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Do you think the debate about climate change is still a debate?
jll
Veteran
Comments
If what you are discussing is public acceptance of climate change...it's still a debate.
to change the minds of the people who still thinks that we
can continue to have world population growth and economic
growth without seriously hurting our quality of life.
1) People will often use the current weather as an argument for or against climate change. The daily weather is like what a baseball player hits for one game (1 for 5, 2 for 4, etc.). The climate is more like that players season or even career batting average (.271, .339, what have you).
2) If there were no greenhouse effect from our atmosphere the temperature of the earth would be -18 C. It's only because certain gases in the atmosphere absorb heat and then radiate some of that back into the air that the planet isn't frozen over. Greenhouse gases have greatly increased over the past several decades due to human activity, to think that this has no effect on global temperatures seems ridiculous to me.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/
Just for conversation, what do you suppose caused the globe to warm last time, when we came out of the ice age? What caused it to go into the ice age before that? What was causing our climate change before we came along?
Up for debate-exactly how much of it we can blame humans for and how much of it is natural cycles of the earth.
I do my best to be as respectful as possible of the planet and to do whatever I can to take proper care of it. But regardless of the reasons for climate change, I don't think we are as powerful as we want to believe to stop it. At least some of it is simply normal cycles of the planet, and to think we can assume to slow or stop that, is silliness. All the talk of fixing climate change comes from our fear of death and very, very little in actually caring about the planet and the other beings on it. (as a general overview).
As far as the human component contributing, I think it's hard to believe that as many people as we have, we aren't impacting the planet. but I think it's possible all our interventions thinking we know best for nature, aren't really best for nature. We have far too many people for the planet to support long-term, the carrying capacity isn't great enough and the renewable resources don't renew fast enough (and those that do, our governments and the big corporations won't allow anyone to utilize them thanks to the profit of our current system.) So, I'm not convinced in any way that humans can contribute majorly at this point to slowing climate change. The small # of people who really care and are trying, aren't making near enough of an impact. My taking a 5 minute shower instead of a 15 minute shower is not going to have any impact at all on the billions of gallons of water used every day by mining and mass farming. And so on, for any other resource.
As to what caused other warming and cooling periods, there are plenty of natural causes for climate to change, the sun's output, the earth's reflectivity. I'll just refer you back to point number 2, the greenhouse effect that we need to live on the planet and how it works.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/04/22/how-americans-see-global-warming-in-8-charts/
We explore, we learn and we grow... It's what we do. There has to be a point when we work together instead of trying to kill each other. Is that too optimistic?
We fight over "limited" resources in an infinite universe... How stupid is that?
I'm not arguing about what science shows. I know. You forget, I have 2 degrees in the geosciences and a minor in physical geography. We were talking the climate change factor way back in the 70s as we looked at the shrinking of most (not all) glaciers around the world.
Just don't mix incorrect data with scientific fact.
I tend to strongly believe the vast majority of scientists who say that while humans aren't actually CAUSING the cycle of climate change we are apparently spiraling into at this time- it is without question that humans -and our pollutions from industry, fossil fuels, etc - have *significantly* accelerated the natural cycle that, in the past, has taken several centuries or more .... not 50-100 yrs.
And even if we can't stop this accelerated progression, the *least* we can do is whatever we we can to SLOW THE ROLL and find alternative energies and re-regulate pollution causing industries to within acceptable standards, and to just get rid of some others (like fracking) altogether!
Anybody decided what the ideal average temperature is yet?
Still a debate? No!
It is best to say that man is one cause of climate change.
Still a debate? No!
No, there's still a debate going on, just one that most of us are not buying in on.
Yes, most of us don't work for Exxon.
It's attitudes like yours from people who clearly don't understand the implications (and can't be bothered to learn them) of a 0.4 degree C per decade increase that are the problem.
If someone is to blame its the people who do understand and are lobbying hard for the status quo.
I personally don't hold out a lot of hope for turning it around.
If I was living in a beachfront house in Florida or New Jersey, I would definitely be reassessing my lifestyle at this point.
What can you do for people who insist on building or rebuilding in harms way?
People can and will adapt. The population may have to shrink. Is that so bad?