North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> Wait a minute.  Maybe some people get riled up over this, but we are 
> planting for the future.  The climate of the future matters more to us 
> than to mere growers of annual vegetables.  I think the point is to 
> toss in what evidence we find and let us all decide for ourselves.


The problem is that people get worked up when we get into political and 
social debates. This isn't a scientific issue. There's an overwhelming 
consensus among climate scientists that global warming IS happening and 
that it's happening because of the greenhouse gases we've been pumping 
into the air (removing carbon that's been deep underground for millions 
of years and putting it into the atmosphere).

There might be "two major camps in the world" on this issue, but there 
aren't two major *scientific* camps. Yes, there are SOME scientists who 
disagree, but that's always the case in science (and even then, most of 
them are talking about matters outside of their own field of expertise). 
The consensus of climatologists is overwhelming. And how could we in 
NAFEX debate the science in it, anyway? I'm not a climatologist, so I 
pretty well have to assume that the consensus of professionals in their 
own field is more likely to be true than my gut feelings. Yes, they may 
be wrong, but that's certainly not the smart bet.

Like evolution, in America this is simply a social issue and a political 
issue, and as such, it's going to do this group NO GOOD AT ALL to keep 
bringing it up over and over again.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm 
frightened of the old ones. - John Cage