[piercehawkeye45]

Right now there is more than enough evidence to say that the Earth's climate is changing. While climate changes are normal throughout Earth's history, it has always had negative short term consequences on humans, usually results in declining economies (from drought and shortage of food), many people dying, and forcing humans to adapt to the new climate. More than ever, with how our agriculture system, economic system, and infrastructure works, a climate shift will have very large short term negative effects on the Earth and humans as an entirety.

Does this mean that our way of life will end as we know it? No, we will have to adapt to the new climate. But, the transition process will be very brutal on our economy and many people, mostly people in third world countries, will die or go through some very tough times.

Going back to the climate shift. The question is not whether it is happening but how much is from human impact? There is a large amount of evidence supporting both sides and I imagine that we are going through a natural climate shift and human impact is just exaggerating the effects. That means we can probably do some to lower the magnitude of changes but they will still occur no matter what.

So this is where government regulations come in. Since one consequence of a free market is that it tends to put short term investment gain over potential long term interest, especially when it comes to situations where the future is completely uncertain as with climate change, sometimes government regulation is needed to act in those long term interests. Banning DDT is a great example of how government regulation can be positive for our society. But, as you said, we can not accurately predict how we will affect the environment, it is too complicated for that, so the impact of government regulation or lack of government regulation is uncertain. That is why climate change is so controversial. Government action could result in positive consequences or negative consequences. We just don't know. And since we only have one life, we can never check to see if any other decision would have been better. But, this lack of knowledge is also not an excuse for inaction either.

If you want to take government regulation on climate change as an excuse for a power grab, go ahead. I realize I am not going to change your mind. But, we are not blind to what is happening. We just see it in a different way.