Snowy123 wrote:
Wayne Stollings wrote:
..
A contributing factor is much different than a 'major cause.'
Yes, but since you ignored the whole phrase, which was SIGNIFICANT contributing factor this is nothing but a strawman.
The two phrases are significantly different only if you ignore things like the dictionary and thesaurus.
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Significant can also be subject to the scientist's interpretation of what significant actually means.
So can "major", but we were dealing with what was actually presented and not what you might interpret the "actual" meaning to be.
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The author of
this post interviewed skeptical climate scientists on this issue, and some would pick human activity as being a significant contributing factor, because significant is subject to one's interpretation of what significant actually means, since how much of a contribution for human activity to be a significant factor was not specified in the paper.
If one is the expert in the field, as is supposedly the point of contention, the opinion of that person on significance should not be that far from any other similar scientist. The point of a poll is generally to compare opinions.
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The major problem with this study is the second question. It is not phrased properly. In fact, the phrasing is so poor that I consider the entire study flawed because of it. There are multiple problems with the phrasing, so let me break them down.
This would be .... an OPINION?!?
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1. The phrase "human activity"
Human activity comprises numerous actions which can affect the climate other than greenhouse gases. Agricultural changes and deforestation are two influences that come to mind. Now, any respondent who believes that ANY human activity can change the climate must answer yes to this question.
A better phrasing would be:
Do you think anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?
2. The phrase "significant contributing factor"
The problem with this is obvious. What makes something significant? If 5% of recent temperature change is caused by mankind, is that significant? How about 10%? There is no context for answering the question. There is no way of knowing whether or not the respondents consider human activity the primary factor in temperature change.
A better phrasing would be:
Do you think that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the primary factor (50% or more) in changing mean global temperatures?
The best option would br for them to perform their own poll, would it not? It is easy to be critical of the work if one never does any themselves.