Are people really this arrogant?

Question

Do you people realy think man has the capability to alter the climate? We can alter landscapes and pollute things, but to think we can change a force so sizable that we cannot even predict its next move is utter hubris! The earth has survived for 4 billion years (6 thousand if youre a bible thumper) and has gone through MUCH MUCH worse than man could ever possibly hope to unleash upon it! Comet impacts, volcanoes, ice ages etc., and it is still here and it still supports life. Im paraphrasing George Carlin a bit (See The Planet Is Fine on Youtube) but I agree with him! You dont have to be in the pockets of big oil to see that whats being spoon fed to us is a bunch of c**p! You, I, WE are insignificant in the equation of how this planet functions. Earth is capable and has proven the capability to right all wrongs and heal itself! Only sheeple believe we must do this and that to try and save it. Even Scientists dont agree! THEY NEVER DO!

Answer 1

I love this kind of talk it gets you in trouble. Here's my detailed explanation on GW

http://redmanblueland.blogspot.com/2008/...

take a look if you need to shot down some lib who thinks they are the smartest person in the world

Answer 2

The question is how long will it take for the Earth to "right all wrongs and heal itself," and will humans still be around then.  Perhaps you're content for Earth to be screwed up for thousands of years while the Earth repairs itself, but maybe the rest of humanity isn't.

In answer to you question "Are people really this arrogant?" My answer is that some are apparently very arrogant.

Answer 3

RIP George.  You were right in 1992 and you are still right today.  "The planet is fine.  The people are ******".

Answer 4

I totally agree, and I find that lately humans have become a lot more arrogant.

Answer 5

We are able to alter it to a point where it is harder for the life that we are used to to survive.

Answer 6

Yes, the earth has gone through much tougher times than what we could ever do to it (except maybe hydrogen bombs). But look, I don't really care all that much about global warming...what I do care about is a side-effect of emitting so much CO2 in such a short time...ocean acidification. We know that we emit 24 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. The oceans are absorbing huge amounts (about 22 million tons a day) and becoming more acidic. As the pH drops, the calcium carbonate shells of coral and shelled sea creatures dissolve. That means Diatoms (a type of alga) die, and that has a ripple effect throughout the food chain. For more than 600,000 years, the ocean has had a stable pH, but since the industrial revolution, the pH has dropped 30% and it's getting worse. Look, I don't want to debate about global warming and I don't really like Al Gore, but I still support cutting back on CO2 emissions because there is only one habitable planet anywhere near, and I don't want to help s***w it up. You can call me arrogant, but I see man releasing billions of tons of CO2 going into the atmosphere on one hand, and more acidic oceans on the other hand. Yes, the earth has experienced levels of CO2 much higher than today, but those were also the periods where many ocean species died. Yes, some life on earth will survive, but many species will be needlessly wiped out.

Answer 7

It may be as much hubris to assume that we can do anything and everything without changing our planet.

It would clearly be hubris if I felt that my daily living could change much. but I know that if I start a wildfire and it burns over thousands of hectares I will not be as sure. If a million people light  a million fires... a billion fires?

Well yes, there have been some really mighty spontaneous fires in the past and some life has survived it. And we might get through expected climate change with maybe a billion people still alive. With that many survivors it will be no time until we are back up to 10 billion. So who cares.

Only in religion is there perfect agreement. We really do not expect that from people who think independently.

Answer 8

We can blanket a city with smog and give thousands of people asthma, we can release a toxic chemical like mercury into the air and kill off thousands of people and animals, we can alter the entire chemical composition of the oceans with our industrial pollution discharge, we can eliminate living species and create new ones.  So what makes you think we can't change the planet's climate by a few degrees?  

And you're mistaken.  Scientists do agree.  There are always going to be a few dissenters, which is good for keeping things on track, but there would be no question about this issue if interest groups like the oil companies hadn't stepped in and attempted to manipulate public opinion.

Answer 9

So agreeing with scientific consensus is arrogant now? Is it not far more arrogant to think that you know better than nearly every scientist who has studied this? You can't dismiss widely held scientific opinion so easily.

Just because somebody conforms to a widely held view does not make a person part of some "sheeple". Opinions can be right or wrong regardless of how many people hold them.

I saw that George Carlin bit, and he said that the Earth will go on and heal itself once humans destroy themselves. Global warming won't totally destroy the planet, but will easily make it a much worse place to live on for both people and other organisms.

I know some of you are going to jump on the opportunity to suggest that my second paragraph contradicts my first, but that is a terrible analogy, since scientific opinion is based on sound reasoning, while public opinion doesn't have to be.

Answer 10

Of course people are incredibly arrogant. And narcissistic.

The fact is that we do have pollution problems. You don't have to jump in with the hippies, light up a spliff and drench yourself in patchouli oil to admit that we're making a huge mess. The Earth may have survived many things in it's long history, but plastic, and many of the chemical by-products of modern industry, are a new problem.

This, I believe, is why so many people today do not object very loudly to the religion (consensus-based pseudoscience) of Global Warming. Outside silly commercially motivated ideas like CO2 points, most people agree that we need to put some energy into reducing pollution and cleaning up some of the mess we've already made. Even the most conservative person wants to live in a clean and healthy environment (even if the conservative ideal is closer to the suburban paradise of Leave it to Beaver than the smelly naked agricultural communes envisioned by many GW advocates).

In short, if the hysteria results in positive action, and doesn't really hurt us, then it doesn't matter too much if it's based on a huge fantasy.

Answer 11

Well, Maybe some arrogance.

Mostly though I think it's more ignorance.

Answer 12

I agree 100%----- AND I agree with George Carlin.

Answer 13

The people who are pushing this theory are willing to s***w up the economy (more), to prevent use of fossil fuels, by ordinary working people. There are enough government employees, lawyers, and actors (elites), as well as dumb sheeple to keep electing democrats, who will keep destroying our economy, one NIMBY lawsuit after another

Answer 14

Arrogance, ignorance, neglect, avarice, sloth and hubris have, indeed, set in to alter the world's consciousness.

I'd suggest an experiment: take a large plastic bag and punch holes in it. The wrap it around your head and see how relatively easy it is to breathe. Now, take that same plastic bag (with the holes punched in it) and fill the bag with cigarette smoke, greasy fumes from your stove, and a some exhaust fumes from the tailpipe of your car. Now put the same paper bag over your head and see if it's still easy to breathe.

Global warming is a cyclical event that occurs over tens of thousands of years. Mankind, however, in these past 150 years, has introduced an 'industrial revolution' that has accelerated the natural cycle of things and disrupted the balance of nature, making it difficult for many plant and animals species to adapt to the coming man-made climatic changes.

We selfishly insist that we've not contributed to this crisis by polluting our air, poisoning our water, decimating rain forests, over-fishing our oceans, tearing apart our mountains, spilling oil into our gulfs, and disturbing the natural order of our planet!

Whether you're Muslim, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, agnostic or atheist, you must certainly recognize that virtually every species on Earth is here for a purpose.

Whether you believe in a 'big-bang' evolutionary theory, an intelligent designer, a "God", Mother Nature, or fate - you must accept the premise that all things on this planet are inter-dependent on all other things on this planet!

Consider the horse shoe crab*; mangrove forests; oceans; Venus fly traps; wetlands; meadows; poisonous Amazonian frogs; caribou; 'uncivilized' tribesmen in the dense Brazilian jungles; elephants; rain forests; tsetse flies; remote Eskimo tribes; dolphins; kittens; coral reef; polar bears; glaciers; krill; daffodils; skunks; Asian tigers; baboons; redwood trees and every other species on this good Earth. If they are not here, WE WILL DIE!!

Without all of Earth's beauty and bounty, and all its natural resources, our gas-guzzling SUVs, Hummers, sailboats, plastic junk we buy at WalMart, food, houses, highways, water or amusement parks would not be able to exist.

Why can't man get this simple fact into his head? We are nothing without everything else on this planet. To destroy it all is to self-destruct and kill off our own species.  -RKO-  07/08/08

Answer 15

You would be arrogant to think that your actions cannot possibly harm the earth. What, are you invincible? All that you touch turns to gold?

Answer 16

hello u just said we can pollute this

thats a main cause for global warming

u must be uneducated