With Japan crumbling, the Mid East erupting, $4 gas, 10% unemployment etc this is what Obama does...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the big problem was global warming. Al gore said civilization will be destroyed by global warming. Why do we pay any attention to these small scale disasters. everybody needs to turn off their electricity and stop driving right now! I haven't heard the word "climate change" out of the presidents mouth for a very long time. I think he doesn't believe in it anymore because according to Al Gore its an end of civilization situation and the president is now talking about producing more oil. I'm beginning to think the deniers are right and the climate changers are absolute fools.

You're even more of a fool than you seem if you are not worried about what we are seeing in terms of climate. Record setting winters, blazing hot summers, floods, fires, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers... even the bees are dying. Do you seriously not see the magnitude of this crisis? Do you have kids? Are you worried at all about the state of the planet they are going to be growing up in?

do you realize that China uses a huge percentage more (I think 25% or so now) of CO2 than the US, and that number is growing by about 10% a year while ours is pretty constant or declining? And India is not too far behind? So if global warming is accurate, and it is caused by mankind, and in particular caused by rising CO2 levels, then there is NOTHING we can do about it other than engineer its problems as they arise. With global warming, the only answer is to be prepared and pragmatic.

Yes, but that's because of their population size. On a per capita basis, they are 80th in the world. China isn't the problem. We are. To match China's CO2 output, we would have to cut our consumption by 74%. Yes, we consume as much as nearly 4 chinese.

that is stupid. who cares about per capita when it is total # of carbon that is apparently the problem? How can any solution not include China and India? If they are not included, then there is no possibility for any solution, since carbon levels will only continue to skyrocket. And of course their per capita #s will continue to rise (especially if nuclear plants are put on hold now)

[Anonymous]

what if the Sun heats up a little?

[Anonymous]

what if the Earth starts cooling? which is worse? Its never going to stay exactly the same under any senario. It is probably better to warm, because cooling leads to starvation.

[Anonymous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyFiClAzq8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what if the Earth starts cooling? which is worse? Its never going to stay exactly the same under any senario. It is probably better to warm, because cooling leads to starvation.

Although we are aware of large variations in local temperature, I think the average world temperature stays quite constant. If you think of what happens if your body temperature goes up four or five degrees, you might realize that a few degrees can make an important difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the big problem was global warming. Al gore said civilization will be destroyed by global warming. Why do we pay any attention to these small scale disasters. everybody needs to turn off their electricity and stop driving right now! I haven't heard the word "climate change" out of the presidents mouth for a very long time. I think he doesn't believe in it anymore because according to Al Gore its an end of civilization situation and the president is now talking about producing more oil. I'm beginning to think the deniers are right and the climate changers are absolute fools.

You're even more of a fool than you seem if you are not worried about what we are seeing in terms of climate. Record setting winters, blazing hot summers, floods, fires, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers... even the bees are dying. Do you seriously not see the magnitude of this crisis? Do you have kids? Are you worried at all about the state of the planet they are going to be growing up in?

do you realize that China uses a huge percentage more (I think 25% or so now) of CO2 than the US, and that number is growing by about 10% a year while ours is pretty constant or declining? And India is not too far behind? So if global warming is accurate, and it is caused by mankind, and in particular caused by rising CO2 levels, then there is NOTHING we can do about it other than engineer its problems as they arise. With global warming, the only answer is to be prepared and pragmatic.

Yes, but that's because of their population size. On a per capita basis, they are 80th in the world. China isn't the problem. We are. To match China's CO2 output, we would have to cut our consumption by 74%. Yes, we consume as much as nearly 4 chinese.

that is stupid. who cares about per capita when it is total # of carbon that is apparently the problem? How can any solution not include China and India? If they are not included, then there is no possibility for any solution, since carbon levels will only continue to skyrocket. And of course their per capita #s will continue to rise (especially if nuclear plants are put on hold now)

I didn't say that you wouldn't include them. But when you are trying to solve any problem, do you focus on the best performers or the worst?

If we work on the countries that have the highest per capita consumption, and bring them in line with the rest of the world, we can have greater impact. We generate 20% of the world's CO2. We could cut that in half and still be polluting more than China per person. And we don't have to go beyond our own borders to have that effect.

But most of all, it is hard to shake our finger at a country that is dead average in pollution per person and tell them that they are bad, when we are so much worse. If they have 20% of the people an generate 20% of the carbon, you can't exactly single them out.

[Anonymous]

but if we generate 20% of the CO2, and China generates 25% (and rising), and India generates ___% and rising, and Brazil generates ___% and rising, etc., and more importantly THE TOTAL GLOBAL CO2 LEVELS KEEP GOING UP EVEN IF WE DROPS OURS 10% EACH YEAR, then resistance is futile. focus instead on engineering around it.

[Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?ref=us

Apparently it was not Obama that lead but Hilary Clinton and Susan Rice.

I really wish Hilary was President.

[Anonymous]

I get it now. Global warming is a religion. Even though china will blow us away in emmisions and our actions make no scientific difference, we are supposed to feel guilty for our individual sins against the faith and repent by changing our behavior. Also be sure to shame other people as well. Personally, I am going to buy an suv this month and use as much frickin power as I like. That weird religion is f ed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get it now. Global warming is a religion. Even though china will blow us away in emmisions and our actions make no scientific difference, we are supposed to feel guilty for our individual sins against the faith and repent by changing our behavior. Also be sure to shame other people as well. Personally, I am going to buy an suv this month and use as much frickin power as I like. That weird religion is f ed up.

hah.

seriously. if we are convinced that CO2 causes global warming and that global warming is an immediate peril to our civilization (and not saying I disagree), then we need to reduce global CO2 emissions. That is impossible if China and India are not part of the solution. So if you truly think global warming is a crisis, how could you possibly exclude China from the discussion? Idiocy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get it now. Global warming is a religion. Even though china will blow us away in emmisions and our actions make no scientific difference, we are supposed to feel guilty for our individual sins against the faith and repent by changing our behavior. Also be sure to shame other people as well. Personally, I am going to buy an suv this month and use as much frickin power as I like. That weird religion is f ed up.

hah.

seriously. if we are convinced that CO2 causes global warming and that global warming is an immediate peril to our civilization (and not saying I disagree), then we need to reduce global CO2 emissions. That is impossible if China and India are not part of the solution. So if you truly think global warming is a crisis, how could you possibly exclude China from the discussion? Idiocy.

With maybe a fourth or fifth of the population of those two, we have far out-polluted them until recently. Now that they are collectively outdoing us, mainly because they are playing catch-up in their industrial development, we should decide that there is no point to cutting our usage because we cannot unilaterally solve the problem?

a) The solution has to start somewhere.
b) Either per capita or in overall historical total we are probably by far the greatest cause of the problem and have the greatest responsibility to start solving it.

[Anonymous]

we may have burned more oil, but outpolluted? have you ever seen the rivers over there? they are disgusting. The US is sooo much cleaner and less polluted than those crapholes.