I understand the sarcasm, and I understand the fear, but do you understand the problem?
The climate on this planet will change, whether or not we lower our carbon footprint. We should know this because it has changed while we (humans) were not here, and it is changing while we (humans) are here. Moderate climate change causes loss of habitat, significant change causes extinctions. That's not sarcasm, it is literally written in stone, the geologic record.
Yes, human activity is changing the climate too, we've joined volcanoes, space junk, solar variance, biological blooms, and perhaps another half dozen yet undiscovered processes which affect climate on the planet. If you are rational you know there is absolutely no way that humans can counteract the changes to the climate that will be caused the next time Yellowstone erupts. If you are a geologist you know that Yellowstone will erupt, it's just a question of when.
We are currently alive, and we have economic productivity that exceeds 58 trillion dollars per year [1]. We could apply some of that toward making our species immune to climate change. We could be selfish and make only part of our species immune to climate change (the 'developed' nations). But we should not waste capital and economic productivity on things that do not contribute to that goal.
The science is great, and I am a huge fan of understanding all the variables. But misleading the public into believing if they just lower their carbon footprint the climate won't change is irresponsible at best.
The climate on this planet will change, whether or not we lower our carbon footprint. We should know this because it has changed while we (humans) were not here, and it is changing while we (humans) are here. Moderate climate change causes loss of habitat, significant change causes extinctions. That's not sarcasm, it is literally written in stone, the geologic record.
Yes, human activity is changing the climate too, we've joined volcanoes, space junk, solar variance, biological blooms, and perhaps another half dozen yet undiscovered processes which affect climate on the planet. If you are rational you know there is absolutely no way that humans can counteract the changes to the climate that will be caused the next time Yellowstone erupts. If you are a geologist you know that Yellowstone will erupt, it's just a question of when.
We are currently alive, and we have economic productivity that exceeds 58 trillion dollars per year [1]. We could apply some of that toward making our species immune to climate change. We could be selfish and make only part of our species immune to climate change (the 'developed' nations). But we should not waste capital and economic productivity on things that do not contribute to that goal.
The science is great, and I am a huge fan of understanding all the variables. But misleading the public into believing if they just lower their carbon footprint the climate won't change is irresponsible at best.
[1] http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met_y=ny_gdp_...