global warming bad... maybe not says mit prof.

[strmrdr]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17997788/site/newsweek/

 

[poptart]

Interesting article, although I tend to disagree with him on many points. I wish people would stop fighting over the world warming and changing and start turning towards the importance of conservation and what is healthier for both us and our planet.

*M*

 

[katebar]

I don''t want tp play he said she said but this article was in a local paper on Thursday UN warning on climate change .
I completely agree with poptart though we are all in this together and we all have to start to make a difference.

 

[monarch64]

IMO, people have to look at both sides of the story and determine for themselves what they are going to do. Al Gore, again, IMO, is a bit of an alarmist. The UN has a 400 page report on research done about methane gases released from animals used for farming. Still others believe that what the Earth is going through now is just another fluctuation in temperature and no big deal...who do we believe? It only makes sense to me to find a happy medium, so to speak, and do what we can on an everyday, realistic basis, such as recycling, using "greener" products, buying "greener" cars, and participating in becoming knowledgeable about what the Earth is going through and potential harmful behaviours we as humans are doing. In other words, can''t we all just be smart about it? Can''t we all just try to be as informed as possible and not take political sides as this is our home? What I gather from this whole thing is that we all just need to step it up a notch as far as recycling and being more responsible about our waste management, as well as being more informed as consumers as far as what environmentally friendly products we are buying. (And a lot more, but to stick a pinky tip in the surface...)

 

[partgypsy]

I looked through the first part of the article and these arguments are either niave or deliberately misleading. They are addressed in the IPCC report. Again, this is a report created by 600 scientists who are experts in this field. Myself I know (from experience)

that scientists as a group are skeptical by nature, and highly independent. They don''t like other people telling them what they should believe. The fact that this is a consensus report, and each time it is updated the evidence that we are forcing climate change only gets stronger should make one sit up and take notice.

I''m not going to go through all the arguments this person raises, but for example the argument that scientists are alarmed simply because the climate is changing and maybe we''ll like a warmer planet better is simply wrong. The problem is that this climate change (forced by the sharp spike in c02 emissions in past century or so) is so fast that the world''s plant, animal and insect (including pollinating) species cannot adapt. Not to mention the moral problem of allowing this to happen, these are the things that we depend on to live.

To me this whole thing reminds me of hurricane Katrina. Everyone seemed to know that there was a problem with the levees, everyone knew that they were in a hurricane alley. Everyone talked about it but noone did anything about it, that is until it was too late, with us having to clean up a mess that resulted a huge loss in life and property.

 

[partgypsy]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/15/america/NA-GEN-US-Global-Warming-Security.php

Here''s another article, about what retired top US military say about global warming.