Why do Environmentalists not want to adapt to the changes?

Question

Ever since reading Richard Lindzen's writings on global warming or climate change i can't seem to understand why the people who want to be activists are wasting their time.

The climate is changing, we can't stop it.

Consider the Sahara Desert, 5000 years ago it was a grass land, but not today. Now it's a desert that gets bigger every year.

Humans didn't do that.

I want to live in a clean world but i don't understand why so many people want to stop a change that is taking place on a scale that absolutely dwarfs all of humanity.

If our resources aren't better spent trying to adapt to change and improve the human condition, please explain to me, why not?

not to mention last week's announcement about the greatly increased ice mass at the poles.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv15n2/reg15n2g.html

Answer 1

When your basic assumption is that man cannot change the climate, I see why you don't understand.

With every mainstream scientific organization states man is contributing to climate change (un-natural) it's pretty easy to understand why "environmentalists" don't emphasize adaptation, but rather prevention.

http://www.geosociety.org/positions/posi...

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library...

http://www.aip.org/gov/policy12.html

http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.a...

http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/clim...

http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/positi...

Answer 2

MY THOUGHTS= PEOPLE THAT CALL THEMSELVES ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF FAKES THAT DONT KNOW WHAT THEIR DOING. THEIRS ONLY ONE WAY TO CHANGE THE CLIMATE FOR THE GOOD OF ALL AND THIS IS IT== CLICK ON THIS=  http://www.socyberty.com/Activism/First-...  THESE ENVIRONMENTALISTS CAN ONLY TALK AND POINT FINGERS, RATHER THAN DO ANYTHING CONSTRUCTIVE TOWARDS THE TRUE GLOBAL WARMING SITUATION. TALK AND LITTLE DO= ADDS UP TO ZILCH.

Answer 3

Maybe because the warming of the earthy will ruin everything for humans to survive on.

If the ocean temps rise, most everything in it will die. If the ice caps melt, it's going to turn much of the continents into islands. If it's too warm crops won't grow.

People are fighting this change because they want to stay alive. Yes, the warming of the planet is natural but people are aiding its process.

I have my own theory on global warming but it's not an optimistic one. The earth has started over multiple times in its history. I can't help but to feel like its doing that now.

Answer 4

Environmentalist in general do not really care about the environment. They use it as an excuse to promote their anti-capitalist, anti America agenda. For example, it has been shown that birth control pills (estrogen) being flushed down the toilets are having dramatic effects on fish and other species. But, because the birth control pill is one of their "pet" programs, they ignore the issue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6436617/

These drugs get flushed down the toilet and enter the streams. Environmentalist do not raise the issue as it does not help promote the anti capitalist agenda.

Answer 5

Much of the damage that caused the Sahara was caused by over grazing of the grassland by herds of domesticated animals and other misuse of the land by humans.   The Mojave desert was caused completely by humans cutting down the forests there.      Last week I saw an announcement that the greatly increased ice mass (during the winter of course) was NOT equal to what was lost last summer and is not what is expected to disappear this year.  

When you start off with bad information, you can't expect to come to a worthwhile conclusion.

Answer 6

Because slowing down our emissions of greenhouse gases, and, so slowing down global warming is cost effective.  Some reduction will reduce the cost of adaptation dramatically.

We need to BOTH reduce and adapt.  100% one way or the other is the wrong strategy.

Answer 7

its not their falt its is everyone else's falt i mean think about it... everyone is not helpin and all they wanna do is change things to be normal

Answer 8

You are tragically incorrect.  We caused it, this is without question.  Or do you think that man is blameless for our current environmental problems?  How irrational is that?

Whether it is even possible for us to undo it is another question.  

Without listing about 9 billion examples, it's generally easier to prevent a problem than to try and fix it after the fact.

Sometimes, once the genie escapes it can't be put back in the bottle.  Ever.

Rationally?  We should stop digging and start fixing now.

Realistically?  I'm with you because of the practical impossibility of us fixing this in time to prevent major changes to our climate.

It appears that every previous example of the demise of a civilization has been linked to climate.

Adapt or perish.

Answer 9

Lindzen doesn't think the warming will be nearly as severe as many of his peers in the climate sciences think.  So obviously his view is on the low-end of the spectrum for concern.  If you think of a spectrum from 1 C to 10 C warming this century, Lindzen is near the 1 C range. If he's right, and the many other scientists in the 2 - 4 C or higher range are wrong, that's great. The mitigation won't be too bad.  But if Lindzen (clearly a minority in his view) is wrong, then the level of necessary mitigation will be quite severe.

Your assertion that we can't stop it, it partly true. We can't stop the level of warming already in the pipeline due to the massive (and I do mean massive) increase of atmospheric CO2 caused by human activities.  But we can certainly reduce putting additional heating into the system by working to replace our CO2 emitting energy sources with clean renewable sources.

You are mistaken in your claim about ice mass at the poles.  You must be confusing ice extent with ice mass. The two are very different.

BTW, you really should read things a little more recent than 16 year old articles (your link).

Answer 10

Evolve or parish, its the law.