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Index of Subjects This wole discussion has been very interesting. The most objective contributor has been Bruce Stevens, who has eloquently outlined the appropriate arguments and debates currently going on regarding global climate change. The analogy with tobacco is an interesting one, and has been brought up in a recent CBC Fifth Estate program. They found out that some of the very same scientists who have argued against the evidence for climate change, were previously involved in the debate of the 80s and 90s concerning the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, on the side of the big tobacco companies. Much of the information available to the public on climate change, on both sides (including Al Gore's movie) is presented in a subjective way, with very superficial supporting evidence - that's not to say the evidence isn't there, but it's often hard to separate wishful thinking or a belief system from hard evidence. The analogy with smoking is a good one. The evidence that there is an epidemiological (and possibly causative) association between lung cancer and smoking was first brought up in the 1950s, and all the evidence up to the late 1990s - 40 years- was epidemiological and circumstancial. That was why for years people had trouble suing the tobacco industry. In 1996 came the first probable direct causative links between carcinogens in tobacco and changes in DNA linkages in the p53 gene in lung cancer cells in humans, and even now there is some, but not a whole lot, of direct "smoking gun" evidence for this association. Nevertheless, the indirect evidence is finally so overwhelming that the majority of people believe that association.I think we are in the early stages of that 40 year proof with global climate change, and agree with the excellent summary that Bruce posted here. Richard On 11/24/06, Paul MacDonald <paulrita2001@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi All > An interesting discussion. > Makes me think of tobacco. Bad stuff tobacco. > Science has long since proved that and lots of social > pressures against it. People still smoke and lots of > young people. And it costs lots of money. > If folks can not be persuaded to give that up, how can > we persuade them to give up high carbon consumption? > Myself when in school I couldn't afford Smoking, beer > and S**. So smoking had to go! > A recent report suggests large SUV sales have never > been better - and not just in North America. > The bright side is some experts say we are due for a > large volcanic eruption soon. That will cool things > down. > Have a nice fall > Paul > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Music Unlimited > Access over 1 million songs. > http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited > -- ################# Richard Stern, 317 Middle Dyke Rd., RR#1 Port Williams, NS, Canada B0P 1T0 rbstern@ns.sympatico.ca rbstern@xcountry.tv sternrichard@gmail.com ###################
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