Chuck
12-25-2009, 11:26 AM
It frustrating to see the climate change issue discussed so dishonestly in such a way it impedes action on environmental/sustainability issues there is little debate on. The mentality of AGW deniers is "consume, baby consume!"....anything environmental is just as flawed as climate change and part of a vast left-wing conspiracy.
For purposes of this discussion, lets pretend global warming won't happen with all it's consequences. We still have serious sustainability issues:
The US imports $600-700 billion of oil, mostly from unreliable or unfriendly nations. The money is borrowed from foreign banks.
Global oil consumption has exceeded discovery since the 1960's....can the world economy contiue to rely on oil?
About one billion have no access to clean drinking water and increasing....water shortages increasing in the US.
The Sahara is expanding along with famine.
Asthma is greatest in Houston and LA....they also have the most smog.
Other respiratory problems, increased heart disease are known to exist in smog areas....it darkens buildings.
Fishermen are catching less - some fishing areas are becoming depleated.
There is less marine life.
Plastic trash is populating the oceans.
Developments and deforestation threatens thousands of species with extinction in the coming decades.
Consumption is at an unsustainable rate - not enough farmland, forests, mines.
Do you want to live in an area with mountaintop mining or tar sand extraction?It's hard to refute the above points, but climate change deniers try to associate all environmental issue with global warming and this dishonesty angers me as it's one of their many tactics to discredit AGW without disproving it - there is a big difference between discredit and disproving.
Among the ones that believe in AGW, there could be bad motives and profit involved.
I remember the mention in Dr Strangelove about flouride treatment being a Communist plot....the same kind of absurd conclusions and conspiracy theories are obfusicating discussion of environmental issues. In the mindset of many AGW deniers, I suspect a knee-jerk reaction to their lifestyle and will defend it at all costs, even in the face of evidence it's clearly unsustainable.
For purposes of this discussion, lets pretend global warming won't happen with all it's consequences. We still have serious sustainability issues:
The US imports $600-700 billion of oil, mostly from unreliable or unfriendly nations. The money is borrowed from foreign banks.
Global oil consumption has exceeded discovery since the 1960's....can the world economy contiue to rely on oil?
About one billion have no access to clean drinking water and increasing....water shortages increasing in the US.
The Sahara is expanding along with famine.
Asthma is greatest in Houston and LA....they also have the most smog.
Other respiratory problems, increased heart disease are known to exist in smog areas....it darkens buildings.
Fishermen are catching less - some fishing areas are becoming depleated.
There is less marine life.
Plastic trash is populating the oceans.
Developments and deforestation threatens thousands of species with extinction in the coming decades.
Consumption is at an unsustainable rate - not enough farmland, forests, mines.
Do you want to live in an area with mountaintop mining or tar sand extraction?It's hard to refute the above points, but climate change deniers try to associate all environmental issue with global warming and this dishonesty angers me as it's one of their many tactics to discredit AGW without disproving it - there is a big difference between discredit and disproving.
Among the ones that believe in AGW, there could be bad motives and profit involved.
I remember the mention in Dr Strangelove about flouride treatment being a Communist plot....the same kind of absurd conclusions and conspiracy theories are obfusicating discussion of environmental issues. In the mindset of many AGW deniers, I suspect a knee-jerk reaction to their lifestyle and will defend it at all costs, even in the face of evidence it's clearly unsustainable.