Weather Channel founder calls Global Warming "a scam."

Evil Atheist Thermometers.

We have climate data for the past 160,000 years. Direct measurement isn't the only way to measure world temperatures.

Responding to myself: Well, it looks like they might be in more of a position to take the lead than I thought. China Powers Ahead On Renewable Energy

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China is well on its way to acquiring fully 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020, while the United States is dragging its feet on transitioning away from fossil fuels, according to a pair of reports released here this week.

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Nations across the globe invested over $50 billion collectively into renewable energy conversion last year, and in 2007 China alone is expected to account for some $10 billion of investment, explains “Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy,” released Wednesday by the Worldwatch Institute, an independent Washington, DC research group.

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With this large financial commitment, China looks poised to pass solar and wind energy leaders in Europe and North America and become a leader in renewables manufacturing, the report notes, adding that, at this pace, China will draw 30 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2050.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea

Not from some weather report talking head, but still of interest. UN Climate Change reportBasically it says bend over, put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.And the problem is NOT Global Warming but politicians unwilling to be honest or tell folk what they really need to hear.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Temperature in the past has been much higher than it is now, and higher than it is predicted to rise to in the next century.That's rather an irrelevant comparison though, it doesn't matter whether the Earth will survive just fine, it matters that we're going to inflict a massive human catastrophy on the people alive now.

But politicians, at least in Britain, are all too happy to use Global Warming as the perfect excuse to raise more taxes!

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

If that's the case, shouldn't we investigate that whatever caused the rise in the past isn't responsible for causing at least some of it today? Or can we definitely tell it was due to solar activity ? But that's what I'm trying to figure out: if the current warming is happening largely due to non-human factors then the catastrophe will happen regardless. A lot of people will have made a lot of sacrifices for nothing.

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

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But politicians, at least in Britain, are all too happy to use Global Warming as the perfect excuse to raise more taxes!

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I'd be happy to pay more taxes if it meant that they'd be used well.

Still, though, I don't understand. Why would the warming in the past be connected to the present warming, when the obvious anthropogenic cause is right there in front of us?Why wouldn't anthropogenic greenhouse gases cause warming? That also doesn't follow. Even if the warming isn't due to human causes (even though we know that it is), that doesn't mean that humans can't do anything about it.Honestly there's a lot in your position I don't think you've quite thought through, yet. You're jumping to a lot of conclusions, and I rather think you're being led to do that by the climate deniers.

More taxes will be needed, but it is how they will be spent and the steps that need to be taken that will require saying and doing many things that will not garner votes.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I'm sorry but that is simply silly.We do know that many of the things we do increase warming. We also know of many things that can decrease warming. In addition we can predict what some of the effects of global warming will be and prepare to ameliorate some of the pain and suffering those effects will cause.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I fear that you are right. This is not a trivial concern. I fear the global-warming activists are trying to move those perverbial deck chairs around to balance out a listing Titanic. With an exponentially growing human population we can be certain that something will come along to make our our swelling numbers fit into a logistic curve. I'm have trouble understanding how 10 billion people are going to all work together to collectively stave off a climatic disaster. No matter what we do about global warming, we stand a better than even chance of being overtaken by other ecological and/or pathological disasters. Something has to trim our numbers.Any good population biologist wants to know specifically what are the causes of a growing population's exponentiality shifting rapidly into a logistical format. After all, isn't this whole bloody affair just another version of Dr. Calhoun's famous rat expertment?

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In a 40-year career, mostly at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Calhoun demonstrated that as population density increased, social behavior degenerated.
Among other findings, he developed the concept of universal autism -- in which all members of the last generation of mice in an increasingly crowded environment are incapable of the social behavior that would allow them to produce the next generation. And he described a phenomenon in which some mice become "beautiful ones," maintaining their physical appearance, but doing little else, as the population swells.

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It's nice to be one of the "beautiful ones."”HM

You'd better not come to live in Britain then.

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

Because if you know a phenomenon has occurred before, then it makes sense to establish whether its current occurrence has the same cause ?I'm a software developer by trade. I often find bugs in the software that have occurred before. However, the cause of the bugs is sometimes varied and complex. The first thing I do when a known bug (symptom) is reported, is to investigate whether the conditions that caused this symptom before are present in the current release, before I go formulating hypotheses about new flaws in the current release. It makes a lot of sense and saves me a lot of unnecessary stress and extra work. I can't understand why the same methodology shouldn't apply to climate science. I'm not saying that it wouldn't or shouldn't. I'm just asking whether we've examined all probable causes before deciding on the obvious one. That depends on the cause of the warming. If it's outside our control then we can't do anything about it. Why doesn't this follow ? I'm not jumping to conclusions, all I've done so far is ask questions. Like I said, my current position on this is 'agnostic'. Yes, I'm a bit put out by the 'greener-than-thou' brigade and the cynical opportunism of our politicians but that doesn't mean I'm led by climate deniers.

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"

That's what I'm trying to ascertain. Do we know how much of the current warming is because of the things we do? Is this warming even abnormal or is it something that would have happened regardless of our activities? Like you'll often find me saying in the Bibical threads, predictions must be specific, measurable and time-bound. I'm sorry but "global warming will cause some extreme weather" doesn't quite cut it for me. Are there any specific predictions that have been verified so far?

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"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"