It has been a little while since we engaged in a healthy debate.....
I was sent a link to this video, and not expecting much more than partisan fact smearing and convenient statistical cherry picking I watched it. Yes, it's long and there are those things, but it really got me thinking....
Do we really understand how our activities, particularly CO2 emissions, affect the climate?
Look, I am just as much for clean air, less toxins, untouched wilderness, and clean water, as the next guy who drinks organic free range happy cow milk, but based on our current level of technological advancement and limited resources, how can we balance our progress and make the right environmental choices? Seems like an easy questions, but when there are 6,789,343,428 of us, it gets a little thick.
(what the heck is he saying?, please rephrase)
Are we really at a crisis point? and is human activity, specifically CO2 emissions destroying the planet?
Here is the kicker:
Those arguing for a CO2 emissions tax or Cap and Trade often cite the Precautionary Principle:(The principle implies that there is a responsibility to intervene and protect the public from exposure to harm where scientific investigation discovers a plausible risk in the course of having screened for other suspected causes. The protections that mitigate suspected risks can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that more robustly support an alternative explanation.)
BUT, No one ever talks about the risks of not using CO2 emitting energy sources, especially on the peoples of developing nations.
CO2 energy sources are currently cheaper, and much more efficient than non-CO2 emitting sources. This may change, and you could argue to help promote that change, but should we hinder/slow the ascension of a majority of the world from a state of poverty and starvation based on our current understanding of CO2's affect on the environment.
You and I are rich. Can we afford to give up a chunk of our future wealth? Of course we can. But should we? Do we have to? Do we have to do it quickly? Do we have the right to force others to? Will we, should we?
Remember, fear and images of disaster (correct or not) bring with them media coverage and oodles of research dollars.
What I find truly frightening is: not the fact that global warming will kill a chunk of the Earth if we don't act soon, or the possibility that it is all a bunch of Bologna, it is the fact that faced with a serious scientific issue, because of political involvement, the results and ideas have been so muddied and slandered who knows what the best solution is?
Watch the videos and chime in with your thoughts....
The Great Global Warming Swindle (great vid)
An Inconvenient Truth
(Al makes you pay for his video, couldn't find it free online)
Census
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