The questions are - Is climate change happening - clearly Yes - Is it man made - almost certainly - If we take action will it make a difference, maybe yes, to a degree, really hard to say. - Are there other upsides to doing these actions motivated by climate change? Most certainly. So at this point, what are we arguing about. Sure we could go point by point of what Al Gore said and determine what is happening and what isn’t - I suspect it’s a mixed bag, but what is the point? Either we do these things we should be doing anyway or we don’t.
You don't know what you're talking about. I guess if someone despises Donald Trump for the POS that he is and the threat to the republic that he and his sycophants are, that person must be "far left," right? Can't be someone who just gives a damn about this country.
fixed it for you. It sickens me to see the billions of dollars wasted every year on the notion of client change, while our oceans are filled with trash, our highways are filled with trash, entire ecosystems are being destroyed today by man-made conduct. And yet, all of our resources are being spent on some mythical thing that may happen 1 million years from now. If you want to get me on board to consider climate change, first you need to clean the house we live on, which is a much more immediate dire threat then a 1° temperature fluctuation over the next 25 years… Which ironically has been occurring since the beginning of time.
The description in the first sentence is even more applicable to the previous administration although I would insert the adjectives malignant narcissistic and paranoid prior to the word "senile".
Ok that’s the way you want to roll. I will say all that other parade of terribles you lost, which I agree with, we should be addressing to. There is nothing mutually exclusive between doing that and the things we are doing now. Most of the climate change spending is really just substituting a greener form of energy for a fossil fuel via the private sector. Sure, there is up front investment but it will pay off later, probably sooner.
of course they’re not mutually exclusive, but there are a finite amount of resources, and there’s a finite amount of attention. So much attention is going to “global warming” that we’re losing track of our current living conditions. We have floating trash dumps the size of Guam meandering through our oceans. practically all greener forms of energy use batteries, which requires stripmining. You’re just substituting one evil for another. There is no tangible benefit there. There is a tangible benefit on spending billions of dollars to clean the trash out of the ocean and freshwater waves. Wouldn’t it be nice of people all over the world could actually drink clean water?
There is indeed a real challenge to determining what is the appropriate response to the situation that benefits from many different perspectives. This, it should be noted, is an independent question from the one regarding the potential nature of the changes themselves. Ie one can strongly oppose some suggested remedies without denying the science they are intended to address.
I think if we’ve identified clear bastard action of science, it means we must have identified a clear standard of evidence for climate change that is not being pursued by scientists. This represents a bit of a challenge, because we must explain from where we got this clear data if not science. I’m sure that many things that Al Gore predicted will turn out to be wrong, but what alternative do we have that always perfectly predicts the future?
The fact that we don’t clean up the ocean has nothing to do with investment expenditures made on climate change. I’d also venture to say these climate change expenditures will have a positive net present value. Right now we may be experiencing the hottest year on record, and record demands on the grid, and places like here in TX solar energy is bailing us out, contributing about 20% during these spells. Also, I’d have to say that most people who oppose climate change investments oppose spending much money on anything or having regulations or tax incentives to clean up pollution. I’d say most people who do support climate initiatives support other forms of clean up. Perhaps you are the unicorn that believes climate change doesn’t exist but otherwise wants to clean up pollution, but I kind of doubt it.
OK so how do you propose we cleanup the ocean? In terms of the giant floating trash pile, about half of that plastic is fish netting and fishing materials. This is about 10% of the ocean plastic. In terms of plastics coming from land, both floating and non floating, something around 1% comes from plastics used in the US. About 1/3 comes from China, followed by Indonesia and Philippines.
I used to dive. Many times I would join groups of others divers to go out and collect trash, especially near beaches and piers. Tiny dent, but better than nothing. You can expand that by offering payment by the pound for this trash. Most divers I know wouldn’t even take the money. To clean up beaches, parks and streams…just hire people and pay them $30 an hour plus benefits. Very good pay, a fraction of what we waste on Al Gore’s delusion. For the huge ocean dumps, just pick it up. It will take a year and cost a few billion, but again a small fraction of the Gore slush fund. Establish real penalties for pollution including huge fines, forfeitures and real jail time. For international polluters—hit them with sanctions and/or tariffs by an international coalition. If you can shut down a whole industry because of a snail then you should be able to seize the automobile or boat of polluters when the toss things and jail them too. When people realize there are real consequences then they usually stop being a douche. That’s my start.
You said "far left," unless it was just my lying eyes. I don't see myself as left or right. I see myself as a common sense American, which I know may be out of style.
When you say the hottest year on record, when did we start recording temperatures so we can compare this year's temperatures to that allows a statement like hottest year ever to be factual?
Exactly this. Wind and solar are now the cheapest form of energy. We need better battery storage but even that is getting better and cheaper as we speak. By 2030 1/3 of electricity in this country will be solar or wind power. Cleaner air seems to be a win win win to me.
I am a big fan of Biden, and really don't understand why so many liberals and moderates aren't willing to admit it either.
