Type: metaphor
Results 1 - 20 of 200
Category:Skepticism/Denial - General
BiteSome skeptics view climate science as a house of cards. You pull one card from the bottom and the whole thing collapses. But science is more like a jigsaw puzzle, assembled piece by piece over decades of research. Gradually, the overall picture emerges, until it's unmistakable. Remaining gaps or...
Category:Rebuttals - specifc
BiteClaiming that 'Earth isn't warming, because 2008 was cooler than 1998' is like saying 'Spring isn't happening, because April 15th was cooler than April 1!' To see the long term trend, you have to look at all the data.
Category:Human Causality
BiteThink of it like a who-dun-it mystery. Scientists have identified all the "usual suspects" sun, aerosols, land over, volcanoes, etc. Each suspect has its own fingerprint, "calling card," and DNA signature.
The warming we see match CO2 almost perfectly, and none of the others match wel...
Category:Earth is Warming
Bite"2010 was the hottest and wettest -- don't Google that phrase, by the way -- year on record."—Bill Maher
Category:Who to Believe?
Bite"If 98 doctors say my son is ill and needs medication and two say, 'No, he doesn't, he is fine,' I will go with the ninety-seven. It's common sense - the same with global warming. We go with the majority, the large majority."
-- former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Category:Greenhouse Effect
BiteIf you thicken Earth's CO2 blanket, the planet gets warmer.
Variation: Add more blankets at night, and you overheat. Add more CO2, and the earth overheats.
Category:Extreme Weather
BiteThink of weather as a large die, with the number 6 signifying a violent storm.
If you add dots to change the "1" to a "6," you've doubled your chances of a "6." But then when a "6" comes up, you can't tell: Is this the original, "natural" 6? Or the "new" 6 that you added? You can't be sure. But...
Category:Human Causality
Bite“That’s a coffin with so many nails in it already that the hard part is finding a place to hammer in a new one.” — Geophysicist Ray Pierrehumbert.
Category:Skepticism/Denial - General
Bite"When I was six years old, there were conflicting theories about how babies were born. Somebody said a stork brought them. Another guy said your parents bought them at the hospital. Another said girls had some kind of flap between their legs that babies came out of, and something about penises.
...
Category:Greenhouse Effect
BiteIn earth's past, CO2 rise lagged temperature, so CO2 can't possibly cause global warming? This is like saying "'I saw a chicken lay an egg. That proves chickens don't come from eggs.'"
— Dr. Richard Alley
Category:Extinctions
Bite”Destroying a tropical rainforest and other species-rich ecosystems is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner."— Edward O. Wilson, the "father of biodiversity."
Joe Camel thinks he’s a science expert
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Category:Who to Believe?
BiteWould you trust Joe Camel to teach science to your children? Even lifelong smokers don't want Joe near their kids. The tobacco industry pioneered modern disinformation to discredit medical research. Now some "skeptics" use the same tactics to discredit climate science.
Category:Extreme Weather
Bite"Just as steroids make the baseball player stronger and increase his chances of hitting home runs, greenhouse gases are the steroids of the climate system, they increase the chances of record breaking heat to occur compared to record breaking cold."—Dr. Gerald Meehl, UCAR
This is our futur...
Category:Tipping Pts, Abrupt Change
Bite"The climate system is an angry beast, and we're poking it with sticks."
— Walter Broecker, the climate science pioneer who uncovered the ocean's role in accelerating abrupt climate shifts in the earth's past.
— Walter Broecker, the climate science pioneer who uncovered the ocean's role in accelerating abrupt climate shifts in the earth's past.
Category:Skepticism/Denial - General
BiteIf you can find a way to scientifically debunk climate change, you can be rich and famous. Just beware that many scientists before you have tried. . . and failed.
Category:Human Causality
BiteSaying "climate change happened naturally in the past, and therefore human's can't cause it" is like saying "forest fires occurred naturally in the past. So there can't be arson."
Variation: Arson and camper carelessness can't cause fires, because forest fires often occurred naturally bef...
Variation: Arson and camper carelessness can't cause fires, because forest fires often occurred naturally bef...
Category:Human Causality
Bite"Some say, 'Climate is always changing due to natural cycles. So it can't be us doing it.'
That's like saying 'People die from natural causes. So there can't be murder!' Any good crime investigator must develop expertise on natural causes of death, so he can distinguish it from foul play. Sam...
Category:Greenhouse Effect
BiteThink of CO2 in the atmosphere as water in a bathtub. If you partly open the drain and run the tap at the same rate, the water level stays level. If you open the tap a bit more, the water level rises until it overflows.
As long as we keeping pouring CO2 into the air faster than nature dr...
Category:Science & Uncertainty
BiteModels are unreliable. I agree -- they are often late for photo shoots, and sometimes never show up at all!
"The Parked Car Effect"
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Category:Greenhouse Effect
BiteSince few people actually spend much time in greenhouses, perhaps we should call it 'The Parked Car Effect.' We all know what happens when you park your car in the hot sun with the windows closed. Light enters, hits the upholstery, which heats up and warms the interior air. But the heat can't esc...