Carl, First, let me express my admiration for your sheer typing power.
And a lot of it is even cogent and correct, though I'm suspecting some cut-and-paste.
Then, kudos to you and LindyBill for kicking the stuffing out of the Nuclear Winter strawman. I've been concerned about global warming since the early 70s, and I only vaguely remember that concept - it certainly didn't have the same following, though I know some scientists did back it.
Next, thanks for making my argument: We agree, Kyoto, which is draconian by current standards, would only make a small dent in the near-term warming.
Your reaction is - it's too dam hard, the heck with it, let's party! (We've certainly elected the right guys for president - the last two. Great "Party" men, rather than the more serious people (Bob Doleful.))
My reaction is - sh**! we're in trouble, shouldn't we try to save this place - however hard it might be politically?
As far as the danger:
For as long as life has been established on earth, say 3 billion years or more, the temperature seems to have been fairly comfortable for life, with occasional extremes. Yet the sun has grown much hotter during that time - about 25% more luminous. (Which we know from observing many stars similar to our sun.)
It appears that the temperature has been "regulated" by the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, etc., thru fairly simple feedback procedures. e.g. Sun gets hotter, more plants grow, more carbon dioxide removed from the air into the earth, it gets cooler here.
But carbon dioxide levels were extraordinarily, historically low, before we started adding to them. It may be that the earth is nearing the end of its ability to cool itself in the face of an ever-hotter sun. If we say for the sake of argument that life might go on just 1% longer in its current state before the earth jumps to some much hotter state, that's still 30 million years.
And a lot could happen in 30 million years, before the lizard people take over. (Lizards are so dumb!)
I largely agree with you about many greens, who win their big battle over nuclear power plants, then totally ignore the far worse coal-fired monstrosities that replace them. And I left the Sierra Club because they refuse to acknowledge that immigration could contribute to environmental problems (the activists are quite leftish.)
But it's not these strawmen we're fighting, it's the sun. And throwing huge quantities of warming gasses into his face right now doesn't seem like a great idea to me.
Doc
-phew- enough of that, let's party! |
