Les Jones

Mr. Bailey's headline (which you share) says it all. Global warming is a prediction. You don't prove predictions. By framing the debate as "Has global warming been proven?" you guarantee a "No" answer before the discussion even begins, with the added bonus of tempting potential opponents into an untenable "Yes" position. Looking at the issue through that frame is a cheat.

To have an honest discussion, you have to focus on facts, not predictions. It's a fact that human activity is generating significant quantities of atmospheric pollutants. Ice core data shows that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are higher now than they have been at any time during the past 600,000 years. There is no credible natural explanation for that fact, but you can foster doubt by shifting the frame so the discussion hinges on temperature. Presto! Instant uncertainty.

Global warming is only one aspect of a much broader concern -- air pollution. Air pollution, broadly, includes imbalances in all sorts of gases and airborne particulates and impacts ranging from pulmonary disease to acidificiation of rain and streams and lakes to developmental disruptions to ecological disturbances to climate shifts. Impacts on human health and ecological health from air pollution are indisputable and offer adequate justification for regulating emissions, preferably by gradual, market-based means.

Impacts on climate are disputable. They're a wild card. The skeptics could be correct, or a major volcanic eruption could nullify our best efforts to curb our emissions. Natural cycles could counteract pollution-induced climate trends. Even if the risks of climate change never materialize, our children will still face higher incidences of asthma, and corrosive rain will continue to fall on spruce forests at the highest elevations in the Smokies.

id ya see this
new study - here comes the diet coke

Aspartame Does Not Raise Cancer Risk, Study Finds

Gas Price Gouging Vote Passes As Bush Voices Opposition to Tax Cuts

maybe now they will start to conserve

this is quite something...

Palm Unveils Treo 700p Smartphone

can't wait....

this is unreal

Canadians Healthier Than Americans

Teenage Boy Killed in California School Shooting

this is pretty ridicoulous

LOOK HOW MUCH WAS IN THIS

Report: $1.4 Billion Went to Fraudulent Aid for Katrina Victims

More Rain on the Way for Flooded Houston Area, Southwest Louisiana

this is quite something - Oh Boy

More Rain on the Way for Flooded Houston Area, Southwest Louisiana

this is quite something - Oh Boy

Archaeologists Open Up Latest Egyptian Tomb

what do you think they will find...

Suicide-by-Gas Eyed in NYC Building Explosion, Collapse

pretty nutty crap

Mideast War Has Affected Pilgrimages of Those of Many Faiths

this is something we should watch