I think something man-induced is probably happening, but the experts don’t really know what it is and their best guesses are sometimes contradictory and either under- or over-estimated. And in any case, it’s too late.
I voted for “confused”.
The only good that can come of the paranoia is that we are more considerate about what we are doing to this planet. But I doubt any of it can stop or reverse what’s inevitably going to destroy us.
I think AGW is probably real and human greenhouses gases are the main cause (CO2, methane), but I don’t understand the thinking of people who say “it’s warming up, but it’s a natural cycle, so it doesn’t matter.”
Sure the world has been a lot hotter and colder in the past, and it was all natural, but that doesn’t mean it will have good consequences for humans. We may not go extinct, but rising sea levels or large extinctions, or an ice age, or whatever, all have huge impacts on humans (famine, diseases, economic difficulties, etc, etc, etc).
Even if you stipulate that the current global warming is mostly natural, shouldn’t we still take steps to try to mitigate it?
You don’t represent my view in the poll: Global Warming is real. It may or may not be anthropomorphic in origin, still, we’re better off doing what we can to reduce greenhouse gases rather than wait for definitive proof that it’s us screwing things up. It’s doubtful that lowering emissions would be harmful to the planet and in the long run it’s likely beneficial in terms of air quality and the economy.
That is how I intended it be read. I was limited by 100 characters per choice which limited my ability to describe these choices.
I knew there would be many cases where I was unable to represent a person views. Climate change is a very complicated subject and the choices I presented are not complete or even independent. Instead of trying to capture all possible views, I maybe erred on the side of simplicity. It is clear to me reading your views (which are probably relatively common in the spectrum of beliefs) that I dropped the ball and did not really give you a valid choice.
Doh. How did I screw up the spelling of emissions so bad and not catch it?
Well I don’t really know enough about it to have a strong opinion.
I don’t know if we have enough data to determine if it’s man-made or if it’s a natural cycle.
I voted for the third option but don’t think the poll gives adequate choices. I believe AGW is real, but don’t know to what extent it matters. Furthermore being a childless atheist, I see it as somebody else’s problem. Other issues are more important to me as I am 43 and live many miles inland.
I always thought that the carboniferous period lasted about 60 million years and the source of the carbon in the plants was that taken out of the atmosphere over that period.
As we have probably put back a good deal of that in the mere 150 years since the industrial revolution in the form of CO2 then yes man is certainly having an impact.
But then I read studies suggesting that CO2 levels in the the carboniferous period are pretty much similar to what we have now. So colour me confused.
The breathable atmosphere that surrounds this earth is only a matter of a few miles high. I can see how easy it would be to poison that quicker than some of us can evolve to breath an atmosphere with less oxygen.
Bump. I created an identical poll in 2018 to compare with this one, so I thought I would bump this zombie back up. That said, can a Mod lock this so people won’t post to it?