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A copy from my dictionaryQuote:
Originally Posted by ramblingboy42
scepticalˈskɛptɪk(ə)l/
adjective
adjective: skeptical
1.
not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.
"the public were deeply sceptical about some of the proposals"
synonyms:dubious, doubtful, having reservations, taking something with a pinch of salt, doubting, questioning;
I have doubts that climate change is man made, this is why I use the word skeptic.
I'm not waying in on this but thought I would confirm
RB definition is the same as the Oxford dictionary
1A person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions.
I can't check if its the same as the Macquarie as used by the court system in NSW because you have to pay for it
EDIT: D2 Daves is also correct in the Oxford ie skeptical
You would need to know exactly what the definition of "skeptic" is and have some fairly strict rules about how you decide if a certain response (or pattern of responses) meant someone would be in the "skeptic" category. You'd also need to design the questions with some kind of lie scale. Not to mention some pretty powerful statistical methods to take a sample size of ~2000 and extrapolate that to the rest of the popn (~24,000,000).
From my skimming of the CSIRO report I don't think you can make any pronouncements about the ratio of "skeptics" to "believers" from that report.
As to what the media report? Well, if you believe the herald sun (or any media outlet) is a reliable source of scientific information then I can't really help you.
Scientific literacy is probably just as important as financial literacy in this age, but unless you take a science course at uni you're not likely to get it. Even then you might not.
To address the question about why there may be more skeptics (if that is even right) I will add this to my original (glib) answer: statistically speaking 50% of the population is below average intelligence. The extra 3% claimed by Nova et al is attributable to poor research design or other confounding variables.
Now, what were we talking about?
As I stated earlier, I do not believe everything I read but answer me this.Quote:
Originally Posted by akelly
If a news paper said something about you that was a lie would you sit back and do nothing, especially if they are quoting you?
I don't understand the question. You've read a newspaper before, right?
Are you seriously suggesting that the CSIRO are admitting to "facts" made up by a journalist because they didn't engage in a public battle with a tabloid rag?
I hope not.
Climate change is clearly real, and mainly caused by ignorant people who drive gas guzzling 4WDs! Hope I have not offended anyone on this forum! :p
The leaves on trees in Canberra have turned and started to drop a month later than normal this year. Was the subject of discussion on a gardening show on TV last night and was put down to climate change - now I dunno about that but the trees are definitely late.
I have four large trees on my property - the first normally turns yellow in mid Feb and all leaves are dropped by mid March - these leaves have just finished dropping. The last tree normally starts turning in early April and drops by June - it has only started turning colour this week.
Something is going on.
Garry
That's just weather I reckon. Would be interesting to see long term data though.
Same sort of thing happens here. We've had very mild, warm even, weather until about a week ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by garrycol
My pear and apple trees now blossom in spring and autumn. We are getting shorter winters that start late and break early.
Some thoughts:
What a majority think or believe does not make it right, just ask Galileo
I understood that climate change due to Co2 was still a hypothesis rather than proven ? It could be CFC , water vapor or a whole lot of things in combination.
If climate change is occurring due to human activity why do Govts still promote population growth via a wide range of subsidies/programs.
N.B I think humans are causing climate change, just not sure exactly how.