It will take you only five minutes, so take the quick online multi-choice test about what Al Bore calls "the most important issue facing the world today" and see how much you know.
My favourite answer appears in the question about the cause of the Little Ice Age; possible answer: "Global cooling occurred as a result of the Renaissance Period." Of course. Those blasted Florentians and their smog. ;^)
Link: The Global Warming Test.
3 comments:
Hehe. It was a good laugh.
Question 1 and 2 were straightforward. Question 3, however, was fairly disingenuous, one must say. To present solar variability as the primary forcing in current warming is not a fair reflection of the science. One can certainly say that it is a theory being put forward to explain current warming (and being very effectively challenged also) but it is definitely not the agreed major forcing that the mining engineer who wrote the test would have you believe.
The next question trots out the old water vapour argument, which is a fairly cheap distraction from the issue of CO2, as anyone with a reasonable understanding of how the 'greenhouse effect' actually functions knows that it is a feedback NOT a forcing.
The next question opposes the measured temp. increase against some larger figures, to make the recent rise seem insignificant.
I don't even know what the next question is asking. Does it mean CO2 is present in a 'significant percentage' (ie a major component of the atmosphere) or that it is a significant component of the atmosphere in terms of climate effects? Clearly the latter is true, although the former is not.
The next question seems to be angling for the CEI's approach on their comedic masterpiece ads with the 'You call it pollution: We call it life' line.
The following question is carefully worded in that it would be exceptionally hard to prove that a 'consensus of scientists' have all endorsed 'drastic action'. And the suggestion that daytime temperatures will not increase with global warming is so easily falsifiable as to be laughable.
The penultimate question wants us to believe that the surface temperature record is unreliable due to the Urban Heat Island Effect, which has been shown to be fairly negligible, although is still under debate.
And the final question, I assume, is the icing on the author's argument that current warming is attributable to primarily cyclical solar variation, in opposing the one valid response with some ridiculous postulates. Straw man.
What would be great is if the test actually took on some of the really big and valid issues in the AGW debate. As it stands, it is really is little more than a folly.
DenMT
Hehe. Only 8 out of 10, PC? For shame!
Richard,
Clearly I agree with Den twice. ;^)
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