The question is, does man have anything to do with it or is it just Mother Nature going through one of her cycles. Apparently, worldwide, the planet has been cooling for the past 15+ years. The sun going through its active and less active cycles have more to do with what is happening here than anything else. The alarmists were screaming that Antarctica had lost five miles of ice off one side but failed to mention that it had gained eight miles on the opposite side. Stunts like this and pretty soon, no one will be listening if we are into a real man made problem. Even then, who is actually going to make the changes and give up many of their comforts to do what would need be done to get any meaningful results. China and India, with over half the world's population are the real, significant polluters and are doing nothing to correct their problem.
Have no doubts; It’s real.
All one has to do is look at the historical graphs of average global temperature and it’s undeniable.
Science is pretty much in agreement: man made. Or at least seriously aggravated/accelerated by human activity. Easily measurable from the amount of carbon we’ released into the atmosphere, from many sources. Thats not nature, thats man made. Nature tends to sequester carbon in the ground and oceans, we tend to release it to make our energy sources.
I lean towards the scientific explanations, but recognize that the earth does go through climate change cycles as a natural thing.
In my estimation, we have a combination of things going on: natural cycle thats been “supercharged” by man made activities.
I do believe we need to take action, but thats where I stop with agreeing with people like the “green party”. For example: they proposed we be “carbon neutral” by 2050. Thats 30 years to completely undo something that we (as a species) have been setting in motion since the start of the industrial revolution. It’s just not a realistic target.
Yes, we need to move away from fossil fuels, if for no other reason than they are a finite resource.
BUT.....we can’t devastate our economies to do it.
Thats why 30 years to carbon neutral just doesn’t make sense to me.
Could we do it?
Yup, sure could. And I would appreciate being able to breath and not having a house buried under 50 feet of water. I also want to leave a viable ecosystem for my daughter to live in.
But we’d all end up living in cardboard boxes and eating catfood to do it.
We need to find a middle ground where we are reducing our negative environmental impact
AND maintaining a viable economy and a way of life....
One thing is certain: it’s not good for any of us, natural or manmade. Anything we can do to slow or reverse it only works out good for us. At least from an economic and physical survival perspective. One of the big reasons $40,000 worth of solar panels are going up on my roof. Well, that and reducing my heating bill to nearly nothing. We’re going “net metering” and once it’s all said and done, my electric bill will essentially be a $200 payment per month instead of the $600-1000 winter heating bill.
Note: I had no intention of this turning into a political debate. Lets please keep it out of that arena.
