Comment 34898

By arienc (registered) | Posted October 22, 2009 at 15:37:26

Climate change unfortunately is very difficult for most people to accept. While the scientific evidence in favour of the theory that man-made greenhouse gases lead to temperature increases is overwhelming, the process to date has had little effect on our lives today. Plus there are so many other complexities that act on climate - some we understand, some we don't. That these other changes can at times overshadow the impact of GHG's makes it even more difficult for science to connect with the average person.

The most unfortunate thing is...the warming that is ALREADY in the pipeline is likely to have overwhelming effects on the generations that follow ours. Plus there is a realistic chance that positive feedbacks such as methane locked in the permafrost lead to even greater warming than the upper limit predicted by the IPCC. Despite the neocons' assertions to the contrary, the IPCC reports have been based on the most conservative research available, understating the problem so as not to cause political uphevals in developed countries.

How anyone can believe that hundreds of thousands of scientists, including every major scientific body or organization in the world, have managed to keep a massive conspiracy under wraps, with just a few (and largely unpublished in real peer-reviewed scientific journals) dissenters, absolutely defies logic.

As organizations like 350.org attest, continuing to add even more carbon to the atmosphere at a rate that is growing exponentially, is not a solution that helps anyone. We need to dramatically alter the way we live, and we will need to undertake dramatic actions to survive the changes that are to come. If we don't start making those changes today, then we just make it that much more difficult for our kids to adapt, and we reduce their chances of survival. What parent could honestly do that?

Even so, there are other things that will have more immediate effects than global warming, such as the continued decline of fish stocks. The environment is under attack on multiple fronts, which mean we need to do so much more than emitting less co2.

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