John Holdren Claims Global Warming is Dangerous: Do you believe in global warming?

Since the Earth was formed, its climate has gonje through several warming and cooling cycles,l mainly driven by the Sun's output, as well as the Milankovitch cycles (variations in the Earth's "corkscrew" orbit, its tilt, and other natural factors, such as geothermal heating and cooling and volcanoes. From approximately 1300 AD through approximately 1850 AD, the Earth was in The Little Ice Age, during which glaciers covered farmland and famine was widespread. The year 1806 is known as The Year Without A Summer, apparently due to a large volcanic eruption. (There is currently activity in the Pacific's Ring of Fire.) Fortunately, the Earth did start to warm after 1850 which allowed agriculture and life in general to flourish. Prior to 1300AD, the climate is believed to have been warmer than it is today and was considered to be quite pleasant. Note that a substantial portion of the Earth's population lives closer to the equator than to either of the two polar regions, and polar bears hibernate during the winter, while thriving in zoos in warmer climates.
The statement that the "science" is settled is a political statement by those seeking power and has nothing to do with real science. Any true and honest scientist would never consider science "settled" as new discoveries lead to new theories and new knowledge, which may or may not be substantiated by further research. As the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts" Similarly: "He who knows nothing is confident of everything."--anon
In my humble opinion, policy makers (at least those who are not interested in a power grab and the elimination of free market capitalism) should not rush head long into experiments without truly knowing what the facts are and what consequences might come from their experiments. The study of climate change as we know it today is less than 40 years old, a blip in history, and absolutely no evidence has been disclosed that the Earth is going to end tomorrow from climate change--maybe from an asteroid strike, but not from climate change. Unless there is a genius out there who has yet to come forward (Al Gore, are you listening) who has invented a thermostat to control the output of the Sun, and the various naturally occurring changes in the Earth, the alarmists are in Fantasy land. Moreover, plants are dependent upon CO2 for their very life and growth. Getting rid of CO2 means getting rid of all plant life. Plants absorb the CO2 and then emit O2 (oxygen) which animals need for their very being. Getting rid of plants means getting rid of animal life.
Being good rationale stewards of the Earth based on real science and not politics--absolutely!!
There are several excellent books available from well known climatologists which address climate change, as well as the politicization of the issue for non-scientific purposes.
For Instance:

Unstoppable Global Warming--Every 1500 years by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery

GLOBAL WARMING--I would rather have Florida's weather in Minnesota than Minnesota's weather in Florida!!!

From IBDeditorials.com 04/09/2009--

Sorry, But The Science Is Never 'Settled'

By DAVID DEMING | Posted Wednesday, April 08, 2009 4:20 PM PT

President Obama has said that the science of global warming is "beyond dispute," and therefore settled.

This is the justification for the imposition of a carbon cap-and-trade system that will cost $2 trillion.

But Obama does not understand science.

"Settled science" is an oxymoron, and anyone who characterizes science as "settled" or "indisputable" is ignorant not only of science, but also history and philosophy.

Aristotle, who lived and wrote in the fourth century B.C., was one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known.

He invented the discipline of logic, and founded the sciences of ecology and biology.

Aristotle's physics were accepted as correct for nearly two thousand years. In 1534, faculty at the University of Paris officially asserted that the works of Aristotle were "the standard and basis of all philosophic enquiry."

Reasonable Reservations

Aristotle taught that heavy objects fall faster than light ones. Over the centuries, a few unreasonable persons expressed skeptical concerns.

But the consensus was that the physics of motion were described by Aristotle's dicta. The science was settled.

Around the year 1591, an irascible young instructor at the University of Pisa demonstrated that Aristotle was wrong.

He climbed to the top of the tower of Pisa and dropped cannonballs of unequal weight that hit the ground simultaneously. Aristotelean professors on the faculty were embarrassed.

The university administration responded by not renewing Galileo's contract, thus ridding themselves of a troublemaker who challenged the accepted consensus.

Galileo is better remembered today for clashing with the Catholic Church over the issue of whether or not the Earth was at the center of the universe.

An Earth-centered cosmology was first proposed by the Greek philosopher Eudoxus in the fourth century B.C.

Impious Aristarchus

About a hundred years later, an upstart named Aristarchus suggested that the Earth revolved around the sun. Aristarchus' system never proved popular, and he was criticized for being impious.

The Earth-centered system was finalized by Claudius Ptolemy in the second century A.D., and remained unchallenged until the sixteenth century.

Everyone knew that the science of astronomy had been settled "beyond dispute." When Galileo insisted that the Earth revolved around the sun, he was castigated by the church for advocating an idea that was not only heretical, but also "foolish and absurd in philosophy."

Late in the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton demonstrated definitively that Aristotle's physics were incorrect.

He proposed the Law of Universal Gravitation, and explained how the planets move around the sun in elliptical orbits.

Newton is still regarded as the greatest scientist who ever lived. He settled the science of motion in such a conclusive way that his system was referred to as an "invincible edifice."

But the edifice crumbled early in the twentieth century when Einstein showed that Newtonian physics break down as the speed of light is approached.

Near the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Neptunian School of geology taught that all rocks had formed by crystallization from a now-vanished universal ocean.

Although the evidence falsifying this theory was both plain and abundant, Neptunists interpreted every observation as supportive of their hypothesis.

Blinded by an immoderate zeal, they selected and magnified any fact in accordance with their theory, while neglecting those that tended to disprove it.

Robert Jameson characterized the evidence supporting Neptunism as "incontrovertible."

But the theory collapsed in a few decades, and today is recognized as an artifact of inexhaustible human folly.

The End Of History?

President Obama, a lawyer and politician, would now have us believe that the process of history has stopped.

For the first time, scientific knowledge is not provisional and subject to revision, but final and settled.

Skepticism, which has been the spur to all innovation and human progress, is unacceptable and must be condemned.

But in fact, it is our awareness of what we do not know that determines our scientific level.

Socrates was the wisest man, not because he knew more than others, but because he was the only one to recognize that he did not know.

Knowledge begins with skepticism and ends with conceit.

Deming is a geologist and associate professor of Arts and
Sciences at the University of Oklahoma

There is a photo of a polar bear taking a cruise on an iceberg hereinbelow. While a picture may be worth a 1000 words, perhaps 10,000 words are needed to really understand a given situation. For instance:
Where was this picture taken? How far off shore? Was it the largest piece of ice in the area? Remember April 14, 1912--icebergs are common throughout history.
Did the bear swim to the ice (it is reputed that polar bears can swim 60 miles)?
What prompted the bear to swim to the ice (assuming it did)? Lack of food in its territory? Polar bears eat both meat and vegetation. Polar bears hibernate during cold weather and forage as temperatures warm. Just how warm was it when the picture was taken? Was this near an active volcano?
Could it be that the ice was much larger when the bear arrived, and after the bear climbed aboard, it fell asleep, while the ice floated south (I am assuming this is near the Arctic.) and diminished in size in warmer waters? How long was the bear on that partcular piece of ice? Did it climb onto the ice a minute or two before the picture was taken, and then slipped back into the water and swam ashore after the boat had passed--it does not appear too happy that humans had intruded into its territory!
What became of the bear? Did it swim back to shore. How big was the craft from which the picture was taken? I seriously doubt that a small craft would have been a great distance from shore.
I do not see any seals (food for the bear) in the picture--where were the nearest seals?
Mother Nature can be quite cruel in many ways. I do not wish to see any animal suffer needlessly--including the seals--but Nature can be rather unforgiving at times.
The single picture posted below raises far more questions than it answers.
Some objective critical inquiry is in order!