mich. then the author needs to tell where he is from. The fact that Daniel C. Fisher IS at U Mich. AND has worked on this study seems to demonstrate that the author was careless.P: I must admit I'm not that interested in extinction or mammoths so I have little exposure to the state of research. I'm largely here (in this discussion) to study the AGW debate itself, and how people argue about science that's polluted with politics. I have made no real conclusions myself, but I do probe with an argument occasionally to study people's motives.

The quest for truth is a challenge.P: this is the cite to see for Mt. Erebus:
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geop/mevo/mevo.html

Looks like a great link, but appears to be under construction.
 
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  • #110
NileQueen said:
I don't have a bias against him; I don't know him. If "David Fisher" is not
from U Mich. then the author needs to tell where he is from. The fact that Daniel C. Fisher IS at U Mich. AND has worked on this study seems to demonstrate that the author was careless.

I'm assuming because it's a local forum and Daniel C. Fisher is already known for his interactions with the local scientists.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF15/1545.html's where it brings up that he's a Glaciologist from Canada.

He's with the http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/glaciology/national/activities_e.php" :
 
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