http://network.nationalpost.co.....-climate-change.aspx

unless I read this totally wrong, I do believe this was written by a Mr. jonny_eh

Congrats!

That's awesome!  Congrats, Johnny

Although I feel your pinball machines contribute to global warming.. you should sell them to clear your conscience.  

Great article!

Why not continue on the subject. I think Jonathan hit it dead on... denial. That is definitely one major contributor to the issue. An unfortunate side effect of the information age we live in is that there is a lot of bad information, or often opinions that pass as information.

Another thing is that people seek comfort... not only physically but mentally as well. And change does not go well with this. Stability gives people comfort. So people resist change. People KNOW things must change, but prefer not to, or tend to believe that they will let the others take care of it.

If I may use an analogy, I am the only non-smoker in my family. and I see the same patterns with that habit as I see with GW. Smokers know it's bad... but tend to ignore the facts. And when confronted with health statistics, well... they are always skeptical ( ) because they are not directly affected, or they simply say that they will eventually die of something.

But... when something does actually happen, they seem to scramble to find an excuse for it. My mother has been smoking for 45 years. She constantly says " I will die of something anyways " ... but she has had a nagging cough that hasn't stopped for over a year, and blames viruses.

The sad truth is that unless government doesn't regulate things and quick, we are all in for it. And unfortunately, we have a government in power right now that has NO desire whatsoever to do anything about it because they are raking in the cash with the tar sands.

In the meantime, our neighbors south of us, of which we have been laughing about on this for years with their big SUVs, polluting plants and bad habits, are now looking into an economy based on "green" technology instead of oil.

As for me? I am obsessed with recycling. I have spent thousands of dollars in the last 3 years in order to reduce my energy consumption on my house, to the point that I am considering going geothermal. I am registered on a waiting list for an electric vehicle. Just about every single light in my house is non-incandescent and on timers. I am trying composting and next year growing my own veggies.

Why? Simple... I look at my kids and know that I don't want to leave them this place in such a bad state. I look at the state of the world my parents got in the 70s for their parents... and I am not happy of the way it was passed on to me.

I am not in denial.  

I'm still a skeptic.  

I find it funny that just because you disagree with someone on the subject they are automatically in denial.  

I personally think it's impossible to really have an understanding with what is going unless you are the one doing the work.

For every study that says GW is real, there are just as many that say that it isn't.  For every fact that de-bunks one theory the same argument is made from the other side.  

I think GW exists because we are such an ego centric society that we feel the world revolves around us and while there are very significant impacts that have been made on the world as a result of man, the world existed long before we did and it will exist long after we are gone.  

I call Global Warming the new Hole in the O-zone layer, remember when we were kids and everyone was up in arms about the hole in the O-Zone layer like it was going to be the next apocalypse, yea that's GW right now, in another 10 years no one will care about it anymore.  

Quoted from Sparky

Great article!

Why not continue on the subject. I think Jonathan hit it dead on... denial. That is definitely one major contributor to the issue. An unfortunate side effect of the information age we live in is that there is a lot of bad information, or often opinions that pass as information.

Another thing is that people seek comfort... not only physically but mentally as well. And change does not go well with this. Stability gives people comfort. So people resist change. People KNOW things must change, but prefer not to, or tend to believe that they will let the others take care of it.

If I may use an analogy, I am the only non-smoker in my family. and I see the same patterns with that habit as I see with GW. Smokers know it's bad... but tend to ignore the facts. And when confronted with health statistics, well... they are always skeptical ( ) because they are not directly affected, or they simply say that they will eventually die of something.

But... when something does actually happen, they seem to scramble to find an excuse for it. My mother has been smoking for 45 years. She constantly says " I will die of something anyways " ... but she has had a nagging cough that hasn't stopped for over a year, and blames viruses.

The sad truth is that unless government doesn't regulate things and quick, we are all in for it. And unfortunately, we have a government in power right now that has NO desire whatsoever to do anything about it because they are raking in the cash with the tar sands.

In the meantime, our neighbors south of us, of which we have been laughing about on this for years with their big SUVs, polluting plants and bad habits, are now looking into an economy based on "green" technology instead of oil.

As for me? I am obsessed with recycling. I have spent thousands of dollars in the last 3 years in order to reduce my energy consumption on my house, to the point that I am considering going geothermal. I am registered on a waiting list for an electric vehicle. Just about every single light in my house is non-incandescent and on timers. I am trying composting and next year growing my own veggies.

Why? Simple... I look at my kids and know that I don't want to leave them this place in such a bad state. I look at the state of the world my parents got in the 70s for their parents... and I am not happy of the way it was passed on to me.

I am not in denial.  

Good to see that I am not the only one that takes this stuff seriously.  I too recycle a lot and I have reduced my environmental foot print quite a bit.  Good for you Sparky keep on going.  Regardless if GW is real or not we should recycle anyway.

take care

Quoted from Vengeance

I call Global Warming the new Hole in the O-zone layer, remember when we were kids and everyone was up in arms about the hole in the O-Zone layer like it was going to be the next apocalypse, yea that's GW right now, in another 10 years no one will care about it anymore.  

Great example! I think the two issues ARE similar. The Ozone layer hole was (and still is in a way) a big problem, but thankfully, all the world governments got together and banned the chemicals causing the problem. The hole is still there, but it's shrinking/stabilized (IIRC).

And sorry Sparky, I couldn't find a way to stick a maaca plug in the article

Quoted from Sparky

As for me? I am obsessed with recycling. I have spent thousands of dollars in the last 3 years in order to reduce my energy consumption on my house, to the point that I am considering going geothermal. I am registered on a waiting list for an electric vehicle. Just about every single light in my house is non-incandescent and on timers. I am trying composting and next year growing my own veggies.

Why? Simple... I look at my kids and know that I don't want to leave them this place in such a bad state. I look at the state of the world my parents got in the 70s for their parents... and I am not happy of the way it was passed on to me.

I am not in denial.  

And yet you refuse to buy LEDs for your pins. Are you sure you're not in denial?

Quoted from jonny_eh

And yet you refuse to buy LEDs for your pins. Are you sure you're not in denial?

No. I just buy less pins. I am down to 2.

Pretty decent article, well written. The comments section is going bananas, though I do find some of their posts pretty entertaining.

"We should adapt to the warmer climate instead of trying to change it".  Like what, in the advent of the glaciers melting, we can put the coastal countries on pontoons???

My own opinion is I’m a smart skeptic.  I do believe we do have an affect on our environment but I don’t believe we have full understanding to really take an assured position.  This is not a denial of AGW, though it is a questioning of the conclusions as being perhaps premature.

But:
-     There’s no reason why we can’t start to clean up our act now.  Even if our affect on the earth’s ecosystem is minimal now, it eventually will due to larger population and the fact we consume at a faster rate than we cultivate.
-     We can’t guarantee fossil fuel will still be available in abundance forever, so if we can switch to something more eco friendly, why not?
-     Money:  With this issue, the biggest resistance to change is the cost of it, that’s it, that’s all.  What most forget is that any solution that’s eco friendly, whether its’ proper disposal of waste, or new power source, etc., still requires to be created, processed, sold, the machines maintained, etc.  Thus, Capitalism isn’t a loser, just the current holders of the capitalistic baton need to evolve a bit to whatever eco-friendly process we move towards.  That is the challenge.

One could say I’m playing it “safe” but I would disagree.  Take smoking, I don’t know for sure if smoking causes cancer (not everyone who smokes gets cancer)  but I’m pretty sure smoking contributes to cancer (above average amount of smokers get cancer, so smoking mixed with something else, DNA related?  other factors such as stress?  What you ingest/breath throughout your life?) definitely seems to lead to cancer.  Because I’ve concluded it does, then I believe it’s smart not to smoke.

I see AGW the same way. I don’t call them playing safe, I call that being smart.

I work with scientists, in my day job.I see the way they approach other important projects. 9 times out of 10, it is about one thing, funding, funding, funding.Even when confronted with clear and concise evidence to the contrary of their hypothesis, they hang onto that sinking ship like a man gone mad. The more objective ones of the bunch agree with me, and admit it is a cash cow, and not the "emergency" they would have you think.One individual, actually looked me straight in the eye and proceeded to tell me , and I quote," it is supposed to get colder, before it gets warmer." This is the logic you are dealing with.  Whenever I broach the subject about global warming, or as it has been re branded; climate change, the majority throw hissy fits and tell me i'm unqualified to comment, or even give an opinion because I do not agree with them,and I wish to debate some of the findings. That is part of my issue with the whole climate change "product." Right now, it is a cash cow for scientists, universities, think tanks, bureaucrats and others who benefit from the "industry" of global warming( think of Al Gore retirement fund, you know the one that invented the internet).I do believe the earth is getting warmer, and I do believe that humanity has contributed to this, but I do not discount the natural increase/decrease in temperatures, and cycles of the earth.I also do not care for these left wing ideologues who would have people lose their livelihoods, even whole communities, because of often made up or exaggerated environmental " evidence" of the damage humans are doing. That is not to say that we as a people do not have to change to a degree, because we do, and we have made great strides since I was a kid. I also call BS on recycling, but that is my opinion, and luckily in our country, we are all entitled to one, regardless of what any other commissars or self righteous individuals may think.

You may now start bashing your tambourines..

Quoted from The Loafer

"We should adapt to the warmer climate instead of trying to change it".  Like what, in the advent of the glaciers melting, we can put the coastal countries on pontoons???

Actually "adapt or die" it's pretty much a proven strategy over however millions of years there's been life on earth.  

For humans to think they have that much control over their environment is nothing short of hubris. The climate has been and will be changing on a periodic basis until the earth's core collapses again....

...but that's not to say we shouldn't be trying to be good stewards of our environment since we do have a significant impact none the less.