H SDSU Physics 180B
Spring PodCast Debate 2006
H
 
Global Warming: Is more action needed? – Based on scientific research
That we should take more urgent action to halt this trend.
           
                 
            Already in the 1930s, many people noticed that their weather was getting warmer. Few connected this with human activity, and still fewer feared any harm. Gradually scientists, aided by science journalists, informed the minority of educated people that modern civilization might cause global warming, sometime far in the future. In the early 1970s, the question began to concern a wider public. By then most people had come to fear planet-wide harm from technology in general. Now an onslaught of droughts suggested we were already damaging the climate. The issue was confused, however, when experts debated whether pollution would bring global warming or, instead, an appalling new ice age. By the end of the 1970s, scientific opinion had settled on warming, although only in a remote and uncertain future. Some scientists nevertheless went directly to the public to demand action to avert the warming, and a few politicians took up the issue. It was during the hot summer of 1988 that outspoken scientists, convinced by new evidence that rapid climate change might be imminent, made the public fully aware of the problem. Scientific discussions now became entangled with fierce political debates over pollution and government regulation.
(more)(more)		    
 
 
   IT IS a persuasive image. Dubbed "the hockey stick" soon after it was first drawn, the graph shows the average temperature over the past 1000 years. For the first 900 or so years there is little variation, like the shaft of an ice-hockey stick. Then, in the 20th century, comes a sharp rise like a hockey stick's blade. The graph seems proof at a glance that we are drastically altering the climate of our planet.
   So it is not surprising that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chose to put the graph in the summary for policymakers in its 2001 report. Some of the scientists must have hoped that the image would become an icon of climate change.
   An icon it has certainly become, but not always for the reasons those scientists hoped. For the sceptics who dispute that global warming is real, or say it's nothing to worry about, the graph was like a red rag to a bull. They made it the focus of their attacks, hoping that by demolishing the hockey stick graph they would destroy the credibility of climate scientists and the notion of global warming as a phenomenon caused by human activity.
  
   In the minds of many people they have succeeded. The hockey stick graph is widely regarded as controversial, if not plain wrong. "The hockey stick, the poster-child of the global warming community, turns out to be an artifact of poor mathematics," physicist Richard Muller wrote in Technology Review in 2004. Others have described it as rubbish or even as a downright fraud. So what's all the fuss about? And who should you believe?(more)(more)  
 
1 - Global Warming
Negative
Heaven Protectors

Tetrameres
-vs-
Heaven Protectors
Affirmative
Tetramers
Thiem
Darren
Gabe
Anna
Hitun
Ted
Kim
Elizabeth
Debate Scoring and Rules
PodCast---> wma
Comments
April 28, 2006
Recording Instructions
1,2

a. Practice with a short recording to make sure everyone can be heard clearly.
b. Place the recorder in the middle of the debaters and begin recording the debate.
c. Don't pause the recorder or stop the recording. Let the recording continue for the entirety of the debate.
d. After you are finished recording the debate. Stop it and Lock it for safety.
Example Debate Form 1,2,3
               
Only 32 students can evaluate this debate.

No more reservations, please

Please do not evaluate this debate unless you were able to make a reservation.
Check here to confirm your reservation.		    
2 - Global Warming
Affirmative
Bums With Laptops		 Bums With Laptops
-vs-
No Way Jose

Negative
No Way Jose
Tomas Clark
 
John Donnie
Nayeli Eric
Javier Derek
  Debate Scoring and Rules
New PodCast---> aif
April 18, 2006
  Recording Instructions
1,2

a. Practice with a short recording to make sure everyone can be heard clearly.
b. Place the recorder in the middle of the debaters and begin recording the debate.
c. Don't pause the recorder or stop the recording. Let the recording continue for the entirety of the debate.
d. After you are finished recording the debate. Stop it and Lock it for safety.
Example Debate Form 1,2,3
 
Only 32 students can evaluate this debate.

No more Reservations

Please do not evaluate this debate unless you were able to make a reservation.14
Check here for confirmation