Hi all, I’ve been reading your posts on housing for the last few weeks and have really enjoyed the information. This is my first post and I find it strange that it is not about housing, but I digress….
Theory vs Fact:
Apologists usually will point out that something is Theory and not Fact when they want to confuse the general public about certain issues. When they lack their own data to argue a point, they like to bring doubt to the other side’s argument by saying that it is “just a theory”.
In science the term Theory means a working idea of how an observed phenomena or fact is happening. One well understood example of this concept is gravity.
Fact: The apple falls from the tree to the ground
Theory #1: Newton says it is because of a force called Gravity between two bodies, hence the apple falls.
Theory #2: Einstein says, what force? The Gravity of the Earth warps space-time and the apple is merely traveling through the curved space-time.
Both theories are correct and explain the observed phenomena in a measured repeatable way. You can see how two “theories” are describing how a particular observation or fact may be explained.
In Evolution Theory, we observe species change over time through the fossil record and in real time through viruses and bacteria. The Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection is then an attempt to explain why we observe the above phenomena.
Hence in Global Warming we observe that the ice caps are melting at a faster rate than previously known, the global temp is rising etc… etc… One theory is of course it’s all natural cycles, which really is really like saying it’s just suppose to be this way, but we don’t really know that either. The other is that we humans are the major cause.
What lends the latter theory some real credibility is that NOW we humans are a real force of nature ourselves, because of our huge population and ever growing fossil fuel usage. It certainly can be a coincidence that the rise in CO2 and Temperature rise just happens to coincide with our Industrial Revolution over the last 100 years. But considering that we impact the planet in a measurable way and the timing of it all is so convenient to our fossil fuel usage, the human caused global warming theory has a lot of merit.
