Thread: Greenhouse gases.....grizzle time

Originally Posted by silentC

Well, there was a concensus reached by a group of climate scientists - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - back in 2001. They decided that the Earth IS warming and also that there is enough evidence to say that they are fairly certain it is caused by increases in greenhouse gases:

And another conclusion that they reached was that they needed to study this problem for quite a bit longer. Phew .. job safe for the next 50 years

But after reading Andrew "Ostrich" Bolts reveiw in the weekend paper, in a hundred years time we will have learned more about the human psyche than global warming, we will have learned that the human condition is to do nothing til the 11th hour, or until it is too late. We will have learned that vandalism is not only willful damage to property, its cultural vandalism in the form of wacko conspiracy theories (like man not landing on the moon) and distortion of historic events. Its vandalism of the scientific process by loonies, governments and individuals for their own short term gain and judging by some of the responses to this thread they certainly have fertile ground and that is as it ever has been and ever will be.
Just to be clear, I worry about the future of the earth (actually I worry about everything), but we are a 3 car/2 person houshold, we run the aircon in summer, we leave lights on unnecessarily. We have 2 methane-producing horses, I have done nothing to kerb my digestive gases, in short we are not pinups of the environmental cause, so don't fob me off as a greenie or biased. I am also a scientist and I'm astonished that people are still confusing the ozone layer and global warming, that people still think that the earth is a closed system and that greater power(s) will soon be coming to sort out all the mess, I hope they are, but we might as well try and do something ourselves!.
Its quite clear that global warming is real, its just confusing it does not equate to hotter temperatures all over the world. Indeed it looks like one of the effects will be a cooling of Europe due to a stagnation of the Gulf stream current. The world is a complex subtle place, it has buffering systems like the oceans which can absorb huge amounts of CO2. A buffering system often performs faultlessly until its capacity is reached and only then can visible and easily measured often spectacular effects be observed. Its like the chemicals in your cordless drill battery that deliver an almost flat plateu of power right up to the last 4 or 5 holes and then exhaust suddenly. I think this has led to some of the early uncertainty about global warming. There's no doubt there are phyisical limits to these buffering systems and certainly if we continue unchecked we're heading for trouble.
I'm also certain that no single energy source is the answer in its current form. The biggest difference we can make overnight is a passive change to our energy use. Just use less. That doesn't necessarily mean going without at home and its things that aren't always obvious. Just imagine if everyone stopped drinking bottled water and reverted to the safe cheap water distributed by energy efficient pipes to your door. Think of the energy used in procesing the bottled water, in making the containers, in shipping the water, in disposing of the waste...
And if people want to argue that we shouldn't ratify the Kyoto protocol and go beyond that because we make such a triffling amount of greenhouse gas in comparison to the China USA India etc, then that's the wrong way of looking at it. We should do it as a leadership role and as a fulcrum to lever change in other countries... One of the biggest hurdles to getting China onboard is Australia's lack of willingness or so I read... but don't believe everything you read
Hmm, well I have to go to the movies so rant off.
Thankyou for reading this far!


Cheers
Michael