Quote:
Originally Posted by RustyLugNut
I have little issue with the whole global warming agenda other than it places all the blame of said warming on CO2. Severe curtailing of CO2 emissions will not stop global warming as such. Even the experts admit this. So what point is it to cripple our economies without a real plan to replace our energy needs with something more realistic than the effusive renewable energy as it is produced today?
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Truth is hard to find in a world full of deception. CO2 is a very important greenhouse gas, one that needs to be curtailed to help the planet's health. The level of severity is what is the question.
I am not interested in heated debate over environmental issues, its just not my desire, but over the years listening to all sides of this debate, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Al Gore has been quite honest, whether you like him or hate him, he is transparent and clear about his intent. In his movie, he clearly stated you have to shock and awe people into action. He's basically admitting that he doesn't mind using some fireworks to inspire people for change, even if he stretches the truth at times. Give him credit, he's being honest when he says he's a shock jock on climate change. Even if you disagree with someone, you can admire their honesty.
I don't always agree with Al Gore, but all the science does point to CO2 and other greenhouse emissions as being man-driven and dangerous for the environment.
Here is where I pivot and embrace another point of view. There are so many shock jocks with regard to global warming that they sometimes defeat their purpose. When they say the end is around the corner, or they link present day weather phenomenon to global warming, that's where the Al Gore storylines tend to fall down. Hurricane Katrina wasn't caused by global warming, which was a theme in his movie. Katrina was a bad hurricane because the Gulf of Mexico has hot waters, its a gulf of warm ocean water in tropical and sub-tropical geography. It has produced very bad hurricanes in the past, I think Camille was more powerful than Katrina and it was in 1969.
The fact that a lot of environmentalists use present day weather phenomenon to push the agenda hurts their cause, it doesn't help.
But their underlying message is still true, warming oceans will most certainly cause more terrible cyclones and storms.
I will never claim to be an expert on the environment. It would be dishonest, it would not be something I could even begin to have energy to debate repeatedly. BUT, what I do admire are some new voices that have appeared in the environmental movement that have brought fresh air into it.
I highly recommend everyone watch COOL IT, a documentary based on a quasi-biography of Bjorn Lomborg. He is an environmentalist who introduces practical, every-day solutions to the global warming problem (and yes, it is a problem, and yes it is man made). I read some of his work before I watched the movie, but as is typical with these films is that it brings a lot of things together in a compact time frame to make it easier for public consumption.
I also think nuclear energy is a *good* idea. Its certainly the only carbon neutral energy source that happens to be reliable and able to be used as a baseline to produce world demand on a consistent basis.
We will never get anywhere on the environment listening to shock jocks, and we will never get anywhere on the environment if we don't get honest about modern society needing to consume energy, and a lot of it.
I have zero desire to reduce my energy usage and place our lifestyles back into the medieval period (and yes, that's what environmental extremists want). We can help the planet and live a modern life, it doesn't have to be an either/or scenario.
Rejecting extremism on all sides of the global warming debate will help us all. Again, I highly recommend COOL IT. Its the documentary that clears the air about the misinformation and shock and awe of an Inconvenient Truth. It honestly dives into the issue, admits global warming is a harm, is man made, and that we need change. But it produces practical change that doesn't break our economies and explains that we can proudly live a modern life without regret.
The thing I hate most about pro-global warming extremism is the guilt trips: using children and grandchildren as puppets to force a fairly extreme agenda down everyone's throats.
But at the end of the day, its not any worse than global warming denial and the idiots that say there is no harm and its all natural.
I'm waiting for the day that rejection of extremism becomes cool and in vogue.
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