[Vision2020] Human Induced Global Warming Skeptics Keep Up The Heat!

[Paul Rumelhart]

Ok, a couple of things.  First, I haven't read any of the documents on 
the site.  Second, I don't know if you are lumping me in with the "human 
induced global warming skeptics", but I would describe myself as a 
"global warming will slap your sister, cause your hair to fall out, and 
spit in your chicken soup" type of skeptic.  I think the alarmist aspect 
of this is coloring the debate too much.  So, do humans help induce 
global warming?  Yes.  I'm breathing out CO2 as we speak.  Are we 
dumping an amazing amount of pollution of all types, CO2 included, into 
the air?  Yes.  Should we be writing our wills?  No.  At least, not yet.

As I've said before, you shouldn't be buying a Hummer tomorrow not 
because we're all going to fry in the heat, but because they output 
pollution into the air that is affecting people's health today, because 
the oil is going to run out sooner rather than later and dump the 
economy on it's ass, and because we have to prop up unstable governments 
like Iraq.  Oh, and Canada.

There appear to be processes in place to scrub the CO2 out of the air 
once we stop putting so much of it up there.  That will probably follow 
the collapse of the free world instead of the invention of a popular 
clean energy source, but it will happen.  I'm sure that we will add our 
considerable ingenuity to this problem and actually make some progress 
on it as soon as Washington, DC is under water.

As for this being a "free market" libertarian nightmare, I can see 
that.  I think "free market" is analogous to "let me rob you blind" a 
lot of the time.  I like their stance on personal liberties, but I think 
they need to take a few more economics classes.  Or just read the paper 
or watch advertisements on TV a little more.

You can't deny that politics is influencing the global warming debate on 
all sides.  That, in my opinion, is a direct consequence of the alarmist 
aspect of the topic.  Granted, if it really is as bad as they say, we 
need to get started on the solutions now.  However, I don't know that we 
know that it's all that bad.  It's a complicated topic, with too many 
variables to model easily.  Sure, the glaciers are melting.  How much of 
that has to do with the fact that we are coming out of an ice age?  How 
much effect does a few decades of higher CO2 levels have?  How much does 
the extra moisture in the air affect things?  How many processes do we 
have yet to discover that help or hinder global warming?  It could very 
well be as bad as they say, but it's a hard decision to make to 
radically change our quality of life when it may not be needed in the 
end.  If it was an asteroid on collision with the Earth, then you'd know 
it was a problem that had to be fixed now.

Paul

Ted Moffett wrote:
> All:
>
> That subject line is a joke, but I'm not laughing.
>  
> I saw a sponsored link to "The Heartland Institute," with a lot of 
> global warming skeptic claims, on my gmail Google account, so I 
> investigated.  "Sponsored" means they are paying to have the link 
> featured prominently, of course.  It appears they have a mountain of 
> evidence that the thousands of scientists warning of serious human 
> induced global warming are off in la, la land!  And what was really 
> amazing was that they are a "free market" libertarian institute!  
> Well, OK, this is not so amazing.  This is just what you would 
> expect.  As Eugene Linden, author of "The Winds of Change," said, 
> "Human caused global warming is a libertarian nightmare."  
>  
> For the human induced global warming skeptics on Vision2020, surveying 
> this info might be interesting.  Maybe they are right?! 
>  
> I'm buying a Hummer tomorrow and driving coast to coast as often as 
> possible for the shear fun and joy of burning fossil fuels!  Yee-Haw!  
> Now where's my own personal Middle East oil well?  Let's free up those 
> markets!
>  
> This website will reveal what biased politically tainted money 
> corrupted scientific idiots all those scientists warning of human 
> induced global warming really are:
>  
> http://www.heartland.org/PolicyBotTopic.cfm?artTopic=704
>  
> ----
> Ted Moffett
>  
>  
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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