In our ‘modern era’ the hype about the environment and environmental protection borders on fear mongering. As with every section of society there are extremists, in this case, Green Peace is the first one that comes to mind. One look at where current environmental funding is heading highlights who the biggest players are: global warming and climate change.
The media loves these buzz words. They instill images of flooding, drought, fires, pestilence, poverty, and the WRATH OF GOD. Well, maybe not quite that extreme, but the media isn’t shy about hyping up their stories in order to sell them.
When it come to climate change three question really need to be addressed.
1) What is causing the increase in global temperature? The CO2 arguments are weak at best and without knowing how the causative agent is working it is difficult to change the trend.
2) Is the change anything outside of the normal trends? Global temperatures are known to fluctuate, so what should make the current increase ‘special’.
3) Would warmer temperatures be that bad? I mean, I know I wouldn’t mind a milder winter. And I’m sure the farmers up here wouldn’t mind a longer growing season.
4 comments:
The problem with 'climate change' is that it is extremely difficult to try and quantify. On top of that, there are many things that can have a much greater effect on earths climate besides the actions of humans (volcanoes can cause global cooling for decades etc.). I'm not saying that this gives humans a free licence to be gluttons and consumes as much as they want. I feel that we should evaluate our decisions in this light. The billions or trillions that will be spent on the Kyoto Protocol might be better spent to feed the poor and develop alternative technologies.
The problem with 'climate change' is that it is extremely difficult to try and quantify. On top of that, there are many things that can have a much greater effect on earths climate besides the actions of humans (volcanoes can cause global cooling for decades etc.). I'm not saying that this gives humans a free licence to be gluttons and consumes as much as they want. I feel that we should evaluate our decisions in this light. The billions or trillions that will be spent on the Kyoto Protocol might be better spent to feed the poor and develop alternative technologies.
I'd be curious if the only way to really evaluate "change" is to have an "eye of God" ability, opps!, (to use a metaphor), and be able to see the ecosystem of our planet over eons? What if this global warming, in the scheme of things, is nothing more than a burp of warm air?
Thats is exactly my point. We know far to little to be able to identify all of the factors affecting global temperature change.
Post a Comment