Drought?

[Outside Bend]

No, they don't really look at it over a long period of time. They adjust the scale to fit their needs. Earth has changed many times in the last 3 billion years. We have been in a period of global warming since the last Ice Age. Before that, it was a big cool down.

I don't deny we are getting warmer, we have been since the Ice Age. I think it is arrogant on the part of man to think that they can change the cycles of the earth at this stage of the game and our present intelligence level.....

Nature will run its course.

Now if you want to claim your part in the scheme of things, call it pollution. That what it has been called in the past. Attack it that way, people would be far less offensive.

Some scientists are interested in studying climate over the past 200 years, some scientists are interested in studying climate over the past several thousand years. If you'd like to call that "adjusting the time scale to fit their needs," it's your prerogative.

But we can look at climate over a much longer scale. We can look at climate over the past several hundred thousand years- which includes ice ages and interglacial periods. And even when we look at the long time scale you're talking about JD, this current event doesn't fit with the cyclical pattern you're talking about- temps are rising much faster, and there's a whole lot more CO2 in the atmosphere than there was during previous interglacials.

Saying it's part of a pattern only works if it actually fits the pattern.

[Haris122]

I think it is arrogant on the part of man to think that they can change the cycles of the earth at this stage of the game and our present intelligence level.....

This may not count as a cycle but man has screwed up other parts of the earth's atmosphere prior to this, only thing is it's a simpler fix, and there was less doubt in the necessity of the fix (CFC's and the Ozone Layer). If we can affect the level of Ozone in a couple decades, why can't we affect that of CO2 in a century even if it exists in larger quantities as Ozone?

[Wayne SW/MO]

There are simply to many holes in the theory for me to not question the extent of man's influence on global warming. I've never said I don't believe the earth is warming, despite attempt to make it appear otherwise. There is no evidence that man can inspect any period of time that closely in the earths total time.

The bottom line is that little is being done to combat the effects of global warming and much is being done to enrich a few. For all the effort and money spent claiming we will make a difference, there is no difference. The talk is that this drought is due to global warming, yet to date it doesn't rank but near the top.

Maybe we should pay more attention those "anomalies" because they do represent reductions.

Pinatubo doesn't really seem to fit.

[drew03cmc]

There are simply to many holes in the theory for me to not question the extent of man's influence on global warming. I've never said I don't believe the earth is warming, despite attempt to make it appear otherwise. There is no evidence that man can inspect any period of time that closely in the earths total time.

The bottom line is that little is being done to combat the effects of global warming and much is being done to enrich a few. For all the effort and money spent claiming we will make a difference, there is no difference. The talk is that this drought is due to global warming, yet to date it doesn't rank but near the top.

Maybe we should pay more attention those "anomalies" because they do represent reductions.

Pinatubo doesn't really seem to fit.

The science says that we are warming up, as a result of industrialization. I am of the school of thought that 7 billion people can and do have an impact on this planet. At the rate we are deforesting this country and the world, it is just a matter of time until the whole planet looks like NYC and we can all toss #16 Adams at the common carp.

[jdmidwest]

I have never discounted that man has polluted the environment in various ways. I have an issue with pollution and things can and have been done to control what we do to the environment.

But to be as arrogant as to say we have changed the cycles of the earth, I have an issue with that. And to think buying carbon credits will change it back to the way it was is the silliest dam thing I have ever seen any man come up with.

[drew03cmc]

Who mentioned carbon credits in this discussion? It is not arrogance. Look at the charts, as man has become more and more advanced, the amount of CO2, and the average temperature have gone up. Anyone saying otherwise is either naive or blind.

[jdmidwest]

OK, you got me interested. The Globe is warming.

What do you propose to fix it?

[Tim Smith]

But to be as arrogant as to say we have changed the cycles of the earth, I have an issue with that. And to think buying carbon credits will change it back to the way it was is the silliest dam thing I have ever seen any man come up with.

We haven't changed the solar cycles or the lunar cycles or any other cycles that are out of our control. I don't think anyone said we did. We've just added extra carbon on top of those.

No, carbon credits (certainly not voluntary ones like we have now) won't solve the problem. I've encouraged people to buy them, but mostly as a way to keep mangrove from getting dredged under. The market has to stand behind the solution (even if so far it looks like they're not going to come up with one).

Lower taxes on the energy sources that get us away from carbon, ones that keep carbon in the ground.

Lower taxes on efficient consumers. Cars, households, businesses...

Continue and accelerate research and development.

Favor partner countries who work to lower their footprint.

Get ready for more droughts and more storms and more heat and more erratic weather.

Face up to the problem, call a spade a spade and make decisions based on sound science.

[jdmidwest]

But we do our part every day here in the USA.

We scrub our coal emission to reduce pollution.

We control our vehicle emissions.

We have a pretty good handle on what we put into the air and we pay well for it. That is why most of our jobs have went to China where all of the pollution is coming from. I doubt if there is any other country with strict regulations and a all encompassing agency like the EPA to regulate it.

We shudder when they mention a new Nuclear Power plant.

We block the damming of streams to produce hydro electric power.

Lowering taxes on efficient products does not really help, the efficient products are more expensive than normal ones. In this economy that is struggling to make ends meet, who can afford the better stuff, even with a meager tax break. Then you have to go long form on taxes and hire someone to do them. How about making them more competitive pricewise instead.

Our forestry management is 110 percent better than it was at the turn of the century. Trees absorb carbon, plant more trees in your yards.

[Tim Smith]

But we do our part every day here in the USA.

Right. We are far, far and away the largest producers of greenhouse gases and the largest per capita producers of greenhouse gases.