Should we feel guilty about global warming?

Question

Ok here it is - lets ASSUME, that global warming is real and it is man made (i don't want answers relating to true or false about the facts-we may never know)

But assuming it is us that cause global warming, should we feel guilty? ANYTHING we do affects the environment, the houses wwe live in, the food and drink we have, the holidays we go on, just to survive we must effect our environment around us, in a minor or major way. Even when we die we affect the environment.

There is no way we could avoided where we have ended up, but should we feel guilty about the journey that got us here?

Answer 1

We shouldn't feel guilty about things like having lights on to see, but if we take drives for no reason and leave lights on when we're not in the house (or asleep, or in another room) and leave the TV on as well and use paper extravagantly without recycling a bit, we should feel pretty dang bad about ourselves.

Answer 2

You shouldn't feel too guilty because even if you as one person never emitted anything the world would still be the same.  However, I think we should feel somewhat guilty because collectively in the western world we are doing major damage.  Africa who emits EXTREEMLY small amounts by comparason, will be feeling the majority of the problems.  

You seem to have a very fatalistic attitude about this, but you need to remember that most of the greenhouse gases we emit will not be coming from things people need but things they want.  Huge amounts of people in Africa will be suffering from droughts and famines so Americans can keep their SUVS and TVs running.  Just TV manufacturing and shipping and powering ends up causing large amounts of emissions.  We do not NEED tvs.  In fact, people managed to lived before TVs were invented!  I kid you not.

Answer 3

OMG i can't hardly live with myself, how can I go on!!!!  lol...yeah right.

Answer 4

We should feel entirely guilty! It is our fault that we are destroying all life on the planet, is it not?? As the planet warms up, and if no one feels guilty about it, then we are going to kill the polar animals first, then the animals living in the desert, then eventually all animals on the earth! (Humans are animals by the way). If we all just, everyone in the world would, drive just a small bit less, that would make a difference. If we all buy hybrid cars, that would make a huge difference. If we all stop driving SUV's with only one or two or three people in them, that would make a difference. If we would bike more, that would help global warming, and America's growing obesity problem. Using canvas bags at the grocery store, buying used clothes, using less heat and air conditioning to get the 'perfect' temperature, driving for trick-or-treating, driving a half a mile to the store... These are all things that we could do to help, and does everyone do them?? No, it is an 'inconvinience', or they are just plain lazy and uneducated enough to not care. We are destroying the planet and all animals on it, of course we should feel guilty. We should feel guilty as we know that polar bears, and their cubs are dying right now, because of us. We should feel guilty that we are destroying and deforesting thousands of trees which are home to many innocent creatures that were here before us, and all of this, because of us. And the majority of humans don't care, obviously, because it is still going on.

Hope that answered your question!

Best Wishes to you! :):)

Lily K

Answer 5

As an oil geologist and paleontologist, I take a slightly different view point of climate change. While, in my opinion, the climate is definitely changing, we do not yet have enough data to know which way our climate is going. We really have very little data on which to base an opinion, even with the tree ring climate data going back almost a million years. In my opinion, several hundred years of climate data, or even several thousand years of tree ring data is insignificant in the scope of geologic time.

Assuming that we as humans may be exacerbating a natural geological event, should we feel guilty? That would be similar to feeling guilty about building a hospital on a fault zone, then when an earthquake strikes the hospital collapses. If we suspected the geologic hazard but didn't investigate, then we would shoulder some responsibility and probably some guilt.

The one thing, in my opinion, that we may be guilty of is not being a better informed society. Our political leaders are willing to talk about a very complex and little understood subject in 60 second sound bites, and the American people seem to be willing to take these sound bites as fact. The science is at best incomplete but that does not excuse our being better read about our energy sources and use.

Just in case you are concerned, you might be interested in my recent downloadable ebook, Tired of Making Your Utility Company Rich? How to Prepare for the Coming Energy Crisis. Visit my website for details.

Sincerely,

H. Court Young

Geologist, author & publisher

Promoting awareness through the written word

http://www.hcourtyoung.com

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Answer 6

No. That's as silly as white guilt over events that happened hundreds of years ago. The only way to stop impacting the environment is to curl up and die, and I don't think that most environmentalists are ready to do that. Guilt is overrated.

Answer 7

yes, we should feel guilty because we had a share in what is happening to our earth. Man is the problem, so is the solution!

Answer 8

h**l no. We should enjoy the warmer weather. Human and all life on this planet thrive in warmer weather.

Answer 9

I don't think we need to feel guilty about it.  However, we still have a responsibility to do something about it.  Like you said, everything we do impacts the environment.  So, how about doing some things that impact the environment in positive ways so that our kids and grandkids will still have a world worth living in?

*Edit* CrazyCon..., just above my post, said humans and all life thrive in warmer weather.  He's totally clueless.  Just a few degrees warmer is all it takes to completely change weather patterns, causing previously arable lands to become too dry to support crops, for just one example.

Answer 10

I think we should be guilty for causing this global warming.

Rich Countries means more industries.

More Industries means more fuel & gas are produced

More fuels & gas means more Air pollutions

More air pollution means Causing the ozone layer to open

When causing ozone layer to open, The weather is more warmer and hotter.

When the weather is warmer, Icebergs in antartica will melt.

(Polar bears might become extinct)

When ices in antartica melt, means Sea level rising.

_______________

WE should save 'mother earth'

ADAPT HEALTHY INVIROMENT LIFESTYLE

Answer 11

No.  

Slide 19 here shows about a 50 year gap from when CO2 is emitted before 50% of its effect is observed:

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/illwe...

We're effectively seeing half of the effect of the carbon emitted up to 1958 (plus some much smaller fraction of emissions after that). We didn't do that damage.

That doesn't mean we're off the hook though, since the effects continue for 1000+ years and we're doing damage today that will affect the planet for the next 1000+ years.  

Think about what we already have coming.  How many households had two cars in 1958? How many total households were there back then?  How many contained two workers/commuters?  What were commutes like?  We have a much more energy-intensive lifestyle now, so we may see some very dramatic effects over the coming decades.

Even if we emitted zero carbon from today on, much of the damage we're doing today won't be seen for generations to come.  We can't emit zero carbon any time soon, so we need to cut as much as we can, as fast as we can, to increase the odds of our own survival (not to mention future generations).

There's nothing wrong with feeling guilt, but you don't have to get stuck there.  The normal phases of the phases of grieving include denial, anger, guilt, sadness and acceptance.  It's OK to grieve the loss of our old, self-indulgent lifestyles.  The good news is that you're farther along than the people stuck in denial or anger!

Answer 12

Feeling guilty may drive us to doing better, or drive us crazy.

When one takes action to change what one can and should, there is no benefit in feeling guilty about what other people, or all of humanity are doing.

I do not feel guilty knowing that there are hungry people in the world because my work is to feed them, not all of them, just those I can.

If I build my home to be self heating, I do not feel guilty about my neighbour using up fossil fuels to heat hers.

Answer 13

Feeling guilty doesn't help at all.  Only action will do that. The human race outgrew the food supply in the late 1970's, just as was predicted for a couple of  decades.  However it occurs, that will need to change to about the numbers he states.  The use of fossil fuels has to decrease by at least 70%.  Personally, I think that and all the other needed changes, like elimination of the expotentially increasing pollution of the environment will all logically follow the correction of the population.  The big question is whether that can occur in time to avoid the extinction of life on the planet.  It's going to be close, and in our lifetime.  In view of all that, I think as a responsible citizen the best thing I can do is support the burning of the skeptic-deniers as a fuel, rather than fossil fuels or ethanol.

Answer 14

No as it has just been the evolution of man, but what we should do now is recognize it and take ACTION to stop it and slow it down.

Answer 15

No.  I think it would be a waste of time to feel guilty about it.  It's in the past, and we had no way of knowing the repercussions back then.

We should, however, feel guilty, if we understand the implications now and do nothing about it!

Answer 16

Other then no more people how can we not effect the planet ?

Answer 17

yesssssss!!

global warming is killing millions of innocent animals

and wiping out entire species

and eventually it will wipe out the entire human race.

so yess EVERYONE should feel guilty about global warming

and everyone needs to do their part to keep it from advancing farther

Answer 18

Guilt won't do any good for you or the planet.  But you can bypass the guilt altogether by doing what you can to take responsiblity for your actions and how they impact the environment, the planet from here on out.  I'm doing my best, and it's challening but rewarding.