the question is too many questions to be considered at once. 1. is the globe warming: yes 2. is this a new or unique thing: definitely not 3. is the pace of warming new? almost surely not 4. is it man caused: maybe. i would guess mostly not. literally impossible to know 5. should we do anything: almost definitely not 6. can we adapt if we do nothing? almost certainly 7. if humans are in trouble, are they worth saving: no 8. if we should solve it, can we: probably not 9: if we try to fix it, will our solutions hurt us worse than the warming: almost surely yes 10: does warming actually make the earth more livable, especially as it prevents another ice age from killing us: yes
The notion that if one cropland becomes a desert it means that some another desert becomes cropland. It's ludicrous. How have I done this?
You can't put pollution aside, it goes hand in hand with warming. Nobody is talking about fixing what happened in the past, what foolishness. We are talking about ameliorating the effects of human-produced carbon in the atmosphere that has caused such a huge increase in such a short time.
Not new in geologic time, humans were not around then. And rapid climate change in the fossil record is usually accompanied by mass extinctions. Mass extinctions are not to be ignored. We are undergoing one already as the pace of human settlement and human pollution has destroyed natural habitats on land and sea. The pace of this warming is unprecedented in the human era. That is the concern here, the future of the flora and fauna of the human age that we rely on. It's not impossible at all! Much evidence exists and has withstood scientific scrutiny. You don't know and you are making a wild-ass guess and you admit this, to your credit. But the experts know and have proved it. You should accept this. We should do everything that is easy and cheap, we should do nothing that is impractical and a waste of cash, and we should evaluate those things that fall in between and select only those that are pragmatic and cost-effective. Get real, adaptation requires action. The status quo adapts to nothing. A trite philosphical point that almost nobody agrees with. Even if we can't "solve a problem", we can address it and make it much less of a problem. This is not a black and white issue, my bi-cromatic friend, there are distinct shades of gray. Based on what? Philosophy? The fact is that some methods work and some methods don't. We must research and test our plans, pursing those that show promise and abandoning those that don't. Simply crying and imagining that we can do nothing is ridiculous. Nonsense. Both extremes make the earth less livable. And yes humans have adapted to ice ages, but the pace of change in the natural world allows time for adaptation, rapid change does not. Thus we must resolve not to steepen the warming curve any more than absolutely necessary.
Sorry red, public perception is heading my direction on this one, and I know you care about polls and perception. Over time people are losing trust on this. Partially because people like you refuse to admit the obvious, for example that we can't know for sure what is caused by us and what isn't.
In past threads you point to humans as the cause. As if we are unnatural and what we are doing is unnatural. But they do. "Here are three not-so trivial questions you probably won’t find in your next pub quiz. First, how much warmer has the world become since a) 1880 and b) the beginning of 1997? And what has this got to do with your ever-increasing energy bill? You may find the answers to the first two surprising. Since 1880, when reliable temperature records began to be kept across most of the globe, the world has warmed by about 0.75 degrees Celsius. From the start of 1997 until August 2012, however, figures released last week show the answer is zero: the trend, derived from the aggregate data collected from more than 3,000 worldwide measuring points, has been flat. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217286/Global-warming-stopped-16-years-ago-reveals-Met-Office-report-quietly-released--chart-prove-it.html#ixzz2CEFJ4J2Q Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
