Why would you post so much you know i can't read

A very well researched and substantive piece. I thank you so much for sharing this.

Well written. Plus I would tend to agree with you particularly about causation or lack thereof.

There's actually a tax for farmers in Australia and New Zealand called the fart tax. Supposedly this pays for the damage caused by our cows and sheep farting and releasing methane gas.

After studying past climate changes and talking to my father who is an engineer who spends almost the whole year at sea about the shift in ocean currents. I dont think we have altered what was bound to happen naturally anyway maybe sped it up by a few decades but I think both sides who argue about it exaggerate.

The earth's climate has been noticeably warmer during recorded history than it is now. When the Vikings settled at L'Anse Aux Meadows (at the northern tip of Newfoundland) a thousand years ago, they named it "Vinland" because of the grapes there, which they used to make wine ("vin"). Today, it's too cold to grow wine grapes (which are notoriously climate-sensitive) there. IIRC, only a fraction of a percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is of human origin, so it seems like human arrogance to claim that global warming is due to human industry. We're probably having an effect, but not much of one.

We should research and use alternative energy for health reasons, national security reasons, and for long-term economic prosperity. Replacing coal-fired power plants with non polluting ones would reduce premature deaths related to breathing problems by 15 to 20 THOUSAND per year in the USA alone, we can reduce or eliminate our dependence on energy imported from (often unfriendly) countries run by tinpot dictators, corrupt monarchies and brutal theocrats, and keep the economy from collapsing by weaning us off oil.

I think you take the right approach to maintain a healthy skepticism on both sides of the issue as normal climate changes have occurred throughout history and it's unlikely man has played a big part in any of it. I also agree that those who promote the idea of global warming (like Al Gore) having maintained a financial interest in their so called concern certainly taints their credibility on the issue. Beyond that, there is always the law of unintended consequences, such as the recent banning of the Edison light bulb in favor of of the new style bulbs, which are filled with mercury and will present major problems to our fresh water supplies as they are disposed of. Obviously, someone didn't think that matter through before declaring it the law of the land!

I agree 100%

I also agree that this global warming debate has been blown out of proportion. In the end, this issue has become more about having the government control the way we live and how we spend our money, than it has about saving the environment. As strider57 pointed out with his example of the compact florescent light bulb, most of these so called environmentalist really haven't thought things through. As a matter of fact, I think its gotten to the point where all they really care about is being right irrespective of where the science goes, to the point that they've actually doctored the research to take out those results which tend to disprove their theories. Another great example that this really isn't about improving the quality of our environment is the governments push towards electric cars. Supposedly, electric cars are great because they have zero emissions. What they don't tell you is that each car has a few hundred pounds of batteries that are filled with toxic chemicals that will eventually have to be disposed of. They also neglect to mention that the vast majority of power plants in the United States are powered by fossil fuels (i.e., coal natural gas and oil). So going to a zero emission car isn't necessarily going to cut down on CO2 emissions because power companies will be forced to burn more fuel to meet the additional energy demands that an electric car will bring. The only thing that I can say with 100% certainty about this whole global warming thing, is that we are going to pay more for energy in the near future so that our government can implement its more environmentally friendly policies which I am confident will have zero impact on climate change. In short, its a big ripoff and only the Al Gore's of the world will benefit from it. So the next time you see Al Gore on TV getting out of his private jet and get into his gas guzzling limousine, just remembered that your hard earned tax dollars probably paid for all that stuff.

Just as an observation, I am encouraged to see that all the replies to this blog have been level headed and practical, not the typical knee-jerk reaction common to extremest environmentalist. As a resident of the Texas Gulf Coast, I was astounded by all the bad information that blew out of the media during last year's Gulf oil spill. Additionally, President Obama's poor handling of the situation and over reaction by shutting down Gulf drilling for the last 10 months has caused terrible hardships to the residents of the Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The fact is that the Gulf of Mexico is so rich with oil that it literally seeps millions of gallons naturally into the Gulf every year, and that has never been a problem, because we have naturally occurring microbes in the Gulf which devour this oil as it's primary food source. A temporary increase in the amount of oil present in the Gulf simply spawned the growth of additional microbes, which consumed the spilled oil. This is why as soon as BP successfully capped the well, hardly any oil was found. Today, despite numerous attempts by the U.S. Government and various universities there is still no oil to be found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Back during the first Gulf War, the Iraqi army torched hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells and dumped 500 hundreds million gallons of oil into the Arabian Sea. During that time, Environmentalist were saying it would take 10 years to put out all the fires and a hundred years to clean up the Arabian Sea. Red Adaire (who I've met) and his crew of Hell Fighters rolled out of Texas over to Kuwait and had all the fires put out in less than six months. As for the Arabian Sea, within a year it was right back to where it was before Iraq invaded
Kuwait. Point being, nature has its own tools for dealing with these types of situations, as it has dealt with them since the beginning of time.

What we have today with the wacko environmentalist like President Obama, is an agenda designed to force the cost of our traditional energy sources up to the point where it will be comparable with the high cost of so called "Green" energy. This is why Obama took the opportunity of the Gulf oil spill to shut down drilling under the guise of protecting the environment. As of yesterday, oil pricing was over $103.00 per barrel and it will continue to climb with drilling in the Gulf shut down. Bloomberg Financial has predicted that oil pricing could go as high as $130.00 per barrel by 2012 and that equates to gas pricing over $4.00 per gallon in the U.S., which given the state of the economy is absolutely the last thing this country needs!!

Tens of thousands of people have been forced into unemployment by Obama's decision to shut down drilling in the Gulf and by setting new governmental restrictions on new offshore and inland drilling across the U.S. and many of these jobs will not be coming back as our oil rigs pull out of the Gulf and go to other places like off the coast of Africa and South America to drill. Linked with the permanent loss of these jobs is the loss of America's ability to produce our own energy making us even more dependent on foreign oil from countries like Iran who are our sworn enemies.

Domestic oil production in America is down over 20 percent since Obama took office and through his Environmental Protection Agency he is attempting to set new carbon restrictions via regulation, which he could not achieve by law with the Republican defeat of the Cap and Trade law. Republicans are fighting hard to keep the EPA from bypassing the Congress by imposing these new regulations, but if they fail all us Americans could see our electrical cost double within the next few years. This is something every American needs to be aware of as the 2012 elections approach. Needless to say, the doubling of our electrical cost would cripple American industry forcing millions into unemployment and destroying what's left of our fragile economy!! These are things every American needs to be aware of with Obama running for reelection in 21 months. Returning Obama to office will doom America!!

Very informative.

xkcd

I agree with all of you wholeheartedly on this issue. The science behind global warming has always been conflicted, and in the long run it really doesn't make much difference. The planets temperature is going to go up or down regardless of what we humans do.

That being said we still need to get away from all of those fossil fuels as energy sources. I'm not a big fan of France, but you have to admire their Nuclear plants. They are working proof that a nation can run(safely) almost entirely on nuclear energy. Electricity is also cheaper there than in most other nations.

As far as the US polluting the environment goes, that's a load of bs. If we continue to reduce our emissions then I suppose we can sit around with our thumbs up our asses being proud of ourselves while China increases its pollutant output exponentially each year. The key to it all is creating an extremely cheap renewable energy source. And while that probably can happen; it's not likely to so long as oil dominates so many aspects of the world.

I drive a hybrid, but that's mainly because I just enjoy only having to fill up my gas tank once every 1 and a 1/2 to 2 months.