Secret Women's Business

There are fires raging over much of Australia right now, triggering debate on the contribution of climate change to our current unseasonable weather. This has also led to well-meaning people reposting articles from the climate denial industry. I thought I'd record a summary of my responses for posterity. That the earth is getting warmer is a fact.* See the graph here . There are two main possible reasons the earth is getting warmer. 1) more sunlight is coming in or 2) more heat is being trapped. Option One isn’t true – solar activity has been carefully measured. See graph here . **  This leaves us with Option Two. The earth is getting warmer because more heat is being trapped in the atmosphere. But why is it so? There are several so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that can trap heat (this is called ‘forcing’). Carbon dioxide, water, methane, and CFCs are among the known greenhouse gases .  Of these, carbon dioxide has the biggest im...

In a past life, somewhere back in the depths of the last millennium, I studied a science degree, and later did a Dip Ed. That makes me an expert on nothing, although years of teaching did help me refine the knack of explaining the complex as simply as possible. After my millionth encounter (or so) with someone of the opinion that global warming is a conspiracy / not real / a matter of scientific dispute, I have decided to use my special power for good. Here, for your edification, entertainment, and as reference point in future encounters with climate skeptics, is Janet's basic guide to the science of global warming: Carbon dioxide is produced during burning. You may have learned a simple equation in school: organic material + oxygen -> carbon dioxide + water. This happens all the time in a slow "burning" called respiration, where we break down sugars to release energy for our bodies. (That's why we breathe out carbon dioxide). It also happens whenever an orga...

One of the things I wonder about is the tension between having opinions and having humility. Intellectual humility would surely involve openness to being wrong. Part of the brilliance of the scientific method is that ideas are constantly tested against reality. Results of controlled testing are published, so others are able to design new tests to see whether a hypothesis is supported or not. Other areas of academic endeavour, such as philosophy, mathematics, theology, history, and the arts, also involve the discipline of publishing research for scrutiny. The business of publishing academic work opens one up for critique: your ideas might be rejected as other opinions compete for validity.  There is a vulnerability about the best academic endeavour. I must confess there are many areas where I have formed strong opinions. For example, I have judged Complementarian theology to be very poor theology indeed, based on dreadful hermeneutics, forcing those who adopt it to accept ludi...