Steve J wrote:
Well boys and girls, what a hornets'nest last week's channel 4
programme stirred up!

As a teacher, I have to try and put both sides of an argument, and in
this debate this is difficult because all texts, even at A2 level
support the argument for AGW without ant dissent. However, TV
programmes like this, books like "State of Fear", some articles posted
on the internet and in newspapers have offered the chance to at least
attempt a balanced presentation.

However, as the various threads on this learned NG domonstrate, there
*ARE* some entrenched views, and some of us do get "hot under the
collar at times in our exasperation at an alternative view. I hold my
hat up to Gianna for some spirited points of view however, and there
should be more room to debate natural cycles of GW.
Too many are afraid to stick their head above the parapet because of
potential abuse from the 'other side'.

Anyway, some things are undeniable IMHO;

1. Global warming is a fact.
2. Greenhouse gases heat the atmosphere and preserve life on earth.
3. Man has burnt fossil fuels almost to exhaustion, so there are more
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today.
4 The climate has been warmer than this many times in the geologic
past.
5 Whether Man is responsible for GW or not, burning fossil fuels in
such profusion ia harmful and unsustainable.
6 The media have over-hyped the AGW scenarioa big time.
7 Governments are now driving energy policies into the 21st century
(like building more nuclear plants in the UK) to combat that overused
term 'climate change'.
8. Climate change is blamed for every "freak" natural atmospheric
hazard from flooding, to hurricanes, to heavy snowfall, to heatwaves,
to gales, to heavy rain, atcetera ad nauseam.
9. Global warming has forced us to implement energy conservation
measures and planning a sustainable future.
10. My last one, to give others a chance, neither side can yet offer
positive proof to the other that their arguments/
eveidence is incontravertible.

Personally, I'm getting sick to death of GW on TV and in the press,
but as an academic debate, this still has a lot of mileage in it just
yet.

Anyone else care to add to my 10 "undeniable points"?

Or will you take issue with my 10 points?


11. There has to be some armageddon-like event for the masses to worry about:
We are either heading for nuclear annihilation, an ice age, or about to
overheat (all three in my life time). But whatever the case with the climate,
and whatever the cause, the planet will correct the situation. In the meantime,
it is, and always has been, unacceptable to pollute the environment - there is
nothing 'civilised' or 'clever' about rendering one's habitat uninhabitable.

What is the point of dragging ourselves out of the mud (as one poster has it) if
to do so means dropping ourselves in the merda? (as the AGW scenario has it).

As individuals, we can make changes. But another programme (forgotten title)
showed that in spite of what is said in the media, the UK has done nothing, or
worse than nothing, since it began claiming it is leading the world in tackling
climate change. That much hot air probably is a greenhouse gas! (I suspect
other countries are doing just as little - not singling out the UK.)


--
Gianna

http://www.buchan-meteo.org.uk
* * * * * * *
'Ah you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction' (Barry Maguire)