# What do you believe regarding global climate change? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2018, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518 "2018-12-22T03:12:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/21 "2018-12-22T19:18:57Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > It’s not a matter of belief. There is significant evidence that the climate is warming, and human activity is the primary cause. Evidence is not something you choose to believe (or choose to ignore). It’s just there. If one doesn’t believe mankind is making a major contribution to the global warming situation, then one doesn’t believe that modern science actually works, nor does one believe in the meaning of evidence or facts. So modern polls allow us to see just how many people out there do not understand or believe in the scientific method. Scary. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/22 "2018-12-22T19:38:01Z")
Need an option for “it’s real, but we are concentrating on the wrong solutions, so we aren’t going to fix it.” Wind and solar can’t scale up to meet global energy needs, the Chinese and the rest of the Third World aren’t going to forego developing their economies and increasing their standard of living. Hopefully we will be rich enough in fifty years to have resources to mitigate the worst of the effects. "[Nordhaus shows that more ambitious policies like the Paris Agreement target of 3.6 degrees would cost some $134 trillion, much more than the associated climate benefits. Such prescriptions for climate change are worse than the disease."](https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/the-media-got-it-all-wrong-on-the-new-us-climate-report/) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/23 "2018-12-22T21:41:06Z")
There was no option of “it’s real, we need to reduce emissions, and we gon’ die because it won’t get done!” So I voted we need to reduce emissions. I’d like to see the US work more on technology and sustainable energy so that we can reduce our emissions, be a leader in the technology, and have jobs for people transitioning out of failing, old, outmoded energy like COAL :smack:. But at least here in the US our Individual 1 is determined to prop up coal and keep us in the 1960s while the rest of the world moves on. Sorry if it was not acceptable to bring up 45 but it does relate to him and his influence and screaming about coal all the time, so. Even after he is gone (hopefully, someday) I doubt US politicians will be wiling to do much about it until it’s an emergency, and it will be way too late then. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/24 "2018-12-22T21:51:54Z")
I voted: It’s real, but nothing can stop it. (Some reasons: China won’t help, too late, peak oil, etc…). The green movement has done such a poor job on climate change. They used to do a better job on environmental issues, but stopped doing that since I was a kid. The green movement will not change their current approach, so climate change will continue getting worse. The green movement tends to throw blame around, too. It’s all the fault of selfish people, the lying Republicans, and so forth. That’s partially true, but the green movement uses this to shield themselves from their own failures. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/25 "2018-12-22T21:56:06Z")
The two most popular choices (at least at the moment), “It’s real but nothing can stop it”, and “It’s real and we need to cut emissions”, aren’t mutually exclusive. I believe it’s real and we need to cut emissions. I also think that probably nothing will stop it until the damage done is very bad, but that’s not quite as pessimistic as “nothing can stop it”, though practically close. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/26 "2018-12-23T01:33:43Z")
I went " don’t know what to believe, there is too much confusion out there." but its more a combination of natural and man-made causes. I’m enough a student of history to accept that changes like this, and worse, occur. But enough of a realist to believe we have had a serious impact. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/27 "2018-12-23T05:24:57Z")
I didn’t see an option that suited me. I do accept that man made climate change is occurring and I think we need to start addressing it with some urgency but not press the panic button yet. I have a little bit of the wait and see attitude as I believe the positive benefits may balance out with the negative benefits. But I also believe we need to start preparing and be ready if things take a more serious turn for the worse. I am more concerned about plastic pollution. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/28 "2018-12-23T05:35:09Z")
It seems to be real and due to the tribal nature of humanity we are more likely going to fight some nasty wars as people move in response to changing environment than work together to fix the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/29 "2018-12-23T06:17:22Z")
There’s no option for “_Believe_? This isn’t a question of belief. I _know_ climate change is real, and you’d have to be an ignoramus to say otherwise”. So I didn’t vote. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/30 "2018-12-23T13:20:27Z")
It’s obviously real, the only people who say it’s fake are people who have a financial or ideological interest in denying it. The solution, imo, is to keep investing in R&D for renewable energy until they become cheaper than fossil fuels. When that happens the market will take over. When a homes energy needs can be met with a $1000 solar system then there is no incentive to use coal power. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/31 "2018-12-23T13:56:06Z")
It’s off of China’s plate now as well. Western emissions are flat or declining even in the good ole USA. Western emissions are now a fraction of the problem. The EU and US combined emit about 7 billion tonnes of emissions. Which ain’t nothing, but global emissions right now are 36 billion or so. If the EU and US tomorrow went to zero emissions magically, then world emissions would drop precipitously to…drumroll please… about 2005 levels. But wait, you say… what if China joined this holy triad and limited its emissions to zero as well? Surely then our salvation would be at hand! Well, it would send us to about 1980 levels or in layman’s terms, we’re still gonna fry. Bottom line is that global emissions are coming from places now that simply lack the means to do anything about it. It’s economics and I can point to papers that I made in the 90s about it. When you cut emissions, you’re really cutting use of fossil fuels. We get that. What that does though is force fossil fuel prices down. Countries that have zilch suddenly can afford cheap energy. You can preach to them about coal being bad, but Indonesia says, “We’ve got people living on nothing because our infrastructure is so bad factories won’t move here and you’re preaching to me about windmills when I can get cheap coal and oil? Nah, I’m good.” I think of course that there will be peak emissions, probably around the same time that we’ve used so many fossil fuels that there’s no profit to be made on them and far too late to save us from major impacts. Carbon sequestration is probably our only hope. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/32 "2018-12-23T17:34:20Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > I believe that I’m not a climate scientist, so what I believe means diddly squat. > > Additionally, I believe that anyone who is not a subject matter expert should shut the fuck up instead of participating in things like this. Do you vote? Do you ever talk to anyone who votes? > [@Corry\_El](#): > > But the decisions how and where to lower living standards to address the issue via emissions cuts _is_ political, the essence of politics, deciding who sacrifices. Except for a world problem with no world government. Does getting better gas mileage in your car lower your standard of living? > [@Shodan](#): > > Need an option for “it’s real, but we are concentrating on the wrong solutions, so we aren’t going to fix it.” Wind and solar can’t scale up to meet global energy needs, the Chinese and the rest of the Third World aren’t going to forego developing their economies and increasing their standard of living. Hopefully we will be rich enough in fifty years to have resources to mitigate the worst of the effects. There are some attempts at changing that, but as long as we keep repeating the mantra, “There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing we can do.” Then it is quite probable that we won’t do anything. [Here’s good news.](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/congress-passes-bipartisan-bill-to-boost-advanced-nuclear-energy) > [@](#): > > "[Nordhaus shows that more ambitious policies like the Paris Agreement target of 3.6 degrees would cost some $134 trillion, much more than the associated climate benefits. Such prescriptions for climate change are worse than the disease."](https://nypost.com/2018/11/28/the-media-got-it-all-wrong-on-the-new-us-climate-report/) How much does getting better fuel mileage in your car cost you? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/33 "2018-12-23T19:46:39Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I believe my wife will \*still \*use an electric blanket year-round. Sounds like she’s doing her part because it’s electric not gas powered. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/34 "2018-12-23T21:40:01Z")
Polls assessing what people believe are sometimes useful, especially when those beliefs are used to predict likely government policies. But I find it frustrating looking at some of these statements because only three might be – arguably, at best – a proper subject of debate. The first three stated beliefs are just plain factually wrong; a vote for any of them is an admission of not knowing anything about the subject and/or of having been deceived by misinformation. The last two are just a frank admission of ignorance. > [@PoppaSan](#): > > You don’t have an option for both. It’s a natural cycle and humans ain’t helping it any. I think deforestation the past 2-3000 years has had a cumulative impact that doesn’t get the screen time it deserves. Wrong. Natural global cycles, when they are truly global as AGW is, operate on cycles of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. Current warming is associated with unprecedented levels of CO2 in the post-industrial era, a greenhouse gas with well established radiative transfer qualities that is produced by burning coal and oil. Moreover, there is some evidence that such “natural cycles” have the opposite sign of current global warming, and should be leading to cooling. Deforestation is definitely getting “screen time”. However, ancient deforestation in Europe is mainly of academic interest in fine-tuning climate models, since it’s completely eclipsed by global deforestation in the modern era. Remarkably, though, as negative a thing as the loss of potential carbon sinks is, forests are just a short-term component of the contemporary active carbon sinks, and the current assessment is that deforestation to support increased agricultural land use is actually a very small _negative_ contributor to global warming, mainly because of increased albedo due to snow cover in winter reflecting more thermal radiation out into space. > [@Colibri](#): > > The so-called “debate” is almost entirely political. There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that the climate is warming, and that by far the major factor is changes caused by humans. There is some debate over exactly how bad it will get, and the exact detail and sequence of changes, but there is no significant debate among scientists about the overall trends and causes. Exactly this. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/35 "2018-12-23T22:11:41Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > How much does getting better fuel mileage in your car cost you? Depends on what kind of a car I buy. A new Prius runs about $25K ([true cost of ownership is about $35K](https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/prius/2018/st-401741153/cost-to-own/)). But my current 2009 Toyota still gets over 32mpg. And it is usually more cost-effective to do what I usually do - buy a used car and drive it until it dies. Then get another used one. So if you meant it would save me money overall, probably not for another few years. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/36 "2018-12-24T10:48:05Z")
I live in the arctic. Asking if I believe in climate change is like asking if I believe in the existence of chairs. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/37 "2018-12-24T11:12:46Z")
Limited options in this poll. You didn’t think it through. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/38 "2018-12-24T11:41:07Z")
There was a time when I wasn’t convinced. The evidence seemed circumstantial and still theoretical for a long time, even into the early 2000s. But then more and more scientists began to accept, and more evidence started to accrue. By around 2003 I had taken the side of it’s most likely true, and that belief just became stronger since. Now we’re living it, experiencing it every day. We only have to look out the window to see its effects. Denial is foolish, it matches predictions too closely to not be happening. I still think it can be mitigated. One thing that seems to be constantly underestimated is the power of nature to bounce back. All it needs is a concerted effort to change. But the madmen in power just refuse. And it is so frightening that their stubbornness and greed could bring on the end of everything. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/39 "2018-12-24T14:57:16Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Limited options in this poll. You didn’t think it through. No, I did. This is a duplicate of [a poll I made 10 years ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534386) and the conversation was different back then. But, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518/40 "2018-12-24T19:32:01Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > By around 2003 I had taken the side of it’s most likely true, and that belief just became stronger since. > [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > This is a duplicate of [a poll I made 10 years ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=534386) and the conversation was different back then. Oh wow, I clung to caution longer than I thought. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-believe-regarding-global-climate-change/826518.md?page=3)