# Is Global Warming Being Overhyped?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-global-warming-being-overhyped/410153>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 1, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-global-warming-being-overhyped/410153 "2007-07-01T20:14:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-global-warming-being-overhyped/410153/41 "2007-07-03T03:35:03Z")

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I could buy that global warming is overhyped. It is, however, a very important problem, and possibly the most important problem. If a problem deserves overhyping, even if to garner action from the populace, it would be this one.

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**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-global-warming-being-overhyped/410153/42 "2007-07-03T15:18:33Z")

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> [@James Taylor](#):
>
> More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.

I don’t know how accurate his claims are but: [NASA’s gravitational measurements](http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/mar/HQ_06085_arctic_ice.html) of Antarctic ice mass indicate that the ice sheets there have lost approximately 152 cubic km of ice, and the IPCC combines this with other forms of measurement to say that:

> [@IPCC](#):
>
> Assessment of the data and techniques suggests overall Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance ranging from growth of 50 Gt yr–1 to shrinkage of 200 Gt yr–1 from 1993 to 2003.  
> …  
> Simply summing the 1993 to 2003 contributions from Greenland and Antarctica produces a range from balance (0 Gt yr–1) to shrinkage of 300 Gt yr–1, or a contribution to sea level rise of 0 to 0.8 mm yr–1. Because it is very unlikely that each of the ice sheets would exhibit the upper limit of its estimated mass balance range, it is very likely that, taken together, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have been contributing to sea level rise over the period 1993 to 2003.

[The IPCC Working Group 1, AR4 Report](http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_Ch04.pdf), pages 365-366.  
Perhaps a better question is why it’s so important for Taylor to skirt the edge of lying to discredit Gore. _Surely_ cooler heads should prevail over the hotheads who think the debate should be about people, not facts! 😉

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