query: A recent essay in Scientific American argued that scientists “tend to underestimate the severity of threats and the rapidity with which they might unfold” and said one of the reasons was “the perceived need for consensus.”

positive: Media coverage of global warming Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media.  Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.

positive: Intelligent design Intelligent design ( ID ) is a religious argument for the existence of God . Presented by its proponents as `` an evidence-based scientific theory about life 's origins '' , it has been found to be pseudoscience . Proponents claim that `` certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause , not an undirected process such as natural selection . '' Educators , philosophers , and the scientific community have demonstrated that ID is a religious argument , a form of creationism which lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses . Proponents argue that it challenges the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science , while conceding that they have yet to produce a scientific theory . The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute , a politically conservative think tank based in the United States . Although they state that ID is not creationism and deliberately avoid assigning a personality to the designer , many of these proponents express belief that the designer is the Christian deity .   ID presents two main arguments against evolutionary explanations : irreducible complexity and specified complexity . These arguments offer assertions that certain features ( biological and informational , respectively ) are too complex to be the result of natural processes . As a positive argument against evolution , ID proposes an analogy between natural systems and human artifacts , a version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God . ID proponents then conclude by analogy that the complex features , as defined by ID , are evidence of design . Detailed scientific examination has rebutted the claims that evolutionary explanations are inadequate , and this premise of intelligent design -- that evidence against evolution constitutes evidence for design -- has been criticized as a false dichotomy .   Though the phrase `` intelligent design '' had featured previously in theological discussions of the design argument , the first publication of the term intelligent design in its present use as an alternative term for creationism was in Of Pandas and People , a 1989 textbook intended for high school biology classes . The term was substituted into drafts of the book after the 1987 United States Supreme Court 's Edwards v. Aguillard decision , which barred the teaching of creation science in public schools on constitutional grounds . From the mid-1990s , the intelligent design movement ( IDM ) , supported by the Discovery Institute , advocated inclusion of intelligent design in public school biology curricula . This led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial in which U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science , that it `` can not uncouple itself from its creationist , and thus religious , antecedents , '' and that the school district 's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution , often described as the `` wall of separation between church and state '' .

positive: Consciousness Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness , or , of being aware of an external object or something within oneself . It has been defined variously in terms of sentience , awareness , subjectivity , the ability to experience or to feel , wakefulness , having a sense of selfhood or soul , the fact that there is something `` that it is like '' to `` have '' or `` be '' it , and the executive control system of the mind , or the state or quality of awareness , or , of being aware of an external object or something within oneself . In contemporary philosophy its definition is often hinted at via the logical possibility of its absence , the philosophical zombie , which is defined as a being whose behavior and function are identical to one 's own yet there is `` no-one in there '' experiencing it .   Despite the difficulty in definition , many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is . As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness : `` Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness , making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives . ''   Western philosophers , since the time of Descartes and Locke , have struggled to comprehend the nature of consciousness and identify its essential properties . Issues of concern in the philosophy of consciousness include whether the concept is fundamentally coherent ; whether consciousness can ever be explained mechanistically ; whether non-human consciousness exists and if so how can it be recognized ; how consciousness relates to language ; whether consciousness can be understood in a way that does not require a dualistic distinction between mental and physical states or properties ; and whether it may ever be possible for computing machines like computers or robots to be conscious , a topic studied in the field of artificial intelligence .   Thanks to developments in technology over the past few decades , consciousness has become a significant topic of interdisciplinary research in cognitive science , with significant contributions from fields such as psychology , neuropsychology and neuroscience . The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness -- that is , on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness . The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness in humans by asking subjects for a verbal report of their experiences ( e.g. , `` tell me if you notice anything when I do this '' ) . Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception , blindsight , denial of impairment , and altered states of consciousness produced by alcohol and other drugs , or spiritual or meditative techniques .   In medicine , consciousness is assessed by observing a patient 's arousal and responsiveness , and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from full alertness and comprehension , through disorientation , delirium , loss of meaningful communication , and finally loss of movement in response to painful stimuli . Issues of practical concern include how the presence of consciousness can be assessed in severely ill , comatose , or anesthetized people , and how to treat conditions in which consciousness is impaired or disrupted .

positive: Thomas Kuhn Thomas Samuel Kuhn ( -LSB- ˈkuːn -RSB- July 18 , 1922 -- June 17 , 1996 ) was an American physicist , historian and philosopher of science whose controversial 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles , introducing the term paradigm shift , which has since become an English-language idiom .   Kuhn made several notable claims concerning the progress of scientific knowledge : that scientific fields undergo periodic `` paradigm shifts '' rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way , and that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before ; and that the notion of scientific truth , at any given moment , can not be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community . Competing paradigms are frequently incommensurable ; that is , they are competing and irreconcilable accounts of reality . Thus , our comprehension of science can never rely wholly upon `` objectivity '' alone . Science must account for subjective perspectives as well , since all objective conclusions are ultimately founded upon the subjective conditioning/worldview of its researchers and participants .

negative: Balance of threat The balance of threat ( BoT ) theory was proposed by Stephen M. Walt first in an article titled `` Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power '' published in the journal International Security in 1985 and later further elaborated in his book `` The Origins of Alliances '' ( 1987 ) . The balance of threat theory modified the popular balance of power theory in the neorealist school of international relations .   According to balance of threat theory , states ' alliance behavior is determined by the threat they perceive from other states . Walt contends that states will generally balance by allying against a perceived threat , although very weak states are more likely to bandwagon with the rising threat in order to protect their own security . He points to the example of the alliance patterns of European states before and during World War I and World War II , when nations with a significantly greater combined power allied against the recognized threat of German expansionism .   Walt identifies four criteria states use to evaluate the threat posed by another state : its aggregate strength ( size , population , and economic capabilities ) , its geographic proximity , its offensive capabilities , and its offensive intentions . Walt argues that the more other states view a rising state as possessing these qualities , the more likely they are to view it as a threat and balance against it .   Balance of threat theory modified realism ( as well as the neorealism of Kenneth Waltz ) by separating power from threat . In balance of power theory , which had previously dominated realist analyses , states balance against others whose power ( i.e. , military capabilities ) was rising -- greater power was assumed to reflect offensive intentions . Walt argues that this is not borne out by empirical evidence , and that balance of threat theory -- in which states will not balance against those who are rising in power but do not display offensive intentions -- gives a better account of the evidence . For instance , the United States was most powerful of the two superpowers during the Cold War , but , contrary to the balance of power theory , more states ( e.g. , the NATO nations ) allied with it than with the Soviet Union because the United States displayed much less aggressive intentions toward them than did the Soviet Union .   The flaw of the balance of power theory became even more striking after the disappearance of the Soviet threat . With its power unbalanced , Walt argued in 2004 , the United States is still formally allied with NATO , Japan , South Korea and several other countries , and hints that the U.S. might withdraw its forces still tend to provoke requests for a continued U.S. presence . Counterbalancing coalitions predicted by the balance of power theory hardly appeared :

negative: Global alert Global alert is used as the global radio-communications network during times of international crises or threats to international security . Global Alerts are also issued by agencies such as the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , when there is a perceived threat of international pandemic , ( global epidemic ) , such as the threat of a SARS , ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ) , pandemic during March 2003 , due to its high contagion level which was rapidly spread by travelers sharing international flights . The global alert released by the World Health Organization regarding the SARS outbreak and its rapid contagion saved many lives : The alert about the disease , precautionary measures , and preventive measures to be taken by individuals , including specific hygiene information needed to arrest the spread of SARS was communicated instantly throughout the world .

negative: Experimenter's regress In science , experimenter 's regress refers to a loop of dependence between theory and evidence . In order to judge whether evidence is erroneous we must rely on theory-based expectations , and to judge the value of competing theories we rely on evidence . Cognitive bias affects experiments , and experiments determine which theory is valid . This issue is particularly important in new fields of science where there is no community consensus regarding the relative values of various competing theories , and where sources of experimental error are not well known .   In a true scientific process , no consensus does exist and no consensus can exist as the process is conducted scientifically in the pursuit of knowledge . If any party involved in the process stands to personally lose or gain from the result , the process will be flawed and unscientific .   In a true scientific process , a theory is formed after a scientist - amateur or professional - has observed a phenomenon and has asked `` why ? '' as a result . The theory is the answer the scientist creates using logic and reason to explain the phenomenon . The scientist then focuses on how to conduct experiments to test the theory incrementally and the theory is either proven to be true or false through repeatable and legitimate experimentation . Legitimate scientific experiments conducted by the person who formulated the theory seek to prove the theory false rather than prove it true specifically to counter the effects of bias .   If experimenter 's regress acts a positive feedback system , it can be a source of pathological science . An experimenter 's strong belief in a new theory produces confirmation bias , and any biased evidence they obtain then strengthens their belief in that particular theory . Neither individual researchers nor entire scientific communities are immune to this effect ; see N-rays and Polywater .   Experimenter 's regress is a typical relativistic phenomenon in the Empirical Programme of Relativism ( EPOR ) . EPOR is very much concerned with a focus on social interactions , by looking at particular ( local ) cases and controversial issues in the context in which they happen . In EPOR , all scientific knowledge is perceived to be socially constructed and is thus `` not given by nature '' .   In his article Son of seven sexes : The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon , Harry Collins argued that scientific experiments are subject to what he calls `` experimenter 's regress '' . The outcome of a phenomenon that is studied for the first time is always uncertain and judgment in these situations , about what matters , requires considerable experience , tacit and practical knowledge . When a scientist runs an experiment , and a result comes out of this , he can never be sure whether this is the result he 'd expected . The result looks good because he knows the experiment he conducted was right or that the results are wrong . The scientist , in other words , has to get the right answers in order to know that the experiment is working , or to know that the experiment is working , to get the right answer .   Experimenter 's regress occurs at the `` research frontier '' where the outcome of research is uncertain , for the scientist is dealing with `` novel phenomena '' . Collins puts it this way : `` usually , successful practice of an experimental skill is evident in a successful outcome to an experiment , but where the detection of a novel phenomenon is in question , it is not clear what should count as a ` successful outcome ' -- detection or non detection of the phenomenon '' ( Collins 1981 : 34 ) . In new fields of research where no paradigm has yet evolved and where no consensus exists as what counts as proper research , experimenter 's regress is a problem that often occurs . Also in situations where there is much controversy over a discovery or claim due to opposing interests , dissenters will often question experimental evidence that founds a theory .   Because for Collins , all scientific knowledge is socially constructed , there are no purely cognitive reasons or objective criteria that determine whether a claim is valid or not . The regress must be broken by `` social negotiation '' between scientists in the respective field . In the case of Gravitational Radiation , Collins notices that Weber , the scientist who is said to have discovered the phenomenon , could refute all the critique and had `` a technical answer for every other point '' but he was not able to convince other scientists and in the end he was not taken seriously anymore .   The problems that come with `` experimenter 's regress '' can never be fully avoided because scientific outcomes in EPOR are seen as negotiable and socially constructed . Acceptance of claims boils down to persuasion of other people in the community . Experimenter 's regress can always become a problem in a world where `` the natural world in no way constrains what is believed to be '' . Moreover , attempts to falsify a claim , by replicating an experiment , are hard and problematic for it involves tacit knowledge ( i.e. unarticulated knowledge ) , matters of time and money and replication of exact similar conditions , which is hard . Tacit knowledge can never be fully articulated or translated into a set of rules .   Some commentators have argued that Collins 's `` experimenter 's regress '' is foreshadowed by Sextus Empiricus ' argument that `` if we shall judge the intellects by the senses , and the senses by the intellect , this involves circular reasoning inasmuch as it is required that the intellects should be judged first in order that the intellects may be tested -LSB- hence -RSB- we possess no means by which to judge objects '' ( quoted after Godin & Gingras 2002 : 140 ) . Others have extended Collins 's argument to the cases of theoretical practice ( `` theoretician 's regress '' ; Kennefick 2000 ) and computer simulation studies ( `` simulationist 's regress '' ; Gelfert 2011 ) .

negative: Search for a Method Search for a Method or The Problem of Method ( Questions de méthode ) is a 1957 essay by Jean-Paul Sartre , in which he attempts to reconcile Marxism with existentialism . The first version of the essay was published in the Polish journal Twórczość ; an adapted version appeared later that year in Les Temps modernes , and later served as an introduction for Sartre 's Critique of Dialectical Reason ( Paris , 1960 ) . Sartre argues that existentialism and Marxism are compatible , even complementary , even though Marxism 's materialism and determinism might seem to contradict the abstraction and radical freedom of existentialism .

negative: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint .   The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows :  The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years .  `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane .  If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming .   These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science .   There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds .   For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations .   NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .

negative: Blood type diet The blood type diets are fad diets advocated by several authors , the most prominent of which is Peter J. D'Adamo . These diets are based on the notion that ABO blood type is the most important factor in determining a healthy diet and each recommends distinct diets for each blood type .   The consensus among dietitians , physicians , and scientists is that these diets are unsupported by scientific evidence .

negative: Chronic bracing Chronic Bracing is the continuous tension of muscles resulting from a conscious or subconsciously perceived ongoing fear or threat .   Whilst under a threat , the human 's flight or fight response alters normal body functions to improve its ability to survive a threat . These changes include the tensioning of muscles around the trunk and spine providing improved protection of vital organs from a physical threat .   However , this useful reaction to a physical threat is also triggered under perceived threats that are not physical in nature .   If these perceived fear or threat is ongoing , which is often the case if perceived from within the unconscious , Chronic Bracing will be one of the consequences .

negative: Annales Alamannici The Annales Almannici , which are also referred to as the Annals of St. Gall , provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available .   They are notable for their short , cursory style and limited narrative . To the modern scholar , they might appear to be incomplete , and for that reason , of limited value . However , in recent years , historians such as Hayden White have argued that the style of the chronicles depict a worldview that is distinctly medieval where `` things happen to people rather than one in which people do things . '' For that reason , they provide insight into the medieval mind and what things the people of the Dark Ages considered important .   The core text of the Annales Alamannici covers the years 709 through to 799 . Spread over several Swabian monasteries , the annals were continued independently in several places , in the Reichenau Abbey up to 939 ( continued by Hermannus Contractus ) , in St. Gallen up to 926 . The St. Gallen version was continued from 927 to 1059 as the Annales Sangallenses maiores .

negative: Barefoot running Barefoot running , also called `` natural running '' , is the act of running without footwear . With the advent of modern footwear , running barefoot has become less common in most parts of the world but is still practiced in parts of Africa and Latin America . In some Western countries , barefoot running has grown in popularity due to perceived health benefits .   Scientific research into the practice of running barefoot has not reached a clear consensus regarding its risks or its benefits . While footwear might provide protection from cuts , bruises , impact and weather , proponents of barefoot running argue that it reduces the risk of chronic injuries ( notably repetitive stress injuries ) caused by heel striking in padded running shoes .   The barefoot movement has prompted some manufacturers to introduce thin-soled and flexible shoes such as traditional moccasins and huaraches for minimalist running .

negative: Lessons of October Lessons of October ( Russian : Уроки Октября ) is a polemical essay of about 60 printed pages in length by Leon Trotsky , first published in Moscow in October 1924 as the preface to the third volume of his Collected Works . The essay was harshly critical of the purported revolutionary failings of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev , two key members of the collective leadership which briefly ruled Soviet Russia in the months after the death of V.I. Lenin . Publication of the essay was used as a pretext for the Soviet leadership to isolate and attack Trotsky , whom the leadership mutually perceived as a threat to accede to supreme power .   In subsequent years Trotsky 's essay was reprinted several times under its own covers by the international Trotskyist movement .

negative: Jean de Silhon Jean de Silhon ( 1596 , Sos , Lot-et-Garonne -- February 1667 , Paris ) was a French philosopher and politician . He was a founding member , and the first to occupy seat 24 of the Académie française in 1634 .   At Cardinal Richelieu 's prompting , he defended the concept of reason of state , arguing that the political necessities under which the State operates mean that it need not always follow normal laws of ethics , such as telling the truth . Reason of state was thus , he said , `` a mean between that which conscience permits and affairs require . ''

negative: Gene nomenclature Gene nomenclature is the scientific naming of genes , the units of heredity in living organisms . An international committee published recommendations for genetic symbols and nomenclature in 1957 . The need to develop formal guidelines for human gene names and symbols was recognized in the 1960s and full guidelines were issued in 1979 ( Edinburgh Human Genome Meeting ) . Several other genus-specific research communities ( e.g. , Drosophila fruit flies , Mus mice ) have adopted nomenclature standards , as well , and have published them on the relevant model organism websites and in scientific journals , including the Trends in Genetics Genetic Nomenclature Guide . Scientists familiar with a particular gene family may work together to revise the nomenclature for the entire set of genes when new information becomes available . For many genes and their corresponding proteins , an assortment of alternate names is in use across the scientific literature and public biological databases , posing a challenge to effective organization and exchange of biological information . Standardization of nomenclature thus tries to achieve the benefits of vocabulary control and bibliographic control , although adherence is voluntary . The advent of the information age has brought gene ontology , which in some ways is a next step of gene nomenclature , because it aims to unify the representation of gene and gene product attributes across all species .   Gene nomenclature and protein nomenclature are not separate endeavors ; they are aspects of the same whole . Any name or symbol used for a protein can potentially also be used for the gene that encodes it , and vice versa . But owing to the nature of how science has developed ( with knowledge being uncovered bit by bit over decades ) , proteins and their corresponding genes have not always been discovered simultaneously ( and not always physiologically understood when discovered ) , which is the largest reason why protein and gene names do not always match , or why scientists tend to favor one symbol or name for the protein and another for the gene . Another reason is that many of the mechanisms of life are the same or very similar across species , genera , orders , and phyla , so that a given protein may be produced in many kinds of organisms ; and thus scientists naturally often use the same symbol and name for a given protein in one species ( for example , mice ) as in another species ( for example , humans ) . Regarding the first duality ( same symbol and name for gene or protein ) , the context usually makes the sense clear to scientific readers , and the nomenclatural systems also provide for some specificity by using italic for a symbol when the gene is meant and plain ( roman ) for when the protein is meant . Regarding the second duality ( a given protein is endogenous in many kinds of organisms ) , the nomenclatural systems also provide for at least human-versus-nonhuman specificity by using different capitalization , although scientists often ignore this distinction , given that it is often biologically irrelevant .   Also owing to the nature of how scientific knowledge has unfolded , proteins and their corresponding genes often have several names and symbols that are synonymous . Some of the earlier ones may be deprecated in favor of newer ones , although such deprecation is voluntary . Some older names and symbols live on simply because they have been widely used in the scientific literature ( including before the newer ones were coined ) and are well established among users .   Lastly , some proteins and protein complexes are built from the products of several genes ( each gene contributing a polypeptide subunit ) , which means that the protein or complex will not have the same name or symbol as any one gene .

negative: Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally .   Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be .   Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .

negative: Static interpretation of time The static interpretation of time is a view of time which arose in the early years of the 20th Century from Einstein 's Special Relativity and Hermann Minkowski 's extension of Special Relativity in which time and space were famously united in physicists ' thinking as spacetime .   Essentially the universe is regarded as akin to a reel of film -- which is a wholly static physical object -- but which when played through a movie projector conjures a world of movement , color , light and change . In the static view our whole universe -- our past , present , and future are fixed parts of that reel of film , and the projector is our consciousness . But the ` happenings ' of our consciousness have no objective significance -- the objective universe does not happen , it simply exists in its entirety , albeit perceived from within as a world of changes .   The alternative , and commonly assumed view , is that the world unfolds in existence , that our present has some wider physical significance , because the universe evolves in step with it .   The static view is the simpler in that all that is held to exist is the physical ordering of the universe . All that there is at every time simply exists . The unfolding view requires an additional quality to the universe -- that besides the physical ordering there is some quality of coming into and out of existence .   One can argue that the onus is therefore upon those who propose it , that the world unfolds , and that this additional quality they hold to ( absent from special relativity ) is indeed a physical feature of the world . There is however as yet no proof , experiment , or measurement , to show that our conscious experience of an unfolding present has any objective physical significance , or that the universe is anything other than static .   The static view is however commonly rejected for psychological , not scientific reasons , because it leads to a fatalistic or `` fixed '' conclusion about human existence -- our ` past ' , ` present ' , and ` future ' being what they are -- there is no contingency in the world and no possibility of ` altering ' or creating the future through some act of will -- the future exists . It is simply that our consciousness has not yet reached it .

negative: Cartesian circle The Cartesian circle is a potential mistake in reasoning attributed to René Descartes .   Descartes argues -- for example , in the third of his Meditations on First Philosophy -- that whatever one clearly and distinctly perceives is true : `` I now seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true . '' ( AT VII 35 ) He goes on in the same Meditation to argue for the existence of a benevolent God , in order to defeat his skeptical argument in the first Meditation that God might be a deceiver . He then says that without his knowledge of God 's existence , none of his knowledge could be certain .   The Cartesian circle is a criticism of the above that takes this form :  Descartes ' proof of the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions takes as a premise God 's existence as a non-deceiver .  Descartes ' proofs of God 's existence presuppose the reliability of clear and distinct perceptions .  Thus , Descartes ' argument is circular .

negative: Benefit tourism Benefit tourism is a political term coined in the 1990s and later used for the perceived threat that a huge number of citizens from eight of the ten new nations given membership in the European Union in the 2004 enlargement of the European Union would move to the existing member states to benefit from their social welfare systems rather than to work . This threat was in several countries used as a reason for creating temporary work or benefit restrictions for citizens from the eight new member states .

negative: Pluralist theories of truth A pluralist theory of truth is a theory of truth which posits that there may be more than one property that makes a proposition true .   Most traditional theories of truth are monist : that is , they hold that there is one and only property the having of which makes a belief or proposition true . Pluralist theories of truth deny this assumption . According to pluralism , ethical propositions might be true by more than one property , for example by virtue of coherence ; propositions about the physical world might also be true by corresponding to the objects and properties they are about . Pluralism , in short , holds out the prospect that propositions might be `` true in more than one way '' .   Crispin Wright is the most well-known advocate of pluralism about truth . In his 1992 book Truth and Objectivity , Wright argued that any predicate which satisfied certain platitudes about truth qualified as a truth predicate . In some discourses , Wright argued , the role of the truth predicate might be played by the notion of superassertibility .   Michael Lynch ( philosopher ) has recently advocated a different type of pluralism about truth . In a series of articles and in his 2009 book Truth as One and Many Lynch argues that we should see truth as a functional property capable of being multiply manifested in distinct properties like correspondence or coherence .

negative: History of scientific method The history of scientific method considers changes in the methodology of scientific inquiry , as distinct from the history of science itself . The development of rules for scientific reasoning has not been straightforward ; scientific method has been the subject of intense and recurring debate throughout the history of science , and eminent natural philosophers and scientists have argued for the primacy of one or another approach to establishing scientific knowledge . Despite the disagreements about approaches , scientific method has advanced in definite steps . Rationalist explanations of nature , including atomism , appeared both in ancient Greece in the thought of Leucippus and Democritus , and in ancient India , in the Nyaya , Vaisesika and Buddhist schools , while Charvaka materialism rejected inference as a source of knowledge in favour of an empiricism that was always subject to doubt . Aristotle pioneered scientific method in ancient Greece alongside his empirical biology and his work on logic , rejecting a purely deductive framework in favour of generalisations made from observations of nature .   Some of the most important debates in the history of scientific method center on : rationalism , especially as advocated by René Descartes ; inductivism , which rose to particular prominence with Isaac Newton and his followers ; and hypothetico-deductivism , which came to the fore in the early 19th century . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , a debate over realism vs. antirealism was central to discussions of scientific method as powerful scientific theories extended beyond the realm of the observable , while in the mid-20th century some prominent philosophers argued against any universal rules of science at all .

negative: Scientific method The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena , acquiring new knowledge , or correcting and integrating previous knowledge . To be termed scientific , a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning . The Oxford Dictionaries Online define the scientific method as `` a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century , consisting in systematic observation , measurement , and experiment , and the formulation , testing , and modification of hypotheses '' . Experiments need to be designed to test hypotheses . The most important part of the scientific method is the experiment .   The scientific method is a continuous process , which usually begins with observations about the natural world . Human beings are naturally inquisitive , so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas ( hypotheses ) about why things are the way they are . The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways , including making further observations about nature . In general , the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data . Depending on how well the tests match the predictions , the original hypothesis may require refinement , alteration , expansion or even rejection . If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed .   Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another , identifiable features are frequently shared in common between them . The overall process of the scientific method involves making conjectures ( hypotheses ) , deriving predictions from them as logical consequences , and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions . A hypothesis is a conjecture , based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question . The hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad . Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments . Under modern interpretations , a scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable , implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis ; otherwise , the hypothesis can not be meaningfully tested .   The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis . Experiments can take place anywhere from a college lab to CERN 's Large Hadron Collider . There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method , however . Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps , it represents rather a set of general principles .  Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry ( or to the same degree ) , and are not always in the same order . Some philosophers and scientists have argued that there is no scientific method , such as Lee Smolin and Paul Feyerabend ( in his Against Method ) . Nola and Sankey remark that `` For some , the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year 's debate '' .

negative: Perceived organizational support Perceived organizational support ( POS ) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfills socioemotional needs . POS is generally thought to be the organization 's contribution to a positive reciprocity dynamic with employees , as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate received rewards and favorable treatment . This idea bloomed from Eisenberger and Rhoades ' organizational support theory .

negative: Raffles and Miss Blandish `` Raffles and Miss Blandish '' is an essay by George Orwell first published in Horizon in October 1944 as `` The Ethics of the Detective Story from Raffles to Miss Blandish '' . Dwight Macdonald published the essay in politics in November 1944 . It was reprinted in Critical Essays , London , 1946 .   The essay contrasts the A. J. Raffles crime stories with the novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish by the crime writer James Hadley Chase and observes the `` immense differences in moral atmosphere '' . In the semi-pornographic crime novel Orwell decries the breaking down of all taboos as the author attracts readers by violence , cruelty and sexual sadism . Orwell argues a direct connection between pornography and power worship . He refers to `` realism '' , meaning the doctrine that might is right , by writing `` The growth of ` realism ' has been the great feature of the intellectual history of our own age . It is important to notice that the cult of power tends to be mixed up with a love of cruelty and wickedness for their own sakes . '   Orwell further notes that No Orchids for Miss Blandish is written in the American language and that many people were under the impression that it was an American book . `` Evidently there are great numbers of English people who are partly Americanised in language , and one ought to add , in moral outlook . In America , both in life and fiction , the tendency to tolerate crime , even to admire the criminal so long as he is successful , is very much more marked . ''

negative: Caregiver burden Caregiver burden is the stress which is perceived by caregivers due to the home care situation . This subjective burden is one of the most important predictors for negative outcomes of the care situation -- for the caregivers themselves as well as for the one who requires care .   Caregivers are all persons who support and help a person in need of care regularly because of personal -- not professional -- reasons . That means every kind of help and support . It does n't need to be health care in the narrow sense . The caregiver does n't need to be akin with the person they support . Often friends , neighbors or acquaintances provide support , too .

negative: Inventing the AIDS Virus Inventing the AIDS Virus is a 1996 book by molecular biologist Peter Duesberg , in which Duesberg argues that HIV does not cause AIDS . Duesberg contends that HIV is a harmless passenger virus and that AIDS is caused by unrelated factors such as drug abuse , antiretroviral medication , chronic malnutrition , poor sanitation , and hemophilia . The unambiguous scientific consensus is that HIV causes AIDS and that Duesberg 's claims are incorrect . Duesberg received a negative response from the scientific community for supporting AIDS denialism , misrepresenting and ignoring the scientific evidence that HIV causes AIDS , and for relying upon poor logic and manipulation . Duesberg 's book was also the subject of an authorship dispute with one of his graduate students .

negative: Visual temporal integration Visual temporal integration is a perceptual process of integrating a continuous , and rapid stream of information into discrete perceptual episodes or ` events ' . Arguably , integrating over small temporal windows , as opposed to sampling ` snapshots ' , allows the brain to evaluate visual information more reliably . VTI by the brain reflects an important property of the world : the closer in time two pieces of information occur , the more likely it is that they will be part of the same ` event ' . Several other factors determine the brain 's integration window .   One way in which scientists are studying visual temporal integration is by investigating the differences experienced by people with unusual ways of perceiving the world , for example through schizophrenia  or autism .

negative: Omphalos (book) Omphalos : An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot is a book by Philip Gosse , written in 1857 ( two years before Darwin 's On the Origin of Species ) , in which he argues that the fossil record is not evidence of evolution , but rather that it is an act of creation inevitably made so that the world would appear to be older than it is . The reasoning parallels the reasoning that Gosse chose to explain why Adam ( who would have had no mother ) had a navel : Though Adam would have had no need of a navel , God gave him one anyway to give him the appearance of having a human ancestry . Thus , the name of the book , Omphalos , which means ` navel ' in Greek .   Darwin is mentioned several times within the book , but always with considerable respect . Gosse had attended meetings at the Royal Society where evolutionary theory was tested by Darwin before the publication of Origin -- and had even made similar observations himself about variation of species in his own studies into marine biology -- and considered Darwin 's reasoning scientifically sound .

negative: Pleasure Spots `` Pleasure Spots '' is an essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell . The essay considers how pleasure resorts are likely to develop in the future , consisting of artificial environments with vacuous pleasures . Orwell argues that people need peace and to be able to appreciate nature .   The essay first appeared in Tribune on 11 January 1946 .

negative: Truth by consensus In philosophy , truth by consensus is the process of taking statements to be true simply because people generally agree upon them . Imre Lakatos characterizes it as a `` watered down '' form of provable truth propounded by some sociologists of knowledge , particularly Thomas Kuhn and Michael Polanyi .   Philosopher Nigel Warburton argues that the truth by consensus process is not a reliable way of discovering truth . That there is general agreement upon something does not make it actually true .  There are two main reasons for this :   One reason Warburton discusses is that people are prone to wishful thinking . People can believe an assertion and espouse it as truth in the face of overwhelming evidence and facts to the contrary , simply because they wish that things were so .  The other one is that people are gullible , and easily misled .   Another unreliable method of determining truth is by determining the majority opinion of a popular vote . This is unreliable because on many questions the majority of people are ill-informed . Warburton gives astrology as an example of this . He states that while it may be the case that the majority of the people of the world believe that people 's destinies are wholly determined by astrological mechanisms , given that most of that majority have only sketchy and superficial knowledge of the stars in the first place , their views can not be held to be a significant factor in determining the truth of astrology . The fact that something `` is generally agreed '' or that `` most people believe '' something should be viewed critically , asking the question why that factor is considered to matter at all in an argument over truth . He states that the simple fact that a majority believes something to be true is unsatisfactory justification for believing it to be true .   Warburton makes a distinction between the fallacy of truth by consensus and the process of democracy in decision-making . Democracy is preferable to other processes not because it results in truth , but because it provides for equal participation by multiple special-interest groups , and the avoidance of tyranny .   Weinberger characterizes Jürgen Habermas as a proponent of a consensus theory of truth , and criticizes that theory as unacceptable on the following grounds : First , even if everyone 's opinion is in agreement , those opinions may all nonetheless be erroneous . Second , truth by consensus is conceived as a limit that is approached via an idealized process of discourse ; however , it has not been proven that discourse even tends towards such a limit , or that discourse even tends towards one single limit , and thus it is not proven that truth is the limit that is approached by ideal discourse and consensus .

negative: Argument from morality The argument from morality is an argument for the existence of God . Arguments from morality tend to be based on moral normativity or moral order . Arguments from moral normativity observe some aspect of morality and argue that God is the best or only explanation for this , concluding that God must exist . Argument from moral order are based on the asserted need for moral order to exist in the universe . They claim that , for this moral order to exist , God must exist to support it . The argument from morality is noteworthy in that one can not evaluate the soundness of the argument without attending to almost every important philosophical issue in metaethics .   German philosopher Immanuel Kant devised an argument from morality based on practical reason . Kant argued that the goal of humanity is to achieve perfect happiness and virtue ( the summum bonum ) and believed that an afterlife must exist in order for this to be possible , and that God must exist to provide this . In his book Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis argued that `` conscience reveals to us a moral law whose source can not be found in the natural world , thus pointing to a supernatural Lawgiver . '' Lewis argued that accepting the validity of human reason as a given must include accepting the validity of practical reason , which could not be valid without reference to a higher cosmic moral order which could not exist without a God to create and/or establish it . A related argument is from conscience ; John Henry Newman argued that the conscience supports the claim that objective moral truths exist because it drives people to act morally even when it is not in their own interest . Newman argued that , because the conscience suggests the existence of objective moral truths , God must exist to give authority to these truths .

negative: Tornado outbreak of August 24, 2016 The Tornado outbreak of August 24 , 2016 was a six-hour tornado outbreak in which a total of 24 tornadoes touched down in Ontario , Indiana and Ohio . Several of these tornadoes were strong and caused significant damage , including a high-end EF2 that struck Windsor , Ontario , Canada and an EF3 that struck Kokomo , Indiana . This particular tornado outbreak was unusual for multiple reasons , including the fact that it was largely unexpected . The Storm Prediction Center had issued only a slight risk for severe weather that day , with the threat for a tornado or two limited to parts of Kansas , Missouri , Iowa , and Illinois . Despite this , the outbreak unfolded entirely outside of the outlined threat area as numerous supercell thunderstorms developed unexpectedly across parts of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley , producing numerous tornadoes . Tornado outbreaks of this size and intensity are also not commonly seen during the late summer months across the Ohio Valley region . Despite the damage , few injuries and no fatalities occurred .

negative: Enumerative induction Enumerative induction or , as the basic form of inductive inference , simply induction , reasons from particular instances to all instances , thus an unrestricted generalization . If one observes 100 swans , and all 100 were white , one might infer All swans are white . As this reasoning form 's premises , even if true , do not entail the conclusion 's truth , this is a form of inductive inference . The conclusion might be true , and might be thought probably true , yet it can be false . Questions regarding the justification and form of enumerative inductions have been central in philosophy of science , as enumerative induction has a pivotal role in the traditional model of the scientific method .

negative: History of science in the Renaissance During the Renaissance , great advances occurred in geography , astronomy , chemistry , physics , mathematics , manufacturing , anatomy and engineering . The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 , and the invention of printing which would democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas . But , at least in its initial period , some see the Renaissance as one of scientific backwardness . Historians like George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have criticized how the Renaissance affected science , arguing that progress was slowed for some amount of time . Humanists favored human-centered subjects like politics and history over study of natural philosophy or applied mathematics . Others have focused on the positive influence of the Renaissance , pointing to factors like the rediscovery of lost or obscure texts and the increased emphasis on the study of language and the correct reading of texts .   Marie Boas Hall coined the term Scientific Renaissance to designate the early phase of the Scientific Revolution , 1450 -- 1630 . More recently , Peter Dear has argued for a two-phase model of early modern science : a Scientific Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries , focused on the restoration of the natural knowledge of the ancients ; and a Scientific Revolution of the 17th century , when scientists shifted from recovery to innovation .

negative: Bird collections Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts . They are a research resource for ornithology , the science of birds , and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful . These collections are archives of avian diversity and serve the diverse needs of scientific researchers , artists , and educators .  Collections may include a variety of preparation types emphasizing preservation of feathers , skeletons , soft tissues , or ( increasingly ) some combination thereof . Modern collections range in size from small teaching collections , such as one might find at a nature reserve visitor center or small college , to large research collections of the world 's major natural history museums , the  largest of which contain hundreds of thousands of specimens . Bird collections function much like libraries , with specimens arranged in drawers and cabinets in taxonomic order , curated by scientists who oversee the maintenance , use , and growth of collections and make them available for study through visits or loans .


query: Contemporary Global Warming placed in geological context.

positive: Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions .   The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period .   Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .

positive: Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .

negative: Global warming in Luxembourg Global warming in Luxembourg discuss the global warming issues in Luxembourg .

negative: Global Warming Policy Foundation The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming .   It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not .  The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .

negative: Barkskins Barkskins is a 2016 novel by American writer Annie Proulx . It tells the story of two immigrants to New France , René Sel and Charles Duquet , and of their descendants . It spans over 300 years and witnesses the deforestation of the New World from the arrival of Europeans into the contemporary era of global warming .

negative: Storm World In his book Storm World : Hurricanes , Politics , and the Battle over Global Warming , Chris Mooney discusses tensions between two different approaches to analyzing global warming and its effect on hurricanes .

negative: United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection The United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection was one of six subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works during the 110th Congress . The subcommittee 's jurisdiction included :   Global warming  Fisheries and wildlife , including the Fish and Wildlife Service  Endangered Species Act ( ESA )  National Wildlife Refuges   The subcommittee was formerly known as the Subcommittee on Fisheries , Wildlife , and Water , but was renamed during committee organization of the 110th Congress when global warming was added to its oversight responsibilities . It served as a counterpart to the new Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , and Children 's Health Protection .   The subcommittee was chaired by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut , and the ranking member was Senator John Warner of Virginia .

negative: Global warming controversy The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally .   Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be .   Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .

negative: GWPP The initials GWPP could indicate :   the Global Water Policy Project , a fresh-water conservation project headed by Sandra Postel .  the Global Warming Petition Project ( AKA the Oregon Petition ) , a project devoted to discrediting global climate change ( or its previous label global warming ) , under the auspices of the non-profit organization called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine .

negative: Global warming hiatus A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods .   Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system .   Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified .   Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .

negative: Thermal Credits Thermal credits is a new holistic concept which corresponds to the percentage of the climate impact saving obtained through mitigation and adaptation measures applied against global warming , taking as reference the global temperature rise projected in a given time scale . Thermal credits are measured in percentages of global warming reduction in a given time .

negative: National Centre for Contemporary Arts The National Center for Contemporary Art ( NCCA ) , Moscow , Russia , is a major museum , exhibition and research organization which primarily aims its efforts at the development of Contemporary Russian Art within the context of the global art process , at the creation and implementation of programs and projects in the sphere of contemporary art , architecture and design both in Russia and beyond its borders . The activity of the Center evolves in close cooperation with artists and independent experts in the sphere of contemporary art , art culture and various organizations , such as museums , research institutions , public organizations , both in Russia , and abroad .   The activities of the National Center of Contemporary Art follow several basic lines :   popularization and support of Contemporary Russian Art ;  various forms of curator work helping realize exhibition and audiovisual projects , installations , performances , hold video and movie presentations , creative sessions ;  analytical and information research activity in the sphere of contemporary art ;  educational activities -- lectures , seminars , master classes ;  work to form the collection of contemporary art , including Russian and foreign art .   Today , when the efforts of the previous years are bringing fruit , the National Center for Contemporary Art continues its active work aimed at the development and popularization of the Russian contemporary art and its integration in the global art context . At present NCCA is a network institution with its branches in major cultural centers of Russia , such as St. Petersburg , Nizhny Novgorod , Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad .   The National Center for Contemporary Art works under the auspices and with the constant support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography .

negative: Comparative cultural studies Comparative cultural studies is a contextual approach to the study of culture in a global and intercultural context . Focus is placed on the theory , method , and application of the study process ( es ) rather than on the `` what '' of the object ( s ) of study .

negative: Soraya Syed Soraya Syed Sanders ( born 1976 ) is an English classically trained Islamic calligrapher and artist . She uses classical Arabic calligraphy with new technologies such as holography , placing a traditional art-form into contemporary context .

negative: Global citizenship Global citizenship is the rights , responsibilities and duties that come with being a member of the global entity as a citizen of a particular nation or place . The idea is that one 's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are or can be derived from membership in a broader class : `` humanity '' . This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives their nationality or other , more local identities , but such identities are given `` second place '' to their membership in a global community . Extended , the idea leads to questions about the state of global society in the age of globalization . In general usage , the term may have much the same meaning as `` world citizen '' or cosmopolitan , but it also has additional , specialized meanings in differing contexts .

negative: Gary S. Schofield Gary Stewart Schofield is the New Zealander president of Global Concern , Inc. a nonprofitorganization with practical solutions for global warming . He is also a writer , musician , television producer and artist .

negative: United States Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children's Health Protection The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming , Oversight , Children 's Health Protection is one of the six subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . Created in 2007 , the subcommittee has general oversight jurisdiction over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as diverse issues such as global warming , children 's health protection , and the National Environmental Policy Act ( NEPA ) .

negative: Warm Mineral Springs (spring) The Warm Mineral Springs is a water-filled sinkhole located in North Port , Florida , a mile north of U.S. 41 . The primary water supply is a spring vent deep beneath the pool 's water surface . Warm Mineral Springs is the only warm water mineral spring in the State of Florida . It is an important geological and archaeological site containing Native American remnants . It functioned as a small natural spa since the 1960s . People travel from all over the world to soak in the mineral-rich waters . The waters are believed to have extraordinary healing powers and some believe it was the fountain of youth sought by Ponce de Leon . It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 28 , 1977 . The springs re-opened for swimming only on April 12 , 2014 .

negative: An Inconsistent Truth An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written , produced , and featuring , nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards . Valentine , a skeptic of global warming theory , interviewed scientists about the validity of Al Gore 's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within . What he is told by the scientists he interviews is that there is no consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change . The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label , basing their argument on what Valentine says is shaky scientific ground .

negative: The Greenhouse Conspiracy The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .

negative: Exodus (Bertagna novel) Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 .   Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith .  The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .

negative: Polycentric Networks A polycentric network in regards to public policy is a network of communities , municipalities , regions , nations , etc. who join together for a shared or common goal . The common goals as Kramer and Kadi express typically revolve around environmental protection policies but is not limited to the environment exclusively . The goals can be social , political , or industrial depending on the context and framework used . As it was elaborated to earlier , these networks can cross borders and create a more connected global community as Meijer claims . Scholars have found a direct relationship between connected cities and the policies they choose to implement on a micro , meso and macro scale .   With globalization has come the increased interconnectedness of world cities . With this interconnectedness , Romolini and Grove argue , creates more dynamic and well-rounded policies hitting the forefront of everyday life . They can be flexible as well as adaptive to changing contemporary issues allowing the participants in the network greater output from the given policy . The synergy created through these networks allows domestic based enterprises , which can include but are not limited to international airports , big business centers , cultural centers , as well as tourist areas to form , as Hall and Pain state in their book The Polycentric Metropolis : Learning from Mega-city Regions in Europe .   The following subsections will bring insight into what scholars are currently finding in regards to polycentric networks . These include the European context , the American context , the rural and urban context , micro/macro/meso levels of polycentric networks , polycentric networks in metropolitan areas and the potential future for polycentric networks in the growing globalized word . As well , other scholarly work on dynamic polycentric networks , ones where change is constantly happening , will be introduced through contemporary examples .

negative: Chesapeake Climate Action Network The Chesapeake Climate Action Network ( CCAN ) is the first grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland , Virginia , and the District of Columbia . The organization 's mission is to foster a rapid societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products , joining similar efforts worldwide to address global warming .

negative: Patrick Michaels Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 .   A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .

negative: Institute for Business in the Global Context Institute for Business in the Global Context ( IBGC ) is an educational organization founded in 2011 , devoted to international business studies , within The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy , at Tufts University . IBGC houses the school 's Master of International Business ( MIB ) , and the think tank Council on Emerging Market Enterprises ( CEME ) .

negative: Hong Kong Global Geopark Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark , formerly Hong Kong National Geopark , was inaugurated on 3 November 2009 . It covers an area of 50 km2 across parts of the Eastern and Northeastern New Territories . It includes eight sites ( and combinations of sites ) . On 18 September 2011 , UNESCO listed the Geopark as part of its Global Geoparks Network .   The Hong Kong Global Geopark consists of two geological regions : the widely distributed hexagonal rock columns in Sai Kung , which are of international geological significance , and the northeast New Territories region , which comprises sedimentary rocks formed in different geologic periods , showcasing the complete geological history of Hong Kong .   The Geopark is made up of eight Geo-Areas distributed across the Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region and Northeast New Territories Sedimentary Rock Region .

negative: Duncan Wingham Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission .   In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' .   In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''

negative: Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces Leon County Pleistocene coastal terraces and shorelines were the geologic result of warming and cooling periods in what is now Leon County , Florida during the Pleistocene epoch .

negative: Centre for Contemporary Photography The Centre for Contemporary Photography ( CCP ) , in Fitzroy , Melbourne , Victoria , is a venue for the exhibition of contemporary photo-based arts , providing a context for the enjoyment , education , understanding and appraisal of contemporary practice .

negative: Step It Up Step It Up can refer to :  Step It Up ( song )  Step It Up 2007 , U.S. global warming campaign

negative: United States House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was a select committee of the United States House of Representatives . It was established March 8 , 2007 through adoption of a resolution by a 269 -- 150 vote of the full House .   The committee existed from 2007 to 2011 , and was not renewed when the Republicans gained control of the House for the 112th Congress .

negative: Warm Springs Warm Springs may refer to :   Warm Springs Apache , a subdivision of the Chiricahua Apache  Warm Springs , California , in Riverside County  Warm Springs , Fremont , California  Warm Springs Elementary School , elementary school in Fremont , California  Warm Springs , Georgia , location of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's Little White House  Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation .  Warm Springs ( film ) , a 2005 movie about Roosevelt 's struggle with paralytic illness  Warm Springs , Montana  Warm Springs , Nevada  Warm Springs Natural Area  Warm Springs Indian Reservation , Oregon  Warm Springs , Oregon , located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation  Warm Springs bands , common contemporary name of the Tenino people  Warm Springs ( Utah ) , at Warm Springs Mountain , east Goshen Valley , Utah  Warm Springs , Virginia  An early alternative name for Berkeley Springs , West Virginia  Warm Mineral Springs , Florida

negative: Mautodontha boraborensis Mautodontha boraborensis is a species of gastropod in the family Charopidae . It is endemic to French Polynesia . Due to global warming , this species is now classified as critically endangered .

negative: Raymond A. Price Raymond Alexander Price , ( born March 25 , 1933 ) is an award winning Canadian geologist . He has used his research on the structure and tectonics of North America 's lithosphere to produce extensive geological maps . He has also provided guidance for nuclear fuel waste disposal and reports on the human contribution to Global warming .   Price was born in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada . He obtained his BSc in Geology from the University of Manitoba in 1955 . He completed two more degrees in geology at Princeton University ; an A.M. in 1957 and a PhD in 1958 .