Why are people so extreme when it comes to stopping Global Warming?

Question

First, let me say it only makes sense to conserve ALL natural resources as much as possible. Why waste 1 glass of water [or oil] if you only have 5 glasses to start with.

I saw a documentary about a year ago on Mt. St. Helens eruption in the 80's. That single eruption spewed more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than Man has since the year 1800.

Why do people think we have any control over "anything" when it comes to nature?

No matter what we do as people, conserve or waste, nature will decide what happens to us tomorrow, not us.

Answer 1

If you admit you are wrong regarding the volcano data don't you also think it is possible that you are wrong about the negative effect that over 6 BILLION people are having.....

However you are entitled to your opinion.

Check this out. Click on the now button.

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldCl...

Answer 2

They are extreme, because this is a very crucial problem, if you had to choose between living and not living, what would you choose? Global Warming is melting the ice caps, and we could quite possibly, not have a north and south pole. Just think about. If you really want to you can look it up.

Answer 3

I think in general, all people need a purpose. Some people find it in religion, some do not. They replace it with things that very much resemble one. People who promote AGW, I don't believe are bad people, just perhaps a little mislead. Most probably genuinely believe, especially in the lay community, that they are doing a really good thing. But as they say "the road to destruction is paved with good intentions."  To not be certain about scientific theories without all the data, can and does have serious consequences. Take the FDA for instance, approving drugs  by a consensus that ended up being deadly to patients. Also, the restrictions put on DDT resulted in the death from Malaria of countless people, all because there were environmental concerns that ultimately proved to be groundless. There's a lot at stake here, and I believe there is still reasonable doubt about the validity of catastrophic climate change.

Answer 4

Because the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" did its intended job of scaring the $#!+ out of people.

Answer 5

Yes, we have no control, so let's just give up.  

Great logic.  If every human throughout history thought that way, we'd still be living in caves.

Answer 6

Some fools here actually think you're asking if the govt is making up the global warming story.

The exact opposite it what is true.

Bush had a study done by climate scientists and then he had his lawyers change the wording in the report to suit his own ideas, and or biases.

The scientists were afraid to speak the truth if they wanted to keep their jobs.

Answer 7

You are wrong about what you say regarding Mt. St. Helens.

http://www.gaspig.com/volcano.htm

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-262/of...

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/V...

Each year humans emit about 150 times as much CO2 as volcano's.

Answer 8

Gee...maybe it might have something to do with the survival of life on earth?

Sure it's a paltry matter compared to the newest cell phone, but I think it just MIGHT be an admirable thing to work towards

Answer 9

Here is the CO2 output from Mt. St. Helens:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1994/of94-212/De...

The daily average from the eruption for the next year and a half was on order of 20,000 tons of CO2 per day, which comes out to the equivalent of 5000 tons of carbon per day.  The amount tapers off to close to zero at the end of the period.  So, over the 500 or so days of the study, when there was CO2 measured, St. Helens put out around 3 megatons of carbon, total.  That sounds like a lot until you figure anthropogenic CO2 emissions are on the order of 4 gigatons per year, or a thousand times more in a single year, and St. Helens lasted for only one year.

People are extreme about reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions because it is a huge problem.  

I apologize for getting all mathy, sometimes, the numbers don't lie.

Edit:  I am always at a loss to understand why people can't believe that small infinitesimal perturbations to a nonlinear system cannot self-amplify and cause large effects.  Vibrational resonance in structures is a classic example.  CO2 concentrations are increasing in the atmosphere, that affects radiative transfer and generates a longwave forcing.  The longwave forcing from anthropogenic CO2 is larger, by a large factor, than any of the other non-anthropogenic forcings known to influence natural climate variability.  The logical conclusion from that is that the forcing from anthropogenic CO2 will have an effect on climate.  To assume it won't involves very tortured physics.  

Nature will decide what happens, but nature will decide what happens taking into account our perturbations to the great nonlinear system that is climate.  I think it is time we all broke step crossing the bridge to avoid any nasty resonances, so to speak.

Answer 10

You're both right and wrong.  While nature is a very powerful force and does decide a lot for itself, what is happening now is something that has NEVER happened before. The earth has gone through climate change before, for example the ice age.  However this is the first time in history that ONE single species is responsible for all of this destruction.  WE are responsible, and if WE dont' do something about it , the human species as we know it will be gravely endangered.  That is why it is our responsibility to clean up, because we created the mess.

Answer 11

These are the Effects of Man Made Global Warming:

In about 9 months. The ice caps will all melt and everyone living below 700 feet will drown. Birds will fall out of the sky on fire. Nuclear missiles will spontaneously explode in there silos. France will invade Germany and win. Cockroaches will grow to the size of hogs. Dogs will begin breeding with cats, producing a vampire like off spring call a dat.

Comets a light year away lurking in the Oort cloud will suddenly start on a collision coarse with the earth. About 10 days after that, the world wide temp will drop to -65 and people living New York city will be eaten by wolves that escaped from the Bronx Zoo. The top rated TV show will be Survivor Idle, where contestants sing for a bag of Bar-B-Qued pork rinds. Afterwords, civilization will be set back many years and if you survive, cell phones will revert back to the size they were in 1989 and you will only be able to make phone calls on them.

Answer 12

Don't forget that the extremists on this issue don't mind telling you that they are "environmental scientists."  That just proves that they are biased since their job depends on keeping the hoax alive.  Always follow the money.

Answer 13

it is killing us

Answer 14

They have been misled into believing that global warming is real and told they must do anything to combat it.

Answer 15

I concur with your consensus on conservation.But here's the real world for you.One county where I lived raised the price of water,because people were doing such a great job at it. The local utility couldn't make a profit....hmmm,would that fit into the gas price scenario also? Just room for thought

Answer 16

Well hello? we could killed by Global Warming! It is caused by our doing of cars, factories and smoking!

Answer 17

to make up for you..

Answer 18

Welcome to the new religion.

Answer 19

You probably misunderstood the documentary (or it was wrong).  Studies have shown that humans emit over 150 times more CO2 than volcanoes annually

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man....

The scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the current warming isn't natural.  There are many basic scientific facts which can only be explained if the current global warming is being caused by an increased greenhouse effect due to carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuels.

For example, the planet is warming as much or more during the night than day.  If the warming were due to the Sun, the planet should warm a lot more during the day when the Sun has influence.  Greenhouse gases trap heat all the time, so they warm the planet regardless of time of day.  Another example is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because the greenhouse gases trap the heat in the lower atmosphere.  If warming were due to the Sun, it would be warming all layers of the atmosphere.

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