There was a story on the news today about this being the 4th warmest Winter on record.
Global Warming is fact. It is well-established and incontrovertible. Science has moved past asking if global warming is happening (yes) as well as if it is at least in part caused by man (YES). Scientists are now trying to establish the sensitivity of the climate system to increasing temperatures.
Your just a lib loser communist who likes to kill babies and queers. While im here, FIRE KOC!
Global Warming is fact. It is well-established and incontrovertible. Science has moved past asking if global warming is happening (yes) as well as if it is at least in part caused by man (YES). Scientists are now trying to establish the sensitivity of the climate system to increasing temperatures.
Don't worry, I won't go into any other liberal scientific conspiracies like gravity, outer space, or reality.
I do think that the public debate is a little extreme on both ends of the spectrum. The current public forum should shift away from questions that already have a definitive answer to more of a moral debates, which science simply cannot answer. An example of such a question would be "With the knowledge that global warming exists, and that global warming is a side-effect of modern society. How much change are we willing to incur as stewards to the environment and to our own rational human needs (strong economy, transportation, raw goods, etc.)?"
I think if a person were to honestly assess this question, it would surprise many of us how much common ground we would all have on this matter.
I wouldn't waste my breath. The coming crisis is no longer avoidable, and I personally welcome it. When we start running out of resources in the midst of an unprecedented environmental collapse, the denialists will fade to irrelevancy, and we will no longer be talking about "economic realities". The current system is deeply entrenched, and the populace were lulled into indifference through material comfort. It is too late for any meaningful reforms, and I do not care for forcing sustainability on a reluctant audience. A serious crisis is exactly what we need.
I'm not advocating either way, all I am saying is that the issue is complex. We all want a good life which includes a nice job, a nice house, a nice family, I can go on. But the reality is that in order to have those things, we must use various forms of hydrocarbons. Petroleum is and will continue to be firmly entrenched as our energy source and source of many raw materials. I believe very few would be willing to give that up for an anomaly that has unclear consequences. That said, I don't think we should go on spewing enormous amounts of hazardous gases into the atmosphere. We have to be mindful of our actions environmentally while being sensible and realistic in our approach.
The problem is far worse than most realize. We're running out of many essential resources. We're even running out of phosphorous, which was once thought impossible. Even helium is almost gone due to excessive balloon usage. The global economy is, without a doubt, heading into a serious crisis in the next 3 decades. And it will be much worse than any of the small sacrifices that would've been needed during the transition to a more sustainable system. Global warming will simply begin to seriously hurt at the same time as those other challenges, making things worse.