Click here for a larger image of the comic strip.
Questions & issues that could be considered:
A) What is a "fact?" We've spent a lot of time this year wrestling with the concepts of "knowledge," "truth," and "belief," but we've never discussed the term "fact." What do we mean by that term? What makes something a "fact?" How is a fact different from knowledge, truth, and belief? Or is it different from any one of those?
B) On a related note: The first frame of the comic strip juxtaposes the concepts of "fact" and "belief." What do you make of that juxtaposition? (To see a definition, click on the word.) What is your reaction, or what thoughts does it prompt? Are the two concepts related to one another? If "yes," why and how? If "no," why not?
C) The punchline of the comic strip obviously turns on the play-on-words with the title of the Al Gore film, "An Inconvenient Truth." What are the two "inconvenient truths?" Why are they each inconvenient? If we accept the comic strip at face value, can both "inconvenient truths" be true? Why or why not?
D) Consider the ideas discussed in two of our science readings, "Science" (the reading about science as telling explanatory stories) and "Evaluating Scientific Claims." Share insights you gain by applying concepts from those readings to this comic strip.
E) Was this comic strip drawn in support of those who claim to know that global warming is real? Or was it drawn in support of those who claim to know that global warming is not real? How do you know? What is your basis for claiming to know that?
9 comments:
I believe this comic strip was written for those who believe global warming is fake. if you look a the comic, you see as they ocntinuall talk about the affects of global warming and how they get barried deeper and deeper in the snow. the statments made and the actions occuring contridict one another and I think thats where the humor comes in and tries to demonstrate that global warming is a joke.
I dont really understand how someting like global warming would be hard to prove. i guess i dont really understand the concept or the differnt views or proofs but the world is either getting hotter or its not.. right?
I think that the two inconvenient truths of the comic strip are that; global warming is really happening, and that no one is really doing anything about it. It doesn't really make sense to me why the average person would not believe that global warming is a reality. I could imagine financial motivation of someone like a business owner, who has been told that his factory is hugely contributing to global warming, to try to say that there isn't really such thing as global warming, but it seems like an obvious thing to me. I think that the people who understand that global warming is a reality, and not just a joke, should focus more on efforts to stop it rather than spend their time trying to convince others that it is really a problem. (squid)
I believer this comic strip is a sarcastic look into the questionable concept of global warming... and its debatable existence. I could be wrong but I think that global warming is a very slow process to happen over the course of many, many years. This is why we are not seeing the effects right now... and this is what is leading to all the skepticism.
I think something that is deemed a "fact" can be backed by solid evidence. Also -- and I don't remember which packet said this -- a "fact" must be compatible with other things deemed "facts" (such as gravity) and they must be logical and rational truths.
I'm not entirely sure why but in the first frame, when they talked about "fact" and "belief," I became confused... I usually consider fact and belief as unrelated and, in some ways, opposite. But perhaps I should think of it as more of a "cause & effect" type of thing. The concept of global warming is considered "fact"... and this prompts believers and non-believers. The whole evidence and fact thing go hand in hand as the people who accept global warming as fact know the evidence. And the people who do not believe in it, do not have the evidence.
I read an article in the NY Times about a recent film that was opposing Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." The Times said it didn't really show evidence refuting Gore's claims, but it was simply an attack on Gore. If global warming is not real, how come there isn't much evidence proving its non-existence.
Yeesh, I don't know...
David Masulis comments (via Mr. Currier): To address the first issue, I think fact is something that is true whether it is believed or not. Belief on the other hand does not have to be correct or even justified. Knowledge however, has to be true and justified. So even if something is true, and someone believes it, if they don't have justification, they don't know it. I think this is where a lot of people fall on global warming. They believe it exists, but many of them haven't done very much research.
I'm not sure whether it really exists or not. The earth's temperature has only increased by 1 °C in the last hundred years, which is hardly a statistically significant amount. There also a lot of debate about which climate models are accurate. Some predict temperatures increasing exponentially, while others predict that the temperature will stabilize at a few degrees higher than it is now.
That may be the source of Verne's comment that "Just a few more degrees rise in global temperature will flood coastal cities." followed by "CO2 through the roof, temperatures going up up up." Fry may be poking fun at the conflicting models by pairing the estimate of only a few degrees with the predictions based on the exponential model showing flooding and weather shifts.
“Fact” is a statement that can not be proven wrong. And by that statement I just made makes it so that there are no “facts” at all. “Facts” start as beliefs or hypothesis that people gather enough information about to where they can not prove themselves wrong. For a period of time any belief can be a fact, but eventually those facts become false and are no longer facts. Take the world, for example. It was thought to be flat and then round and know it is more egg shaped than anything. The question is does it really matter if everything works? As long as be corporations are making money and the government is pushing different issues none of it really matters as long as enough people are happy. As soon as you say something that has people getting their feathers ruffled they attack and criticizes you for thing different then them.
Inconvenient truths: The world is seeing changes in temperatures and weather patterns. This can be because of what we humans are doing to it or it could just be the earth’s natural way of being. We as “intelligent humans” have only been around for a little while as compared to how old the earth is, how do we know it’s patterns, we have hypothesis but no “facts”. Although it is apparent in every corner of the world that humans have not always done what is best for the environment, we can not actually have tell the exact impact on the world. An environment of any type is an unstable “web” and if you mess with one thing you can put everything out of wack. For example modern medicine has people living well into their 90’s if not 100’s but as a result our population is continuously growing at an exponential rate. Making cities over crowed and people without food or shelter; could it be that the earth is trying to rid itself of it’s own cancer of human kind?
I believe the comic stripe was written to make fun of those who believe in global warming. The characters are talking about the horrible things to come from global warming while sitting in the snow. That would be global freezing not warming. And by placing fact and believe together that just makes it seem that global warming is a joke and not something to be taken seriously. Kind of like placing faith and science together.
Global warming ....is just a fancy word thrown around by a washed up ex presidentn o wait srry gore lost Ha Ha Ha , MR Gore is jus trying to make some money get his name back out there in the media pretending to care about the earth because he has nothing better to do, ok the earth is getting warmer big deal nothing last forever yes we can try to prevent "global Warming" by keeping polution down having more restrictions on cars and stuff like thhat but come on the earth is chamging just like us humans are. everythig is evolving things happen for a reason if global warming isnt true why isnt there evidence showing that there realy is no global warming??????
From the research I've done, it doesn't sound like there is conclusive evidence either way. There is not clear proof that there is global warming, that it is because of humans and that it is a problem; neither is there clear proof that there isn't global warming, that it isn't because of humans or that it isn't a problem.
Humans have only been able to directly measure temperature over the last 100 years (during which the temperature has only gone up by 1 °C, which is also the time we've been producing CO2 emissions, so we don't have much of a control to compare to. We really don't know whether the earth was warming before CO2 emissions or not.
The best data they have is by guessing temperatures based on tree rings, and by core samples of ice. It doesn't seem like a very accurate means of measurement to me.
I think the comic strip tired to stay neutral and attempted to poke fun at the whole global warming situation instead. The comic gets at the paradox of global warming; that the warming of the planet would eventually start an ice age. But the comic doesn't really seem to take the matter too seriously so i could see how it would be interpreted to be saying that global warming isn't real. But the comic shows the possible effects global warming has on our weather, so it could be looked at either way.
When I think of fact I think of something that has hard evidence behind it. A belief seems to be sort of subjective. Like believing in God. You can believe it but it's not "a proven fact" that he/she exists. But someone else might not believe in he/she at all even if it was a proven fact.
I don't know whether global warming is true or not. So I can't really judge if it is "an inconvenient truth".
I mean, I'm not a meteorologist or any kind of trained scientest so I how am I to see for myself if what they say is true? They can tell me that the overall tempertature of the earth is rising, but I personally don't feel it. The temperature changes everyday, in every place. How am I to know it's actually happening?
I don't suppose anyone would gain from lying about it. They made that movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which was I think supposed to show the effects of Global Warming on the globe in the very near future. It's scary, but how do I know they're right or telling the truth?
Part of the way I gain knowledge about stuff like this is by experience. So I suppose I'll just have to wait and see on this one.
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