Global warming.

yay!

You don't have to tell me it's real. :3 I'm from the Marshall Islands, and land keeps disappearing under sea level little by little, with the effect that fresh water is that much scarcer and typhoon storm surge is that much more of a problem. The Marshallese people have lived on their 29 atolls for as long as two millennia, but they have never seem the climate change this radically so quickly. When their land is gone, where will they live where they can preserve their language and culture? Not everyone can be as lucky as that Gilbertese-speaking atoll in Tuvalu whose people bought their own high island in Fiji to relocate to.

Piltdown Man.

Nice to see Alistair in an environment he's at home in.

It's so rare to see Alistair smile.

PA can beg to differ from this statement. We seriously got pounded this year with snow. People that have been in this state for more than 50 years said that this was the worst winter we've had to date!

And the western half of the U.S. (and the rest of the world as a whole) pretty much had record heat. That's why climate is measured as an average of at least 30-50 years, because there can always be 1- or 2-year flukes. :3 Besides, more severe winters were predicted in global warming models, because increased energy in the atmosphere drives more extreme weather systems, hot or cold. Recall from elementary school science that heat is but one form of energy. :3

Remember the Bermuda Triangle?

Uhh...not sure how that's relevant. XD

The Bermuda Triangle was supposedly a location in the Caribbean seas where ships and planes mysteriously vanished without a trace, and all sorts of explanations ranging from the spirit world to space aliens were put forth the explain this phenomenon. Genuine scientific research proved that it was nothing other than normal attrition due to storms, accidents, mechanical breakdowns, etc., and the hysteria passed.

The same is the case with so-called global warming caused by human pollution. I have seen no valid scientific evidence to prove that this phenomenon is for real, and suspect that the whole thing is driven by 100% pure politics.

None of that vulgar American conspiracy nonsense, please. The United States is the only country in the world where a mainstream political faction denies global warming. In every other country on earth, the mainstream conservative establishment accepts global warming, and denial is only an extreme fringe at best. Even most Australian conservatives accept global warming - they just argue Australia shouldn't have to do anything about it, and are at least honest in their selfishness. Come to our other countries and try to deny global warming, and you'll find practically no one will take you seriously. And in most threatened countries like my Marshall Islands, denial takes on a more morbid dimension.

Politicians would proclaim that Elvis Presley is still alive, if it were politically expedient to do so and a taboo to say otherwise. The Piltdown Man was an obvious hoax too, but scientists were supposed to say it was real due to the politics of the era. Only because of of 1950's era scientific testing was it irrefutably proven that the Piltdown Man was a fake.

And BTW, plenty of non-American non-politicians have told me that they don't believe in global warming either-and none of these people struck me as nutcases at all.

Statistically, they are still a fringe. Their own neighbors will tell you how nutty it is. I didn't grow up in the United States. Global warming denialism is always nutty to me, no matter who's doing the denying. But since the vast majority of the denialists are American, all that does is make Americans look particularly stupid. Sort of like how most Russians today believe Stalin is a saint - popularity does not make him less of a mass-murderer.

What you call "denialism" I call "lack of blind faith". When I find real evidence of global warming I will believe it. And I have seen absolutely none so far that hasn't been discredited.

Mainstream science has the skeptical peer review process for a reason. "Discredited" means that most of the relevant scientific community has reviewed the data and affirmed it. A peer confirmation rating of 97% is the near diametric opposite of "discredted." It puts global warming on a firmer scientific standing than the theory that cigarette smoking causes cancer. To believe the peer review process meaningless in this account, you would have to choose to reject the entire scientific process.

Here, a FAQ has been accumulated addressing common questions on the matter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:.....al_warming/FAQ

Now please...this conspiracy theory you're sharing is quite vulgar and uncouth for educated discussion. It's like Holocaust denial, but affects the lives of an even larger number of vulnerable people, because of all the people it will uproot and displace over the next century through loss of habitable land, loss of arable land, and the continuing climate refugee crisis. I don't find such a denial very amusing at all. I find it cowardly, spiteful and tragic. All to coddle the spoiled inhabitants of a country that gluttonously over-consumes natural resources for its unsustainable domestic lifestyle. If the entire world lived the way Americans do, we would need more than four planet Earths just to supply their demand for resources. So I'm done politely humoring you on the matter. Good day.

So you proved one thing-"global warming" is anti-Americanism in disguise, using pseudoscience as the latest weapon. And a good day to you.

Tom, if you disagree with the message of the picture, don't comment on it. This isn't the place for a massive argument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0q44ALM7jo

How true.

Take a hike, conspiracy theorist. *block*

Nice coloring with your nice arts !

We've had more clusters of tropical storms and flooding on the East coast of Australia in the last 10 years and yet the inner areas are still in drought.