Everything is caused by global warming!

[CheezeFlixz]

I saw a guy on TV last week who was arguing that we should all give up meat in general on the basis that it is an inefficient use of land, grain, fuel, water, etc. And any use of energy in the household is now being expressed as tons of carbon in the atmosphere, regardless of how it was generated.

THAT'S GREAT! Less demand mean lower prices and more for me. Excellent.

[Allhallowsday]

THAT'S GREAT! Less demand mean lower prices and more for me. Excellent.

That's right!  MORE for YOU !!!     

That's where this is really beginning to bug me. Aside from the bullying that goes on in scientific circles if someone tries to offer a scientific opinion contrary to climate change doctrine.

I don't think the theory of "global warming" or "climate change" is anywhere near "doctrine".  President George W. Bush only this year moved towards center on this topic.  And that was not because of pushy leftists, but data his administration could not deny.  My point is that scientific theory on the topic of global warming is not regimented such as on a topic like evolution. 

The world will ALWAYS be here...just because WE are not....that's just the way it is. So what? The dinosaurs are gone...so to will we be gone someday. Personally...I don't worry about it. It's about time cockroaches ruled the Earth anyway! BRING ON DAMNATION ALLEY WORLD!!!   

Boiled down to bare essentials, I wouldn't argue.  But what about our children and their children?  Don't we owe it to them to be concerned?  Since when has life been about our own lives and not what we leave?  Isn't the next generation the whole point?  I have friends I see shove bottles into garbage and I inquire, "Aren't we supposed to recycle?" and the reply has been "I can't be bothered."  I work for the shipping industry, so I have a clue about "recycling" which in case any of you aren't aware, is largely a scam.  You might be stunned to learn how many children grow up in what we've called "third world" countries playing on mountains of our shredded plastic... 

If global warming is a reality, no scenario is good.  The planet gets warmer, sea levels rise and London, Manhattan, and Miami become aquariums.  I'm not personally worried.  I expect to be dead before that could happen.  Why should I worry?  So, maybe sea levels don't rise, but we trigger an ice age, even a "little ice age" because of effects on ocean currents, and things get colder.  Colder means colder or drier.  During the "little ice age" populations starved because of a few degrees fluctuation.

Historians please advise about the few hundred years of actual weather data recorded, prior to the early 19th century.  Is it true that the Earth went through a "little ice age" the final gasp of which was the "year without a summer" in 1816?  That was due to natural fluctation, and in relation to the rest of the planets of our solar system, insignificant.  Perhaps its true, even probably, that we have no control.  But who is to say we have no influence?  Perhaps it is that sublte.  There are long periods in those last few hundred years of what climatologists call the "little ice age" when populations starved because of resource shortage.  That's resource shortage.  How many Amercians get their food from the supermarket?  

The brief history of mankind on this planet is a crapshoot; how would modern society deal with fewer and more costly resources?  It's not about Arab princes frittering away mere billions of dollars on desert oasis playgrounds.  That horror is anecdotal and irrelevant! 
Yet, who can deny the facts of glaciers receding at alarming rates, including ice shelves the size of small states tumbling into the Antarctic Sea?  Perhaps it's natural and we have llittle or nothing to do with it.  Should we sit idly by at this unique juncture in human history, (yes, I know all historical junctures are unique) and continue to selfishly pollute our planet?  Why was TEDDY ROOSEVELT concerned with preservation 100 years ago?  How can we even chance that the forseeable future of our kind should become bleaker and bleaker?  Any crude oil afficionado knows that we have only a few decades supply left, and what then?  Perhaps the bone-headed flower-offering Left may seem glad at the prospect, but they all drive to work, too.  And let's not forget China and India following the old American model and polluting now more than Americans were ever capable of. 

Though we have at least a few hundred years of coal, which in the next century we may need to turn back to, without adaptations and adjustments in technology, we will see more pollution, less efficiency, and well founded industries fighting for their survival.

[CheezeFlixz]

40,000 years ago there was the Bering Land bridge between Alaska and Russia. It is now 100's of feet below water, why? Did the early man travel from Asia to North and South America via the land bridge in SUV's causing prehistoric global warming? No, the climate ebbs and floes over 1000's of years, man simply does not have enough data to make prediction of were things are going, it's basic SPC and that is your inconvenient truth.  

[RCMerchant]

Mankind has been eating it's own tail  for a long time. The planet is sick and ill. That changes going on are the result of many things....Earth has swallowed to much of our crap....it's about to vomit us up and flush us away.


 ( After re-reading what I just wrote....it sounds like a line from an Ed Wood film. Come to think of it...most of my posts sound like Woodsian nonsense. I believe I've seen waaaay to many bad movies....my mind is in some kinda bizzare loop!    Dam global warming has cooked my brain....!)

[Justy]

Mankind has been eating it's own tail  for a long time. The planet is sick and ill. That changes going on are the result of many things....Earth has swallowed to much of our crap....it's about to vomit us up and flush us away.

This is where I disagree. Humanity isn't going anywhere. We're not going to be flushed away. In the 40 or years of valid environmental concerns we now have good environmental policies in place that have cleaned things up. Any company that violates these policies is in violation of law. It wasn't like that in the past so things got out of hand. Unfortunately today many people have this opinion that man is evil, we've destroyed everything, we're hopeless. It's very easy for environmentalists to capitalize on this to push their increasingly crazy policies. I wonder how long it will be until Fourth of July celebrations or 21-gun salutes are banned because of their carbon footprint? You wait, they're nationalistic and polluting that's a double no no.

[Andrew]

I am much the same mind as AndyC.  Let's continue to find ways to do things better and cleaner.  The thing about nature is that it is a self-sustaining system that is also constantly undergoing subtle changes.  Renewable energy sources are good, ditto for using the minimum amount of energy and resources to do something.

We do what we can here.  We keep the thermostat at 70 or below during the winter.  We use CFL bulbs.  We turn off lights we are not using and use rechargeable batteries wherever it makes sense.  When the military moves us, we try to find a home close to my base/unit so that the gas is kept down.  We don't take long showers.  I have a tumbling composter in the back yard and we recycle anything we can.  We have reusable cloth bags for groceries.  When we do buy a house, I definitely want to look into solar power and also building down (basement) rather than up (larger upstairs) for the room needed.

The climate is a huge system and we really do not understand all of the factors that affect it.

[Allhallowsday]

40,000 years ago there was the Bering Land bridge between Alaska and Russia. It is now 100's of feet below water, why? Did the early man travel from Asia to North and South America via the land bridge in SUV's causing prehistoric global warming? No, the climate ebbs and floes over 1000's of years, man simply does not have enough data to make prediction of were things are going, it's basic SPC and that is your inconvenient truth.  

So... you are advising it isn't possible that our carbon emissions could have a negative impact on our environment?  Well, that sounds real good, but not inconvenient. 

I am much the same mind as AndyC.  Let's continue to find ways to do things better and cleaner.  The thing about nature is that it is a self-sustaining system that is also constantly undergoing subtle changes.  Renewable energy sources are good, ditto for using the minimum amount of energy and resources to do something.

We do what we can here.  We keep the thermostat at 70 or below during the winter.  We use CFL bulbs.  We turn off lights we are not using and use rechargeable batteries wherever it makes sense.  When the military moves us, we try to find a home close to my base/unit so that the gas is kept down.  We don't take long showers.  I have a tumbling composter in the back yard and we recycle anything we can.  We have reusable cloth bags for groceries.  When we do buy a house, I definitely want to look into solar power and also building down (basement) rather than up (larger upstairs) for the room needed.

The climate is a huge system and we really do not understand all of the factors that affect it.

I agree with everything you've written.   

[Andrew]

And a timely article on Slashdot about untapped geothermal energy:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/02/2337243

I think the big hurdle will be taking the power from where it can be produced to where it is needed.