Originally Posted by
Moveon
You, on the other hand focus on carbon emissions because the likes of Al Gore says you should.
I don't follow Al Gore. I was focused on Carbon Emissions long before AL Gore became involved in Green House Gases. So you might say that Al is just giving the message to you and the others. He is just a messenger not really the guy who figured that Global Warming was an issue. But he did listen to the Climate Scientist and was smart enough to understand the long term implications of Global Warming. If he invested in things related to solving the problem of Global Warming then he was smart to do that. But he is not the problem. Too many people and industrial revolution is the problem.
Here is something to think about if you have kids and they plan on having kids and a future on this planet. If the problem of Global Warming is not caused by mankind and only by God or nature then how are your grandkids going to survive if WE humans are powerless to fix or reverse Global Warming? Think about that for a while. What if we can't do any thing about it? We are screwed then if we can't fix or reverse in in the future. while it may be a few hundred years before it gets too serious or bad it will happen if our populations continue to double every 30 years and we burn more and more fossil fuels.
On the other hand it it's caused or exasperated by mankind then we can do something to stop the problem. We could switch to alternative fuels someday in the future and wean ourselves off the fossil fuels that we believe are adding to the amount of CO2 and other green house gases in the atmosphere. We do know for sure that too much CO2 in the atmosphere keeps the heat waves from radiating back into space. Just like the glass windows in a car keep the heat inside the car on a sunny day. That's the green house effect. Again I'm talking about AVERAGE temperature over long periods of time and over large expanses of the earth. I'm not talking about a specific point on the Earth and one specific time. Winter time in our Northern Hemisphere can't be soled out to say that Global Warming is not a problem. Nor can we say that a hot summer day in our Northern Hemisphere in the middle of July is indicative of the Worlds Average Temperatures.
I guess what really matters if you think about it is the average temperature where we now have ice. Because that ice if it melts will flow to the sea and add to the sea level and the energy levels (temps) of the oceans. But then again we need to be concerned with our average temps in the middle latitudes when it comes to food production. (farming) And the same thing can be said about the Southern Hemisphere middle lattitudes as well. They grow produce and food down there too.
Katrina was a result of the land around New Orleans sinking. Less sediment is being deposited in the delta due to the damming up of the rivers that flow down to the Gulf of Mexico. The dams slow down the river and allow the sediment to fall out and settle onto the bottom of the river before it gets to the Gulf. And then the ocean levels have risen over the years so that New Orleans is closer to the ocean's level today vs a few hundred years ago. Which is why when you walk along the levee in New Orleans you look up at the River level.
I vote for the latter and hope for mankind's sake that we can figure out a solution before the oceans get too high and the glacial ice all melts. The rate of melting can speed up if too much dark earth is exposed at the polar regions.
Finally Al Gore is the messenger and a very good one at that! Smart people listen to what he has to say about the problems of Global Warming and take heed to try to fix the problem before it becomes worse.
Like I said before the US Supreme Court agreed that CO2 is a pollutant and that the USEPA should regulate it. And that's exactly what's going to happen IMHO. I'm really not so sure that it will help but they are going to try.
I'll leave it to the climate scientists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency to figure this out. They are smarter than you and I and all the rest who posted opinions on this issue.
There is a lot wrong with how they're going about solving GW. So much so, I could type all day. Big Al trots his giant ass carbon footprint about the world taking money and carrying the message. Global GW conferences are held and those absolutely brilliant Europeans come up with great ideas like carbon taxes and other ways for them to get money.
And after all that jet fuel is pissed away, money collected, and great ideas hatched, what has been accomplished? Not a **** thing, because the earth's climate is cyclic. Always was, always will be.
See. We agree on almost everything.
Al Gore is an opportunist not a messenger. There is a VERY BIG difference.