Global Warming

I prefer to use the term "climate change" rather than "global warming."
Sadly, there is no greater issue that shows the ignorance of the bozos who rely on corporate news for their information (or worse, "experts" such as Rush Limbaugh), and have been suckered into the enormous amount of corporate propaganda (and expensive propaganda, at that) that everything is going to go on as it has been, no changes, so keep taking out loans for that new hummer or house; we have got to increase our debt/money supply at all costs...
For those of us who know how to read, such as Jared Diamond's excellent "Collapse," we know that global temperature is a fickle thing, and that a rise in just a couple of degrees can cause famine and drought. Never mind that the past ten thousand years has been a mild anomaly in the earth's moody and often wild temperature swings. Add to the problem of Peak Oil, the depletion of our fresh water reserves (such as the Ogallala aquifer), the soon-to-be-toxic Gulf of Mexico, and other problems too numerous to mention, I'd say that Climate Change is going to be a bum's rush.
...
To quote a failed farmer:
SOME say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

I don't believe in Global Warming, except for the hot air coming out of Washington, DC politiicans
These global warming people look utterly ridiculous when they hold their Global Warming summits in Davos,Switzerland in the middle of winter with the snow coming down.

Here in my area of Texas the temperature hit 113 in 1998 and it has not been above 110 or 111 since then. It's never been as hot the past few years as it was in 1998.

This is very,very bad. Only an idiot believes the folks who deny this.Kind of like Holocaust deniers....it takes THAT much ignorance.

I've been hoping my family,friends and all non-muhfuh's in the world come up with a scam like this....an excellent one stop shopping site for this is larryelder.com-click on 'Gore-bull warming'...also-michaelfumento.com(hottest decade-the thirties)(also,until recently there was an ongoing clock clicking off time Michael Moore spent punking out on debating him-he finally put together a dvd with the world's second biggest conguy).

Forget the stats and graphs, I haven’t seen anyone here, or anywhere else writing about how unusually hot it’s been. I went to weather.com and looked up the forecast for San Francisco. You guys out there are having an average summer season. A little too cool for me personally. Here in Michigan, It’s been on the cool side so far. Louie’s freezing his ass off in Ohio, Vic’s in the Carolina’s, nothing unusual reported by him. What about D.C, Sucks? How has the weather been there? I was in Vegas in June, temps were in the mid 80’s. Our local weather guys like to show record temps for each day. On June 14th, the record temperature in Detroit was 102 degrees, set in 1936. Even then, and until now, global temperatures have remained in the area of normal climate variation.

The only thing man made is the fear stoked by Lord Gore and his followers on the Left.

Update: So we’re not scientist, what does that mean? There is no relationship between climate and temperature? CanadaSucks comes on this thread like he always does, make stupid ass remarks that nobody finds funny, gets challenged, and backs up his statements with insults. He ignorantly thinks I’m here to “WIN” debates. Know who will be WINNING if Cap and Trade passes the senate? Companies like Goldman Sachs. Al Gore’s stands to make millions by investing in companies that sell carbon credits. We LOSE by having to pay higher energy cost each month. You’re being scammed people, wake the fuck up!

There's not much point in fearing it 'cause the powers-that-be aren't going to do anything about it and so the results of global climate change are inevitable.

UPDATE:

Apparently, Al Gore has managed to hypnotize vast numbers of climatologists in order to further his nefarious plan to take away our guns, bibles and automobiles.

I just had the mildest June here in Phoenix that I can ever remember, so fear isn't crawling up and down my spine at the moment. But on to the agendas! Yes, the partisans are crazy, but I don't trust the scientists either. Why? Because as long as Chicken Little is funding their research, they're going to tell you that the sky is falling. Granted, I think man has something to do with climate change, but I also think that our role has been vastly overblown, as has the scope of the problem. As to potential fixes, don't let the UN or our incredibly efficient government get involved unless you really want the "problem" to get worse.

UPDATE: Ooh, I must be some kinda talk radio listening, backwards, non-reading, ignorant ass for not believing the scientists, I guess. That's what I get from reading the criticisms of the other skeptics, at least.

Should we fear it? Nah. We will do things far more destructive to ourselves before we drown under the floods of the polar ice melt. We could annihilate ourselves with our increasingly powerful weapons, starve ourselves from our increasingly consumptive mass of humanity, poison ourselves from our continued chemical experimentation. The time frame for these threats isn’t measured in decades or centuries. It will be much quicker and more startling.

My personal greatest concern is that we will continue to implement labour saving devices such as electric can openers, over use automated door openers that are installed for the handicapped, and expand our love of on-line shopping that eliminates the need to leave our homes and use our legs and especially our arms.

This reduced requirement for our arms; and the hands that are located at the end of those arms; and thus the opposable thumbs that are placed on those hands is frankly terrifying. Once those atrophy and cease to be a part of the physiology of our species, we are basically sitting ducks. We’ll be extremely vulnerable to attack from some emerging life form that we won’t see coming because they have brilliantly suppressed all broadcast of information about themselves via the copyright restrictions enacted on YouTube.

Science has an irritating way of proving actual and deliberate ignorance wrong. . .

Kids, let's pretend that alllllll those baddy-baddy scientists are wrong and you have (drum roll) economically and politically expedient social atmosphere! Presto! Your head hits the pillow and you sleep well at night!

Sorry- I'll take the majority of the scientific opinion on this one. The strange arrogance of our species never ceases to amaze me. . .we think we can ignore unpleasant facts and continue on with our existence as if nothing's wrong.

This one is tricky. I was taught in Meteorology classes way back in the 90's in high school (--so this clearly makes me an expert, right? --end sarcasm) that we are at the end of an ice age and that the earth should be warming up anyway. I was also taught that the way the world is set up, if the North Pole melts, who cares? It won't have much effect on us. It's like when you have a glass of ice water and the ice melts, the level in the glass doesn't change at all. (Go ahead, melt some ice in a glass, I'll wait) However, if the South Pole melts, then Australia is fucked. I also remember a few years ago scientists were saying that that winter, 2005 if I remember correctly, that the South Pole had shrunk that year, but the ice itself was thicker. Not really sure what that means.
I think that the debate in this stems from the fact that while no doubt the earth is warming, it is our human involvement in it that has many concerned. What is our impact? If we speed up the process too much then animals and flora and fauna and everything else is fucked. If we let it do its thing naturally and in its own right time then animals and tress, et al, can all adapt.
An issue just as big would be to the environment itself; pollution, habitat destruction, extinction, removal of swamplands for development, depletion of resources. This has little to do with climate change, but everything to do with health and well being of life on earth.
We really need to listen to scientists on this one and act according to what they say. And honestly, if we do reduce emmisions, recycle, etc. what is the worst that can happen? At worst it won't hurt and at best it will help.

I don't fear global warming, but I'm not in denial that human activity is having a significant impact on our environment as well. While I'm not going to stop driving my car and start buying clothing only made from hemp, I think it is more than reasonable for people, companies, and government to take steps to conserve the resources we have.

There are politics being played on both sides of this issue, with fanatics and deniers on both sides taking positions based on partisanship. There are also politics being played within the scientific community, which makes it hard for lay observers to determine what is fact and what is agenda driven.

My own position is that while the threat of global warming might be overstated, reducing our carbon footprint certainly can't do any harm.

Playing politics with this issue = suggesting that there is scientific consensus here.
Question that no one will answer...what SHOULD be the mean temp. of planet earth?

The only rational position on this is to listen to the scientists. Right now, just about every recognized scientific organization and national science academy supports the IPCC position that human activity is accountable for most of the climate change of the past 50 years.

This position could change with more study / data, but it hasn't yet.

If your position on Global Warming is anything other than "let's listen to the scientists," you are just playing politics.

I fear Al Gore falling on me and smothering me more! 65 degrees on 4th of July here hardly warrants global warming. I know, I know it is climate change now huh? In the 70's it was the new Ice Age! Just more ways of government control. Nice try Al!!!

One carbon credit.

One of the few times I'll agree with Menckin's comment:

"For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

Planetary ecosystems are as complex as you can get. Add in any number extraterrestrial events and there's no accurate way of telling why the earth is warming. Anything from sunspot activity to cosmic rays to methane pocket erruptions from the sea floor to cow farts to volcanic eruptions certainly could have an effect. Prove conclusively that humans are the main cause and I'll wash Gore's underwear, by hand on a flat stone. Must save the planet.

And screw the UN scientific bullshit. These clueless fucks couldn't find sand in a desert.

BTW, IIRC, we've been in an interglacial period for the last 18,000 years or so. Some predict the period will end roughly 2,000 years from now. Let the panick begin...

Don't hold your breath waiting for the science to back this fairy tale up, Genghis, or we'll have to rush you to the hospital.
When news clips of Al Gore bloviating on the end of the planet while standing outside on a record cold day in New York in January 2008 don't sway the faithful, you know there are a lot of gullible dunces around sucking free air.
And in a cute PR move, the MSM and the windbags touting this scam (if CO2 was the problem they claim it is, we'd be extinct by now for all their gas-bagging) start calling it 'climate change'. Nice. And that's what the climate does and has been doing ever since the powers that be started this blue marble spinning. Climate changes constantly; that's how you get distinct seasons and weather patterns hour by hour, day by day, week, month, year, decade, century, millenium, etc., etc.
Getting the picture now?
I might have been more partial to the idea if not for two things: the 'imminent Ice Age' that was pushed in the early 1970's (anybody remember Dennis Miller on the Tonight Show a few years back, holding up a copy of the 1975 Newsweek edition with the Ice Age alarm as it's cover?)...and the late 1960's laugher about overpopulation; that it would double by the year 2000, and there would be famine, pestilence, and on and on. Well, here we are, and NOT ONE BIT OF IT came to pass.
It's the same crowd that's pushing the warming/change mantra. They were dead wrong then, and their losing streak continues.
It's what happens when too many people join the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Hysteria.
Relax, folks. The forecast is: 'planet Earth still here and functioning, more of the same for the forseeable future'.
What the folks in the 'warming' crowd have to do is .....GTFU.

100 Carbon Credits for the first person who knows what 'GTFU' stands for.

UPDATE: Grand Prize awarded...contest closed.

I have always waited for the science on this thing. The world is warming. Will it get as warm of the days of the dinosaurs? It could. That may well be natural and unstoppable. Carbon dioxide emissions are a tiny part of the overall picture according to much scientific thought.

I think that Global Warming is occurring, but the hyperbole and rhetoric on this issue is severely overblown. The world isn't going to come to an end as a result of this. Climate is a highly variable thing that can switch very quickly. After really considering this issue, I've come to the conclusion that, while we should pursue environmentally friendly activities (promote clean water and proper waste disposal procedures, for example), a comprehensive "solution" to the climate change issue isn't necessary or really possible.

  I suupose I do fear global warming.  At one point I feared the extinction of the spotted owl more than the loss of America's timber industry and its thousands of jobs and millions toward our GDP.  Now, that really WAS silly.  And it's good that the environmentalists have graduated to scientific fact and empirical data, rather than emotional guilt slinging.  That's a real breath of fresh air. 

But fear can be such a powerful convincer, can't it?  I know,  fear and scientific concensus.

to fear something, you would have to acknowledge on some level that it exists. somebody with far more credibility than al gore will have to provide better evidence of its existence.

What does Michael Moore say?