Climategate?

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about this whole "global warming" thing. Partially from class, partially because of this insane weather. To be honest, I don't really get into it either way.. but I just found an interesting article (see it here).

Basically, it's about Phil Jones, the man behind "climategate." He admits that some of the data was poorly organized and that a lot of it was missing. However, he still stands behind the fact that the world is getting warmer (according to University of Alabama Hunstville, this is the warmest January in 40 years...). Most importantly, he defends the fact that he does not have a political agenda and is doing all of this as a scientist.

The whole issue is so muddled because Al Gore tries to pretend that he understands science and, if global warming is a product of humans, there will definitely be political implications. Plus, there are politicians who do things like pay for commercials with sad polar bears in order to get people's sympathies.

In the end, this has to come down to hard facts. I find it a little ridiculous that it's all still a question. In a country that prides itself so much on freedom of information, it disappoints me that we still don't know FOR SURE if we have an effect on climate. Assuming that we some day have reliable science on the subject, the question of what we'll actually do will remain incredibly political and the policy that we adopt will surely incorporate several factors.. but this kind of reminded me of our discussions in class the other day. This is definitely a situation where the legislation is going to come down to the facts. I'm going to be optimistic and say that once we have the facts straight, we can get some decisions made. Or start to. Or something.

Peace and love-

Lilly