Global warming?

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Global warming post of the Beast

You calling me a beast? Hardly...

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by classicman

You calling me a beast? Hardly...

No, not at all.
No evil intended.

It was the posting number on this thread.

[xoxoxoBruce]

With scientific data piling up showing that the world has reached its hottest-ever point in recorded history, global-warming skeptics are facing a high-profile defection from their ranks.

Is there really a question that it's warming up? After all, it's been warming up for the last 12,000 years.

I thought the questions are;
Why?
How hot will it get?
How much of it is our fault?
Can we really do much about it?
Is the massive expense worth any effect we can produce?

I think one of the biggest problems is the whole thing has been distilled down to two sides, with their abbreviated slogans/sound bites. Fer us or agin us, with no discussion of the elements.

One example is CO2, everything is about CO2. Well I'm sorry but it's a hell of a lot more complicated than that. We had a real long thread that talked about the many facets. But since all that doesn't fit in a slogan, fergitaboutit.

What does CO2 do in the atmosphere?

It keeps me from getting Oxygen poisoning.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Is there really a question that it's warming up? After all, it's been warming up for the last 12,000 years.

I thought the questions are;
Why?
How hot will it get?
How much of it is our fault?
Can we really do much about it?
Is the massive expense worth any effect we can produce?

From the link (my bold)

"The Skeptical Environmentalist," published in 2001, argued that many key preoccupations of the environmental movement, including pollution control and biodiversity, were either overblown as threats or amenable to relatively simple technological fixes. Lomborg argued that the governments spending billions to curb carbon emissions would be better off diverting those resources to initiatives such as AIDS research, anti-malaria programs and other kinds of humanitarian aid.
...
Lomborg's essential argument was: Yes, global warming is real and human behavior is the main reason for it, but the world has far more important things to worry about.

Oh, how times have changed.

In a book to be published this year, Lomborg calls global warming "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and calls for the world's governments to invest tens of billions of dollars annually to fight climate change.

The money spent to counter global warming is like the money you spend on insurance - you may never need to use it, but if the shit hits the fan you're glad you paid the premiums all those years.

[Pete Zicato]

If nothing else, I think the spike in CO2 is worrisome.


http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

The money spent to counter global warming is like the money you spend on insurance - you may never need to use it, but if the shit hits the fan you're glad you paid the premiums all those years.

Spexxvet, I read an interview with Bjorn Lomborg and his views make a lot of sense. Basically, he believes we should invest a lot of money making green energy cheap instead of wasting more of it on failed programs like "Cap and Trade". He talks a bit about geoengineering as well which I'm not such a big fan of.

link

A selected quote from the article:

We've got to stop discussing global warming as if it's a contest between: Is global warming the end of the world, or is it a hoax perpetrated in the American people? It's neither. I think in some ways, the fact that the Guardian made it look like I flip-flopped is because it's so hard for anyone to see the world through any other prism than "It's either black or white -- it's a hoax or it's the end of the world."

It seems like we're still debating if the world is round or flat. I mean, come on, its round. But the real question for Christopher Columbus was: How do I best get to the West Indies? And that's the real issue: How do we plot a course to get from A to B. That's what this book is all about. It's about finding the smartest ways to get to that point