The Other Side of the Climate Debate

Climate Debate has some unwritten constructive aspects that I think few appreciate.  Coal, the primary source of the world’s energy, is extremely dirty source of energy and maybe the worst.  It hugely and negatively impacts the environment.  America needs to move its dependence from fossil fuels.  As a hidden agenda these concerns are significant. 

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There is the other issue – the rapid deforestation of the planet.  Again a topic of consequences. 

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Lastly, oil is an extremely valuable, non-renewable resource.  It is the basis of the products of modern life.  To burn it, seems horribly short-sighted.  Maybe this story to stop burning fossil resources won’t sell well and another is needed.

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People like stories of apocalypses - that humankind is inherently evil.  Just look how well the “original sin” story has sold.  How many times has the world been prophesiedto end (often with great glee).   The story of the “Great Flood” is as old as the written word and almost every culture has its version.  Maybe the end of life as we know it by 2100 because we all will be frying is marketable, especially to those who trust their news from the 140 characters they receive from the Internet

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The danger however, lies in the assumption that CO2 is the culprit and to reduce it will solve the problem.  That is simply not true.  CO2 is not a pollutant, it is necessary for life, and to reduce it to the point that the reduction will have significant impact on global warming is unrealistic. For at least the next half-century, the world economy is tightly tied to the energy sources that produce CO2.  No nation is going to surrender that.  The continued pushing the message that CO2 is bad is misdirecting.

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The fact that the climate does change routinely and dramatically without human intervention is fairly well documented.  And, throughout history it has been a net positive factor and not a negative one.  The one thing that seems certain is that the earth is in a warming part of the cycle, life on the planet will have to change as a result (as it always has), and no one really knows and can forecast the impact of that change.  The dynamics of this planet are extremely complex and for some people to claim “settled science”, as typically done by one side of the Climate Change Debate, is both arrogant and naïve.