perceptions_now
Gold Member
Offline
Australian Politics
Posts: 11694
Perth WA
Gender: 
|
I post the following here because it is applicable to this discussion.perceptions_now wrote on May 17 th, 2011 at 1:45pm: Soren wrote on May 17 th, 2011 at 11:04am: GREENS leader Bob Brown says the coal mining industry should foot the bill for the Queensland floods because it helped cause them. ”It’s the single biggest cause, burning coal, for climate change and it must take its major share of responsibility for the weather events we are seeing unfolding now,” he said. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/coal-miners-to-blame-for-quee...But not even the saucy IPCC head buys it: SPECIFIC natural disasters such as Cyclone Yasi and the Brisbane floods could not be directly linked to man-made climate change, the world’s leading climate change authority said yesterday. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri said the general observation that climate change was bringing about an increase in extreme weather events was valid but scientists needed to provide much finer detail. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/summer-of-disaster-not-climate-...Pachauri is a BOB BROWN DENIER!!!! Off with his comb-over!!
Just as it would be a very large stretch to attribute a specific environmental factor, to the obesity of one specific person.
However, as time goes bye, the overall impact of the past & current environment, on human obesity, is becoming more apparent.
That analogy, is similar to how I would also view local, short term weather events and longer term Climate Change!
Climate Change, can also be compared (in some ways) to another rare/unique event called Peak Oil.
In 1956, Peak Oil was a rare phenomenon, only put up as a "theory" by one person, M. King. Hubbert.
Hubbert's Peak Oil theory was derided by most and confirmation of the fist part of that theory was still 14 years in the future, when the USA finally hit the Peak of the Oil Production in 1970 and US Oil Production is still in decline today, some 40 years later.
Around 2004-2006, depending on what statistic you believe, we also effectively hit Peak Oil, Globally, as predicted in Hubbert's Theory!
However, Hubbert's theory became much more than theory, well before Global Oil finally Peaked and if governments (local & Global) had moved early enough (say 20 years ago), then we would not be faced with a looming catastrophe, of such a magnitude.
The same goes for Climate Change, it has grown from small beginnings, to a point where the majority of Climate scientists are in broad agreement that our climate is heading for undesirable changes and that certain human related issues are contributing to that change.
So, again we have a choice, we can bury our heads in the sand and say they (the scientists) are wrong. We can take our chances and do nothing, like we did with Peak Oil and if we are right this time, then we will save a few $'s, lets say 5-10% of GDP.
However, if we do bury our heads, do nothing and it turns out that the majority of scientists were correct after all, then we have a far worse situation, than we currently have with Peak Oil.
If the scientists are correct and we do nothing in the way of mitigation, then the day will finally arrive, like Peak Oil, when it becomes obvious the Hubbert & the Climate scientists were correct and because the Climate Change timelines are so long, we will have consigned humanity to an unimaginably difficult future of great hardship.
Forget everything else about who is correct & who is not, about this ideology or that one, the crucial question is what will be the cost to us and our children, in the longer term, if we take the Peak Oil line, we are wrong and do not take whatever actions are possible to mitigate the worst effects of the GHG/Climate Change problem?
|
Forum
Pages: 1
Brown's AGW is a Greater Fool Theory in action (Read 596 times)
