I've been reading a lot about this subject this afternoon since Al Gore got the nobel prize today.

I just read this.. http://royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=1630

and I read a lot about the swindle arguements, as well as the IPCC docs.

My conclusions are:

It appears that everyone believes the earth is currently warming.
It appears that virtually everyone believes that humans have had an impact in this.
The arguement seem to be how much have humans contributed to this, and the arguments range from negligible to vastly.

My worry is this, I am concerned that I have an agenda in not believing in the significant man made impact, so that I can carry on doing the things I do, blaming governments and being generally all round cynical of it all, but am I just picking the easy way out? Shouldn't I try my best to reduce my carbon footprint? Can it hurt? So what if do my bit and then it turns out that it was a waste of time? Or would I just be doing that to make my conscience feel better?

Confused, but would like to make a decision.

Ted

 

Cue 73000 scoobynetters telling you it's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes.

 

It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes.

 

Its a clever conspiracy to raise taxes


Its too damn cold anyway, and I hope they are right

 

It is a clever conspiracy to raise taxes as it is only the UK that are stealth taxing its citizens in the name of Global Warming.

Dont you think if there was any definative evidence that man was to blame, and by turning out a light bulb for 5 mins each day would drastically reduce GW, every government would be insisting on action by the populous or by taxing them to death????

just my 2p anyway.

 

It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes.

Im with the others anyway, keep up wasting energy by boiling the kettle full etc, Id much rather it get hotter

Lumi, just pressed thumbs down on your post by accident, just in case you wondered why anyone took offence too it lol. Soz

 

Stop.












....carry on.

 

I remember as a kid at school watching some government made documentry about acid rain and how it was going to destroy our forests, limestone buildings and by 2010 we would all have to wear vulcanised clothes to protect our skin China has upped it's sulphur emission to 11 million tons a year but I do not seem to melt when it rains.

 

I blame Maggy Thatcher...

It's like asking if there is a God, yes or no, Ted.

 

To break the mold ... It's not a conspiracy to raise taxes, just a damn convenient excuse which the government can use repeatedly

On a more serious note, any reduction in energy consumption is worthwhile, but will have little overall impact while the worlds population continues to grow and there are so many countries still in "developing" stages.

If goverments were serious about global warming, they would be setting aside serious amounts of money to fund research into alternative energy sources and sharing the findings globally with developing nations. They just don't seem interested unless they can make money out if it, which is a very short sighted view, considering everyone will suffer from the consequences in the end.

The technology is already available to modify the DNA of bacteria to create petrol by absorbing CO2 from the air and using hydrogen atoms from water.
So my question is why the hell aren't they pushing this technology and scaling it up to a useful volume?!!

In case anyone thinks I am telling porkies ... Technology Review: Making Gasoline from Bacteria

 

Romans had vineyards in Britain years ago.....

It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes

 

It's a bunch or idiots bumbling around. I don't know which side to believe. I tend to go with the no human influence side as I generally think anyone in politics is lying.

It would be nice to have fresh air in cities though

 

Then the world could get a heck of a lot colder and it would all be your fault You can come and scrape my windscreen every morning

 

Water vapour, farting cows and the sun (big fiery ball in the sky, not chip wrapping). That's all you need to know.

 

We're still coming out of an Ice Age.. the Ice caps have only exsisted for 50,000 years or something - so in actual fact, we're HELPING the planet return to its natural state.

And its all a conspiracy to raise taxes..

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet:































It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes.

 

Oh, and it's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes

 

I believe there is a serious issue but there's sod all we can do about it.

The biggest issue, and one never raised as it's too emotive/political, is population control. Population today ~6bn, population by 2040 ~9bn - i.e. we're fecked. Even the efforts of the 3rd world current population catching up with the western world mean we're fecked.

I look at it this way - we are a population out of control in a closed environment with limited resources (the Earth) - at some point, as in all other similar models (e.g. humans on Easter Island), the population growth continues until something horrific happens to make the population collapse. Unless we halt population growth then there's not much use recycling that plastic cup or turning out that light bulb.

The biggest issue is that we're unlocking CO2 that was trapped in fossil fuels millions of years ago. Nothing short of stopping the use of fossil fuels will change this. Planting trees, eating and farting cows etc all make no difference to the amount of CO2 over a relatively short time period. i.e. plant a tree today and it'll re-release the CO2 when it dies in x years time.

I suspect the only answer is to buy a house in a high place, preferably somewhere that isn't predicted to get too hot or head into an ice age and drink/smoke yourself happy

Gordo

 

Ahem I think you forgot something...

 

Does it begin with a "T" ?

 

Google search the "Milankovitch cycles". That explains global warming/cooling.
Its completely to do with the earth wobbling on its axis. It explains the ice age and why we were once sub tropical. Using his mathematical model, its possible to predict the global climate for hundreds of thousands of years.

Humans have no impact on this and its...

"just a government conspiracy to raise taxes".

 

Greenland was farmed by the Vikings about 800 years ago when it was about 2 degrees warmer than today.

It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes (and control your lives).

 

Haha - Milankovitch cycles are a theory for 100,000 year changes in climate, not 100 year changes!

But there is a great point on here - if anyone really cared they'd do more than raise TAX

 

There was a T4 (does that stand for THICK FOUR?) programme on at the weekend (with June Ping Pong) where a bunch of kids where sent into the Arctic Circle (Norway?, in a sail-boat) to see the catastrophic effects of "climate change" (which until recently was known by the more accurate description of "The Weather"!!!).

After marveling at polar bears on a non-snow-covered landscape (a landscape that was obviously created tens of thousand of years ago by wind and rain - not snow), they observed first hand the polar ice-cap collapsing into the sea. They were in tears.

Sadly, nobody on the sail-boat (indoctrination) crew pointed out that this was the exit-point of a glacier into the sea. When glaciers hit the sea, the ice breaks up - OTHERWISE ALL THE OCEANS WOULD BE FULL OF ICE. This actually did happen many thousand years ago, because we were in an "Ice Age" - but now we are not, hence the warmer climes and the opening of the Northwest Passage (which has been totally frozen "since records began" - a mere thirty years ago).

There is no doubt whatsoever, that "It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes."!!

mb

 

The "Campaign Against Climate Change".

CACC.

Worst. Acronym. Ever.

 

oooh.. a few hippy would-be-CND-if-it-was-still-trendy types march through london with banners (I hope recycled)..

Presumably a good number of which probably drove there.... the irony.

 

I'd be more concerned about an overdue eruption from the super volcano underneath Yellowstone park, but the government can't control us via the natural cycles of volcanos - so they decide to go the for the naturally cyclic climate route. Its just a government conspiracy to raise taxes

 

Where did the polar bears live before the ice cap formed? It's all bollox!

It's all a clever conspiracy to raise taxes.