Re: OT: interesting global warming quote found elsewhwere

On Aug 7, 3:29 am, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
James Arthur wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 6, 3:15 am, James Arthur <bogusabd...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 5, 10:40 am, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Joerg wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Joerg > wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:

<snip>

Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" grew out of his 1992 book "Earth in the
Balance" which still reads very well, and considerably predates Mann's
paper.
I have that book.  Appeals to emotion, brimming with errors of fact
and logic.  And hate.  It's absolute mindtrash.  Beneath contempt.

Best regards,
James Arthur

E.g., the first phrase random selection offers:
  "What a striking contrast between the awesome power and efficiency our
economic system displayed in its philosophical rout of Marxism-Leninism
and the abject failure of the same system to even take note of the
poisoning of our water, the fouling of our air, the destruction of tens
of thousands of living species every year.  We make billions of economic
choices every day, and the consequences are bringing us steadily closer
to the brink of ecological catastrophe."   (pg. 185)

Foresighted stuff - he wrote that some eight years before Dubbya get
elected and proceeded to rip up the inadequate environmental
protection legislation that you did have. Where is the error in fact
or logic you claim to be objecting to?

His writing is so rife with unclear thinking and innuendo that
making clear criticism of it is hard work.

Offhand, in this one paragraph...

Errors of fact:
 1) Our system /has/ taken great note and alarm about the environment..
 2) No abject failure: we've taken great and effective measures
    to protect same.
 3) Pollution is less than ever as a result.
 4) There's no indication of impending catastrophe.
 5) Humankind destroys tens of thousands of species each year?

Errors of logic:
 1) That making daily economic decisions precipitates catastrophe.
 2) Mixed metaphor: economics vs. totalitarianism

Appeals to emotion:
 1) Lucre drives environmental destruction.
 2) Comparison of our system to Marxism-Leninism. Implication:
    ours is more destructive.

ROFL! That would be the point where I'd stop and place the book into the
recycling bin.

Your loss. And you would have been worse off if you'd been reading the
book back in 1992, when the scientific data that Gore was popularising
was less generally accessible.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
.

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