Iceland's volcano and our efforts to be GREEN

[RD]

Isn't that all one in the same? 

not from my viewpoint, mr. gore (though a proponent) does not constitute the entire global warming community in my opinion.

[tricky lugnuts]

Mr. Gore, in my unprofessional opinion, is a shill.

He may have won a Nobel Prize for An Inconvenient Truth, which I admit to having read and owned, but from my perspective he alone did more to polarize the politics and public perception of climate change and global warming than any professional paleoclimatologist or oil or coal industry shill working anywhere in the world.

The same thing would happen in any circumstance when a polarizing figure like Gore takes a decided stand on one far side of the debate and starts calling for things like carbon taxes and "mandatory" alternative energy quotas, if that even makes any sense.

It's a nuanced stand, but I see discussions of "climate change" and "global warming" as two separate discussions, or rather two separate ways of looking at or thinking about the same thing, with climate change being the "bigger picture" sort of view.

Global warming proponents argue the climate is changing, true. But they end their conversation at their belief that Earth's climate is currently warming and go on as if Earth will never stop warming.

Whether you like them or hate them (global warming proponents), I would say recent average global temperatures and temperatures recorded at various "hotspots" around Earth bear out that Earth's climate has in fact been warming, and is warming: regardless of whether we're doomed or not, whether it's attributable to human causes or not, or whether it's a trend that will continue for any considerable period of time or not.

Theories of climate change, which I would argue are rather obvious given the geological record of Earth and fairly apolitical knowledge about various ice ages and such, simply insist that Earth's climate changes over periods of time: however fast, however slow, however warm or cold, for whatever reason.

Given Earth's natural range of climactic variability, recent warming could be nothing more than a blip between ice ages. Or it could be a sign of much warmer things to come. The geologic record bears this out.

When it comes to ascertaining what man can be blamed for (such as the United Nations IPCC has tried to do) is where the whole thing becomes corrupted, because, frankly, from my perspective, no one knows. Not a single geologist or climatologist or government bureaucrat knows.

The beauty of this whole debate is the reality that our species is living in the midst of an untried Earth sciences experiment: how many people can Earth support, how many resources can man extract and devour and at what consequence. It's like the Gulf of Mexico today: how many gallons of oil can the ocean absorb and at what cost to marine life?

Earth is not a static environment. Actions have consequences. Change happens. The question is how quick is Earth systems are to change, and how capable are we of changing them. Man, all this change! I should write speeches for Obama! Sorry, had to go there!

[Mike DC]

  
IMHO Al Gore is still running for president.  He has never stopped since he lost in 2000.

Next time he intends for it to be much more of a slam dunk so he's taking much longer to set it up.