An Inconvenient Truth...

[Planogirl]

Speak for yourself! I don't buy into the man made global warming belief. I hate flourecent lights so I am not using them. I do recycle, but only because I do believe in trying to lighten the load on landfills. I am still going to drive my truck and SUV and make multiple trips to the store if i want to. If you are so concerned about the earth ... you give up your car and stop heating your house, but don't tell me by using different light bulbs you are doing your part, you are just trying to make yourself feel better. Go count the number of lights on in Al Gore's HouseS right now and tell me if he is doing his part.

I was speaking for myself and trying to decipher your argument. OK, maybe Al Gore is selfish too.

 

[disneycutie84]

Well, if it's "in question" that we humans are contributing to it, then why not err on the side of caution and buy some fluorescent lightbulbs or start carpooling? I don't get the "I'll exude all the greenhouse gases I want" attitude. Saving energy is good for the planet, as well as for our collective wallets. It's a win-win, IMO.

I agree. Why not do what we can to make our planet a better place to live? How can it hurt?
DBf and I live together and he is the only one with a car. Unless we are going somewhere together, I walk or take the bus where I need to go. I have never driven and gotten along just fine. Its my choice and I feel good about the small steps I take to help the environment. I realize that not everyone can stop driving & rely on public transportation but any environmentally friendly action can help.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Poor analogy. Your example would save a few hundred people, but if you believe we are destroying the earth, isn't that genocide?

Ok, apply it to the world, then. It would save millions of people.

I believe if we all change in small ways it will change things enough, yes.

No, genocide is planned and systematic. I'd call this negligence.

 

[snowwite]

I agree with other posters who think everyone needs to do thier part. The problem is that most people have the attitude that it is not thier problem or will not affect thier lifetime. The big companies depleting resources, polluting the air and water surely contribute as well. we switched to more expensive longer lasting lightbulbs, we recycle,we limit travel (yes, we go to WDW once a year and no I am not giving it up and I felt the argument for razing WDW was just silly) I drive a Saturn not an SUV (and someday hope to get a hybrid) etc. If someone wants to drive a bigger truck and pay more for gas they certainly can but if millions of people think that way the problem will never get better. In fact until we have a president who makes this a priority I dont think it will get any better but shouldnt we all do what we can to make some sort of difference?

 

[reeeoga]

Medieval warming period.

Try here: http://www.biocab.org/Global_Warming.html#anchor_32

No coralation between CO2 levels and Temp.

and here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/medieval.html

Edit to add: and here: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V8/N30/EDIT.jsp

See both sides have experts.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Well, if it's "in question" that we humans are contributing to it, then why not err on the side of caution and buy some fluorescent lightbulbs or start carpooling? I don't get the "I'll exude all the greenhouse gases I want" attitude. Saving energy is good for the planet, as well as for our collective wallets. It's a win-win, IMO.

I agree. Why not do what we can to make our planet a better place to live? How can it hurt?
DBf and I live together and he is the only one with a car. Unless we are going somewhere together, I walk or take the bus where I need to go. I have never driven and gotten along just fine. Its my choice and I feel good about the small steps I take to help the environment. I realize that not everyone can stop driving & rely on public transportation but any environmentally friendly action can help.

I agree with other posters who think everyone needs to do thier part. The problem is that most people have the attitude that it is not thier problem or will not affect thier lifetime. The big companies depleting resources, polluting the air and water surely contribute as well. we switched to more expensive longer lasting lightbulbs, we recycle,we limit travel (yes, we go to WDW once a year and no I am not giving it up and I felt the argument for razing WDW was just silly) I drive a Saturn not an SUV (and someday hope to get a hybrid) etc. If someone wants to drive a bigger truck and pay more for gas they certainly can but if millions of people think that way the problem will never get better. In fact until we have a president who makes this a priority I dont think it will get any better but shouldnt we all do what we can to make some sort of difference?

Would you all be willing to stop using your computers?

Certainly posting on the DIS is not necessary. You could save energy by switching off the computer.

Food for thought.

 

[DawnCt1]

Nope....that was using ice data from the antartic....it goes back 600,000 years. Nice try,though. I really suggest you see the movie.

We have been experiencing global warming for thousands of years. The entire north American continent was completely covered by an ice sheet. How else did Yosemite get formed? All you have to do is look at your own drive way in the winter. When the snow is removed, the darkness of it absorbs heat, radiates heat and melts the snow along the edges. The more land that is uncovered from ice, the more radiation from the sun is absorbed and the more heat it gives off to cause melting.

 

[snowwite]

Would you all be willing to stop using your computers?

Certainly posting on the DIS is not necessary. You could save energy by switching off the computer.

Food for thought.

Sure. You go first.

 

[DawnCt1]

. Go count the number of lights on in Al Gore's HouseS right now and tell me if he is doing his part.

Which house?? The 10,000 square foot, 8 bathroom house in Nashville or the 4,000 square foot house in Arlington, Va? What about the third home in Carthage, TN? Do we know how big that one is??

 

[Galahad]

Global warming notwithstanding, I've always wondered - if CAFE standards for auto efficiency have always withstood legal and constitutional scrutiny, then what is the reasoning behind not applying them to larger vehicles and applying an accurate test for fuel efficiency. I really think there is nothing but collective obstinance behind that one.

 

[hopemax]

My DH got the movie through Netflix, I wasn't interested in it, but it turned out to be a very interesting movie, and answered some of my questions over the subject.

What struck me the most, was the correlation between population growth and the environmental changes. Which makes perfect sense to me, our advances in medicine, agriculture, and everything else means that people are living longer, infant mortality is down and they have basic needs that need to met. There are 4 billion more people living on this planet than there were 100 years ago. Certainly that has to have had some effect. I half jokingly said to DH that penicillin and dwarf grains caused global warming.

But IMO, it's not the fault of "evil" companies or "selfishness." It's the side effect of billions of people. And I think that's where the environmentalists go wrong; trying to paint someone as a villain. I think innovention, progress, trying to make a better life for ourselves is what's got us to where we are, and it's those same things that will get us over THIS hurdle.

 

[DawnCt1]

. I half jokingly said to DH that penicillin and dwarf grains caused global warming.

.

An lets not forget the sanitary sewer system.

 

[Soubrette]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's in my netflix queue.

I did recently see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" and would highly recommend it. It does an interesting analysis of the forces that led to the demise of the electric car, spreading the blame among a number of forces including the automotive industry, oil industry, and consumers.

Anyway, with the rise in gas prices affecting the everyday lives of so many people, I think we've finally come to the point that the majority of the public is ready to talk about issues of conservation, the environment, and global warming.

And for those people who are stubbornly insisting on their right to burn up gas in their SUV's, I wonder how much they've considered not just the environmental ramifications of their choice, but also the political ramifications with the U.S.'s dependency on foreign oil. In a global economy, these issues inevitably overlap.

 

[nativetxn]

I'm older than most of you and I remember getting very upset in the 70's because the "greenhouse effect" was creating an ice age putting all of our ecosystems in danger. We were DOOMED.

You will forgive me if I don't get hysterical about global warming just yet. I can only take so many disasters in one lifetime.

Katholyn

 

[TheDoctor]

I get to play Doctor

Please consider the following. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03432352.htm

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Energy giant ExxonMobil borrowed tactics from the tobacco industry to raise doubt about climate change, spending $16 million on groups that question global warming, a science watchdog group said on Wednesday.

"ExxonMobil <XOM.N> has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said at a telephone news conference releasing the report.

An ExxonMobil spokesman dismissed the report as "an attempt to connect unrelated facts, draw inaccurate conclusions and mislead the audience with a fiction about ExxonMobil's true positions."

The union, a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said ExxonMobil, the world's biggest publicly traded corporation, had succeeded in parlaying a relatively modest investment into unwarranted public doubt on findings that have been overwhelmingly endorsed by mainstream science.

ExxonMobil did this by using the same methods used for decades by the U.S. tobacco industry, the report said, including:

-- raising doubts about even the most undisputed science;

-- funding a variety of front organizations to create the appearance of a broad platform;

-- recruiting a number of vocal climate change contrarians;

-- portraying its opposition to action as a quest for "sound science" rather than business self-interest;

-- using its access to the Bush administration to shape federal communications and policies on global warming.

TOBACCO TACTICS

U.S. tobacco companies used these tactics for decades to hide the hazards of smoking, and were found liable in federal court last year for violating racketeering laws.

Global warming has been blamed for stronger hurricanes, more wildfires and worse droughts. While there have been cycles of warming and cooling throughout Earth's history, the last 30 years have seen a steep warming trend which most scientists say is due to emission of so-called greenhouse gases by the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, factories and power plants.

ExxonMobil has funded legitimate scientific studies on climate change, the watchdog report said, but noted it has also spent approximately $16 million between 1998 and 2005 on 43 organizations that have cast doubt on the reality of human-caused global warming.

If manufactured studies were good enough for big Tobacco, then such studies are great for EXXON.

 

[TheDoctor]

I'm older than most of you and I remember getting very upset in the 70's because the "greenhouse effect" was creating an ice age putting all of our ecosystems in danger. We were DOOMED.

You will forgive me if I don't get hysterical about global warming just yet. I can only take so many disasters in one lifetime.

Katholyn

How are you doing?

 

[TheDoctor]

There were 5000 polar bears in the 1950s now there are 25,000. Their numbers are increasing. While they look cute and cuddly, they are the largest and most aggressive land mammal. I am glad they don't live in my neighborhood.

the number of polar bears went up after hunting was stopped and now the numbers are going down. You need to get your information from a source other than Faux. http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/05/today_fox_added_polar_bears_to_their_hit_list.php

Polar Bears are dying because the ice is melting and the animals are drowning. This is an undeniable fact that the Bush Administration has recently acknowledged but FOX News wouldn't want their viewers to think that Global Warming is a problem we need to solve any time soon and certainly not for the sake of the polar bears. This morning the Fox & Friends First trio had a few chuckles during their light hearted banter about the polar bears and John Gibson devoted his My Word to minimizing their plight.

This from the official US website. http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...&m=January&x=20070104134253mlenuhret0.3304254

Washington – “Polar bears are one of nature’s ultimate survivors, able to live and thrive in one of the world’s harshest environments, but we are concerned the polar bears’ habitat may literally be melting,” Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said on introducing a proposal in December 2006 to list the bears as an endangered species.

His plan allows a year for data review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “to broaden our understanding of what is happening with the species,” before a final determination on whether to list the bear as endangered.

New data demonstrating high rates of melting ice over the past several years have alarmed scientists. A recent study by Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shows that the Arctic Ocean could lose nearly all of its summertime ice by 2040. That could spell doom for polar bears.

“We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far,” NCAR scientist Marika Holland said.

Bear populations that increased after restrictions on hunting in their range countries are now again in decline, the Polar Bear Specialist Group reported in 2005. The number of polar bears in the wild now is estimated at 20,000 to 25,000.

Warming affects polar bears more than other species because they live on the disappearing ice, a habitat to which they are specifically adapted. Environmental toxins also take their toll. Polar bears are at the top of the food chain, so “they integrate all the changes that take place” in species below them, says Steven C. Amstrup, polar bear project leader at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center in Anchorage.

Amstrup, who has researched polar bears for nearly 30 years, told USINFO: “As far as rescuing polar bears before their habitat disappears, there is really no rescue.” As sea ice declines, he said, so does their capacity to hunt for their primary food, the ring seal. “Polar bears are entirely dependent upon the sea ice because it is only from that platform that they are able to harvest the bounty from the sea,” Amstrup said.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Sure. You go first.

I'm quite up-front about the fact that I'm not changing anything in my life due to global warming. If it does exist, I'm totally for it. I hate snow and ice!

I'll drive my SUV and play on my computer and burn my lightbulbs. We don't even turn them off when we leave rooms. House glows with wild electrical abandon!

But, if you are all that concerned about your personal energy conservation, you can switch the computer off and save even more. If you are really, truly concerned about it, that is. It'd save WAY more than a lightbulb!!!

 

[DawnCt1]

the number of polar bears went up after hunting was stopped and now the numbers are going down. You need to get your information from a source other than Faux. http://www.newshounds.us/2007/01/05/today_fox_added_polar_bears_to_their_hit_list.phpThis from the official US website. http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...&m=January&x=20070104134253mlenuhret0.3304254

I would suggest to you, like many mammals whose environment changes, they will adapt.

 

[Free4Life11]

I thought it was a good movie and think there are a lot of easy, practical things we can do to the help the environment.