The trouble is that the topic has moved from science to politics.

I'm intrigued that words to the effect of "little old us? we couldn't possibly change the climate, it's all scientific hype" still gets a run. Every organism on the planet interacts with and affects the climate to some degree. And many times in the past an organism has become dominant on the planet and changed the climate to a huge extent.

The "great oxygenation event" 2.4 billions years ago. Cynobacteria got a hold on the planet and produced oxygen. The oxygen rusted the iron that was floating around and deposited it on the sea floor. When all the iron was used up the oxygen filled up the atmosphere. That was the end of domination by the anaerobic bacteria.

The cyanobacteria are also thought to have triggered Snowball earth 650 million yrs ago.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth

Rapidly multiplying life then accelerated the recovery from Snowball earth.

The point is that the earth's atmosphere is what it is because of life on earth. Geologic records show several instances of dominant organisms swinging the climate wildly in some direction.

Stand back and look at how dominant we are. We've cleared so much forest and replaced it with shallow rooted food crops and pasture. Caught and eaten half the fish in the ocean. Burnt coal in 200 yrs that was carefully stowed away by trees, as part of the climate balancing act, over millions of years.

We're having an effect, don't worry about that. 200 million years from now another technological life form might get a run on the planet. They detect a 1 mm layer in the rock formations separating two distinct sets of fossils. "What happened here?" they'll say " It looks like the 6th great mass extinction!"

Sailhack said...

I found this a very interesting show last week.

www.abc.net.au/qanda/qa-climate-debate/10661338

Unfortunately, the best looker on the program (young 'Anna') also was way out of her depth & kept rattling on about how "we need to 'fix' climate change", when even the scientists know that 'climate change' can't just be 'fixed' as it's out of our hands (not to say we can't try to reduce our footprint).

Clive came across as the multi-billionaire that he is with vested interest in mining...although made very valid points that were supported by most panellists.

I hated the argument in that program that because part of the coast line is being eaten away by the ocean in the UK, that it is because of man-made climate-change. They make it out as if this dramatic change is an obvious indicator.

A simple google search of this coastline shows that it has been eroding like this for at least hundreds of years. Why is it all of a sudden a marker for climate change NOW?

FlySurfer said...

Ian K said...

I'm intrigued that words to the effect of "little old us? we couldn't possibly change the climate, it's all scientific hype" still gets a run. Every organism on the planet interacts with and affects the climate to some degree. And many times in the past an organism has become dominant on the planet and changed the climate to a huge extent.

The "great oxygenation event" 2.4 billions years ago. Cynobacteria got a hold on the planet and produced oxygen. The oxygen rusted the iron that was floating around and deposited it on the sea floor. When all the iron was used up the oxygen filled up the atmosphere. That was the end of domination by the anaerobic bacteria.

The cyanobacteria are also thought to have triggered Snowball earth 650 million yrs ago.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth

Rapidly multiplying life then accelerated the recovery from Snowball earth.

The point is that the earth's atmosphere is what it is because of life on earth. Geologic records show several instances of dominant organisms swinging the climate wildly in some direction.

Stand back and look at how dominant we are. We've cleared so much forest and replaced it with shallow rooted food crops and pasture. Caught and eaten half the fish in the ocean. Burnt coal in 200 yrs that was carefully stowed away by trees, as part of the climate balancing act, over millions of years.

We're having an effect, don't worry about that. 200 million years from now another technological life form might get a run on the planet. They detect a 1 mm layer in the rock formations separating two distinct sets of fossils. "What happened here?" they'll say " It looks like the 6th great mass extinction!"

What good will potentially preventing a 0.29c increase in temperature do the world when we have polluted it with chemicals and caused a complete ecological collapse?

Son you've got cancer, aids, gangrene and a brain tumour... Ma I need to go to a plastic surgeon to have my zit looked at... can I have some money?

And......it's on to the next red herring