Do you feel as depressed as some do that so many here believe that climate changes are beyond our influence?

Question

The Way We Live Now April 20, 2008

Why Bother?

By MICHAEL POLLAN

Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the h**l out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs. That’s when it got really depressing. The immense disproportion between the magnitude of the problem Gore had described and the puniness of what he was asking us to do about it was enough to sink your heart.

see ---> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?em&ex=1208923200&en=76d14e551d4461fb&ei=5087%0A

Answer 1

I don't find it depressing that people can have logical thought.  The global warming debate is far from over, and it is based much more on politics than it is on science.

I will not believe we are creating global warming just because someone who feels guilty for living wants me to feel guilty with them.  There would have to be some actual facts involved.  Anybody who uses Al Gore's movie as a source of facts has not done enough research to know that much of the information he presents is highly contested by both scientists (even the ones he uses as reference) and many others who have bothered to check out his fabrication.

If you want to improve the environment then get off your soap box and get to work on improving energy efficiency of the tools we use.  Some sort of real effort on your part will do much more to ease your guilty conscience than will participation on the wrong end of this political debate.

Answer 2

Climate change is part of the earth's normal cycle. The earth is exactly one degree warmer today than it was 100 years ago. Al Gore has no credentials to spout off the way he does. Plus, he owns a great deal of interest in these "carbon offsets" that he's dearly love for you to buy. We have never had control over the weather, so what is the logic in thinking that suddenly we do?

Answer 3

I was once, but a look at the real world soon told me that there's an awful lot of good people at the university level and government agencies throughout the world doing serious research and making great headway at identifying the problems we're dealing with.  Just look at a few of the websites below and you'll not only learn something you didn't know before, but you'll realize that the brain pool going after this issue is incredible.

It's a scary concept, a complicated one, and one that involves a lot of modeling, which is an imperfect process at best.  So the skeptics lash out at Gore and the UN, and don't check out sources with the intent to learn, but to substantiate preopinions that are derived from "safe" sources.  There is no global night light we can use to fend off the monsters.  To paraphrase Pogo, we have met the monster, and he is us.

Answer 4

Of course,

If people spend half of the energy,

they use to get out of any responsibility of the wrongs going on against the Environment ,

on trying to behave more responsible with our Natural resources

it would make an enormous difference.

And this is a good idea irrespective of global Warming

Answer 5

i am depressed only because gas for my Hummer is getting so expensive, that my Polar Bear hunting days are quickly winding down.  maybe if we invested in drilling in ANWR, instead of giving money to the bogus AGW effort, we'd make some real progress in this country!

Answer 6

I do not feel depressed, because those deniers are a minority percentage of the population of the US and an even smaller percentage of world opinion. It will take a little time to move forward, but it will happen.

Answer 7

Actually it depresses me that so many people follow such a fool as Al Gore like mindless sheep.

Yes the ligts is on and I drive a V8!

Answer 8

The only depressing aspect of climate change is the fact that so many people are ignorant enough to believe the BS.  Even Al Gore doesn't believe in man-made global warming (if he did then he wouldn't personally consume enough energy to run a small city) but he's managed to convince enough gullible people to the extent where he is now raking in tens of millions of dollars via his carbon-trading scam.