Rationalist confesses a penchant for quackloonery...

[Quasar]

Unfortunately, not buying in to the GW thing puts you in the same camp as the people that reject it for entirely irrational reasons and, I think, this is why many people are timid to admit that they doubt it's reality.

I suppose that's what it comes down to: just because one side is dominated by denialists, doesn't mean the other side isn't. In this particular case, you've got cranks on both sides obscuring the truth.

Personally, I lean towards the GW is primarily man-made position (this may be influenced by wanting to lean in that direction), but I think it should be left to climatologists and engineers to decide what actions to take and how to allocate funds, not polititions and lobby groups.

I think we can all agree, though, that climate change is happening. Australia experienced the effects first-hand: longest drought in recorded history. We're still on water restrictions.

[theShaggy]

1a) GW is natural, we don't act. We're screwed.
1b) GW is natural, we act. We're still screwed.
2a) GW is man made, we don't act. We're still freaking screwed
2b) GW is man made, we act. We might not be screwed.

This is the only reason to take it seriously. The problem is that by accepting this logic, you're also buying in to a world-wide industry that has reached the same conclusion using scare tactics and misinformation. Because of this, their methods of 'acting' are very different to what they should be.

Unfortunately, not buying in to the GW thing puts you in the same camp as the people that reject it for entirely irrational reasons and, I think, this is why many people are timid to admit that they doubt it's reality.

There is something very wrong with human beings on this planet, but burning fossil fuels is not it.

I would say that burning fossil fuels wasn't wrong before, but we've apparently hit peak oil and it's vanishing quickly. Burning fossil fuels is causing some pretty horrible international conflicts (and gave Alberta an inflated sense of self-worth in Canada until gas prices plummetted, behehe). Human science has gone leaps and bounds beyond what it was 20 years ago, we're closer than ever to finding renewable, far-less-pollutive means of producing energy, and yet huge swaths of our population refuse to invest in that because they know that burning said fossil fuels keeps the money rolling.

Oil isn't the only culprit which may or may not cause global warming, though. Deforestation of the rainforests in South America is a significant factor, because the loss of trees reduces the conversion of CO2 back into O2.

I'm not a scientist, so I don't have too much knowledge about the numbers, but I dated an environmental biologist for six months last year, and even had a discussion about the matter with a geophysics PhD student last week and both of them have pointed to some sort of correlation between CO2 levels and the rise in temperature. I know correlation is not causation, and it may not be the cause or even a real effect, but somehow something we're doing in relation to CO2 levels is affecting the temperature of the planet. If it happens naturally, I'd rather know that we did whatever we could to prolongue it rather than expedite it.

[StewartP]

We will react to climate change. If a country gets dryer so that the primary crop rice, for example, is no longer viable, then the farmers will either adopt a variety of rice that requires less water and/or switch to another cereal that requires less water and/or impliment newer/different irrigation/feeding/water storage techniques.

They will not sit there year after year after year watching their rice crops fail.


[soapbox]
We're too embarrased to call it global warming now that we are demonstrably in a cooling trend so we'll call it climate change.
Climate changes. It's what it does. Climate Stability would be weird.
[/soapbox]

[Tilia]

We will react to climate change. If a country gets dryer so that the primary crop rice, for example, is no longer viable, then the farmers will either adopt a variety of rice that requires less water and/or switch to another cereal that requires less water and/or impliment newer/different irrigation/feeding/water storage techniques.

They will not sit there year after year after year watching their rice crops fail.


[soapbox]
We're too embarrased to call it global warming now that we are demonstrably in a cooling trend so we'll call it climate change.
Climate changes. It's what it does. Climate Stability would be weird.
[/soapbox]

The climate in Bejing is clearly human made...
Actually, I don't care that much about this climate change discussion. I agree that climate changes occur, sometimes even drastic ones without human interference.
But it scares people. Environmentalists have been preaching against pollution for a long time but nobody cared. Now they listen and get a little bit more sensitive. A changing climate isn't the only reason to think about regenerative energy and get away from oil, but if it's an argument that is taken serious...

Biologists tend to laugh about all these environmentalists who want to rescue cute little polar bears, but since you have to take care for their environment if you want to prevent the polar bear from getting extinct, that's maybe not so stupid after all. People give money for cute little bears (I know that, I live in Knut-city... ) , they don't give money for plankton.

Polar bears are "Flagships" for being nicer to our planet. It's maybe similar with climate change.

[Whateverman]

Polar bears are "Flagships" for being nicer to our planet. It's maybe similar with climate change.

That's a really interesting idea...

[BeamStalk]

Polar bears are "Flagships" for being nicer to our planet. It's maybe similar with climate change.

That's a really interesting idea...

I love it, because polar bears are one of the few animals known to actively seek and hunt humans for food.

[Tilia]

I love it, because polar bears are one of the few animals known to actively seek and hunt humans for food.

I was at the Zoo this weekend and Knut's dad was standing on his hind legs on the ice, sniffing the air for all those juicy little children behind the fence, and all the kids said was "Oohh, how cute".

Didn't have the nerves to open their eyes

[BeamStalk]

I love it, because polar bears are one of the few animals known to actively seek and hunt humans for food.

I was at the Zoo this weekend and Knut's dad was standing on his hind legs on the ice, sniffing the air for all those juicy little children behind the fence, and all the kids said was "Oohh, how cute".

Didn't have the nerves to open their eyes

There is a polar bear at the Tulsa Zoo in Oklahoma. I remember as a kid, I was right up against the glass and the bear turned and tried to attack me through the glass. Scared the shit out of me and few other kids around me. I can still picture it's mouth open and claws out and how fast it was. I was very thankful for the glass.