Metaphors & SoundbitesTags:uncertainty
"What are going to develop that replaces Iowa?" — Bill McKibben responding to a conservative who thinks we can adapt to climate change.
"It’s all a game of odds. We’ve never been here before. We just know two things: one, the CO2 we put into the atmosphere stays there for man ...
"Rising greenhouse gas emissions pose significant risks to society and ecosystems." — Exxon Mobil.
Just thermometers, indicating since the 1880 that the Earth is warming due to climate change.
"The evidence for climate change is not a house of cards, where you take one piece out and the whole theory falls apart. It's more like a mo ...
"...History will not judge us by how much economic growth we achieve in the immediate years ahead, nor by how much we expand material consum ...
"Even small rises in sea level will have very big impact in some places, as storm surges hit coasts. If you raise the floor of a basketball ...
"Nature favours those organisms which leave the environment in better shape for their progeny to survive" — James Lovelock
While it's hard to know how much global warming contributes to any single weather event, science tells us that we will see more and more ext ...
"Think of Earth's climate as a drunk: When left alone, it sits; when forced to move, it staggers." —Dr Richard Alley.
"We're driving in a car with bad brakes in a fog and heaing for a cliff. We know for sure now that the cliff is out there, we just don't ...
"I am a pilot. I love flying in bad weather because you must trust the cockpit instruments. Up here, if you do not accept science, you die.— ...
"When it comes to climate change, true skepticism is two-sided. One-sided skepticism is no skepticism at all." —Michael Mann. ...
"Global warming will very probably unleash unstoppable planetary forces. And they will not be gradual. The history of our planet’s climate s ...
97 of 100 doctors recommend quick action to correct your child's serious abnormalities revealed by tests. One doctor says the child seems ...
"You don't have to believe in climate change to solve it. Everything we do to raise energy efficiency, will make money, improve security & ...
Some people say ‘When you are sure about climate change, then we will do something about it.’ Suppose your doctor says ‘Well, I am very ...
“The prospect of extreme climate change and its potentially devastating economic and social consequences are of great concern to the insuran ...
"At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pres ...
"Last month, more than 70 European companies, including Ikea and Coca Cola, asked the European Union to aim for more ambitious carbon cuts." ...
Climate change is "a significant investment risk for the foreseeable future".
Weather is like flipping a coin once. It is unpredictable. Climate is the average weather, measured over decades. It's like flipping a c ...
“It’s a bit like asking us to believe in Santa Claus after we have seen our parents putting the presents under the tree.” – Naomi Oreskes, P ...
"To do nothing when the situation is changing rapidly is not a conservative thing to do." — Spencer R. Weart from his book, The Discovery of ...
"To my free enterprise colleagues -- especially conservatives here -- (if) you think it's all a bunch of hooey, the Chinese don't." — conser ...
"I really, really deplore the politicisation and polarisation of this issue" [global warming]. "There are these increasingly unprincipled at ...
I am skeptical we can keep burning fossil fuels with a business as usual mentality without harming the planet.
"Science is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship. It is the evidence that does the dictating." - author John Reisman
"Responsibility is a big Republican theme. Why should we not take responsibility for what we are collectively doing to the climate system?" ...
'(Contrarians) seem “certain” the world’s scientists are wrong, and spewing 90 million tons per day of man-made (CO2) pollution into the atm ...
Reject climate change? "Make sure to say that very publicly, because I want our grandchildren to read what you said and what I said." - Bob ...
'If you dismiss all climate science as a hoax, I can’t help you. That’s between you & your beach house — and your kids, whose future you’re ...
'No warming in 15 years' is like arguing your car is broken down because it hasn't moved in the 15 seconds while you stopped at a red light. ...
No doctor can tell us exactly how and when we'll die. But that doesn't invalidate the reality of mortality. We can be quite certain tha ...
"To a patient scientist, the unfolding greenhouse mystery is far more exciting than the plot of the best mystery novel."—Dr. David Schindler
Climate change increases the odds for extreme weather. Like playing Russian Roulette, while adding more and more bullets to a revolver. Yo ...
We burn fossil fuels a million times faster than nature created them. Sooner or later, we will run out. — inspired by Dr. Richard Alley on ...
Have you ever stood on a beach and watched the tide coming in? The long-term trend (the water level steadily rising) is hidden behind sh ...
(With climate change) “we will see a shorter snow season, but more intense individual snowfall events. – Dr. Michael Mann, Climatologist at ...
"We're in a giant car headed for a brick wall and everyone is arguing over where they want to sit." - David Suzuki
“Think of climate change as something that increases our risks of being unlucky. We need to prepare up front as we move into a warmer, hott ...
If 97 out of 100 oncologists advised you to remove a skin mole, would you listen to 3 oncologists saying the spot on your skin is benign? A ...
"If ten people told you your house was on fire, you would call the fire department. You wouldn’t really care whether some of them thought th ...
"Ok, but its going to get expensive real quick," responds my friend, Scott, a car mechanic. The science of climate change is very similar.. ...
"If (Hurricane Sandy) was a criminal case, detectives would be treating global warming as a likely accomplice in the crime. - writer Andrew ...
Alarmed by Hurricane Sandy’s destruction and the current drought? Warning: Mother Nature is now imposing ‘an extreme weather tax.’
Extreme weather is not 'caused' by climate change, just like murder is not 'caused' by guns. But just as greater availability of firearms ma ...
"Science isn't "yes or no." Science is gradually reducing uncertainty. Consider gravity. We know gravity with a fairly high degree of und ...
“Climate change is a threat to our freedoms. If you're a Great Plains rancher or a farmer, your freedom is enormously constrained by the fa ...
"The paleoclimate record shouts out to us that, far from being self-stabilising, the Earth's climate system is an ornery beast which overrea ...
"Under pressure from climate stress even the most robust constitutional democracy may find its character threatened. Faced with more stress ...
"Congressman, set aside climate change, you realize that...things I suggested will help us be a lot more resilient against terrorism or oil ...
"I do not want the government telling me what to do. But, the longer we wait, the worse this problem gets...then you are going to see a lot ...
We're like the overweight patient that goes to the doctor and learns his cholesterol is too high. He doesn't die immediately—but until he ch ...
Who amongst us has not delayed opening a bank or credit card statement because we don't want to be reminded of the unpleasant news it contai ...
"Saying climate change is not real is like saying, 'the sun may not be real because it got dark last night." - comedian Bill Maher
"...97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC [anthropogenic climate change] outline ...
Some skeptics conflate 'uncertainty' with 'ignorance'. This is the idea that because scientists are uncertain about some aspect [of climate ...
"It's very easy right now to talk about climate change as... theoretical, to talk about the dirtiness caused by coal plants as...aesthetic" ...
Continued release of greenhouse gases is like playing "Russian Roulette with the climate, hoping that the future will hold no unpleasant sur ...
Saying ‘we won’t do anything until China does’ is like saying ’We won’t protect free speech until China does.’ — Senator Barbara Boxer, Cali ...
"People often ask if I believe in global warming. I now just reply with the question: 'Do you believe in gravity.'" — Neil deGrasse Tyson, ...
"Before we start geoengineering we have to raise the following question: are we sufficiently talented to take on what might become the onero ...
“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful” — George E. P. Box
"I wouldn’t characterize wanting to use the brakes on a foggy road as hysteria. Humanity is simply driving too fast for the conditions ahea ...
"When we look at the last 4 decades, we've seen 0.5°C global warming. Some people say, 'well that's not much!' Then I tell them to think o ...
Climate change is not a "cocktail hour curiosity." It is a very dangerous threat. Our climate system is an angry beast and we are poking i ...
"(Climate Change) is ultimately an argument of humans vs. physics. It is not Republicans vs. Democrats, liberals vs conservatives, or envir ...
"It's getting warmer. Storms are getting stronger...and it's getting harder to say this is an accident of nature" — Dr. Stephen Schneider.
Whether you choose 'wait and see' vs. accept the doctor's recommendation for urgent surgery is a value judgment. Ignoring or resolving clim ...
When you've built a great wall of evidence it takes more than a brick coming loose to bring the whole lot down.
"Blaming La Nina for the record drought is like blaming the car engine for the speeding ticket. See what happens when the driver steps on th ...
"You never have 100% certainty in anything. If you wait for 100% certainty on the battlefield, something bad is going to happen." — Vice Ad ...
"A wait and see policy may mean waiting until it is too late." — 1979 National Academy of Sciences report, Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Sc ...
In 1931, a book was published, "100 Authors Against Einstein." Albert Einstein's response: "If I were wrong, then one would be enough."
Sure, the climate always changes—just like asteroids have always hit the Earth. But does that mean that a big asteroid hitting the Earth tod ...