Castor said:
ok, true, I think we can all agree that it is occuring and something should be done. However, is it a PRIMARY concern right now? I dont know what the projected deaths of global warming will be, however i do know that millions of people are dying each year from the flu and other pandemics. Is it not possible that global warming is being exploited for some sort of politcial or economical reason. We cant cure global warming, but we can cure disease, and also war. Therefore, should more focus be put into these areas?
Also, isnt it possible that global warming isnt completely due to human cause. Temperatures have fulctuated greatly over the years, there hasnt been a real prominent increase. We did go through a couple ice ages and that clearly cant be blamed on humans. Is it not true that the earth will eventually get so close to the sun that it will cause such problems parallel to global warming? or is that a myth?
Ultiamtely, should global warming be a primary concern at this moment, or should we be detering or funding and focus into other aspects?
Well, as I said - 98% of the scientists that study climate and climate change believe that humans are directly causing an accelerated, dangerous, and previously unseen warming effect. That's a pretty solid statement. Temerpatures have changed in the past, yeah, but never, ever like what we are experiencing now. The evidence is extremely conclusive. 98% agreement across the board is about as good as its going to get with the scientific community.
So far as being a primary concern? Hell yes it should be - the effects after a certain point are irreversable. We have a limited window of time to slow carbon emission before the enviornmental effects are something that we no longer have any ability to curb. Projected death tolls? Huge! Mostly the poor and displaced int he world as well, as they'll be hit the hardest by the problems climate change will create. And since you seem concerned about the economy, there will be terrible effects on the markets stemming from the numerous problems created.
I'm not sure why you think it's some kind of political ruse. Even the Bush administration, once staunch critics of the problem, have been forced to admit the problem exists and needs immediate attention.
It's very possible for the world to work on curing disease and global warming at once. The nature of the modern world is that we deal with more than one problem at a time. You seem to be digging for reasons to ignore the problem of climate change, why? And also, why do you believe that such a thing would be falsified by all these world leaders and scientists? What's the point?
As I said before, there's no reason to gamble on the future of the planet, and there aren't any negative consequences for curbing carbon emissions and learning to make less of an impact on the planet.
And, the earth won't move closer to the sun. In a few billion years the sun will have swollen up due to the changing nature of nuclear reactions in the core and will eventually swallow the earth and most everything else in the solar system. I wouldn't stake the planet's more immediate future on something that won't happen for a billions years - we'll have been wiped out by an asteroid or some disease pandemic way before then - but the least we can do is not destroy the planet beyond salvage for the generations directly following us.
I can't think of any other way to state it - just about every credible scientist that studies these things has idetnfied it as a very real and enormous threat. We have a limited amount of time to change the way we do things before the problem becomes something we can no longer curb with reduced usage and emisssions. The eventual consequences range from fairly severe to flat out catastrophic. Ask the people that live in hurricane zones about that. The increase in major storms, in both frequency and severity, could be as much as ten fold once the effects begin to accelerate.