December 7, 2006: Bad skiing in Alps

[nephtes]

Originally Posted by Bromskloss

1. Is warming occuring?
2. If yes, is it caused by man?
3. If yes again, what should be done?

You know, I've always thought that #2 is a bit irrelevant to #3. If warming is in fact taking place, to a point that threatens the biosphere and/or us, then it seems like we should figure out what can be done regardless of whether or not it's caused by human activity or not. If greenhouse gases are in fact part of the cause, then indicates a certain set of potential solutions, but not whether or not a solution is needed.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You skipped a step;

1 - Is warming occuring?
1a - Is it a problem?
1b - If so how much?
2 - If yes, is it caused by man?
3 - If yes again, what should be done?

answers;
1 - yes
1a - We don't know
1b - We know some changes and their expected result, but since we don't know how warm it will get, we don't know the whole story. Plus there is bound to be things happening that nobody expected.
2 - Caused, no. Contributed to, yes. Disagreement on how much.
3 - That depends on 1a & 1b, change is not inherently bad.

That's not even it, in a nut shell. Way more complicated than that.