You may have heard that there was a debate held relatively recently (March 14, 2007) between skeptics and alarmists on whether global warming is a crisis. The audience was polled before and after the debate. The alarmists when into the debate with an almost 2 to 1 edge, more of the audience thinking global warming was a crisis, but the skeptics clearly won the debate as more of the audience left the debate thinking global warming was not a crisis.
The debate was held by Intelligence Squared U.S. and hosted by Brian Lehrer.
Speaking for the motion (not a crisis): Michael Crichton, Richard S. Lindzen and Philip Stott.
Speaking against the motion (crisis): Brenda Ekwurzel, Gavin Schmidt (of RealClimate, Richard C.J. Somerville.
Here are the poll results:
Before Debate
Not a Crisis: 29.88%
Crisis: 57.32%
Undecided: 12.80%
After Debate
Not a Crisis: 46.22%
Crisis: 42.22%
Undecided: 11.56%
The transcript and audio recording are now online. And here is some commentary on ClimateAudit.
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Liberal political philosopher and an adjunct instructor for Buena Vista University. His work has appeared in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and Transformers and Philosophy. He lives in Edgewood, KY with his wife and two children.
Related posts:
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- Scientific Skepticism and Asimov's Corollary to Clarke's First Law: Or, The Dearth of Scientific Skepticism in the Global Warming Debate
- The Great Global Warming Swindle
- Are the oceans really going to die?
Political Science PhD
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