Harold,

Have you been to Los Angeles? Have you “seen” the air there?  Buddy, CO2 is not helping the palm trees grow and it’s definitely not being generated by all the loud mouths breathing in Hollywood.  What carbon emissions are doing is keeping people indoors on days where air advisories are issued.  Don’t go outside for a run or you might choke to death. 

I know: why don’t we move the rainforest to LA for its “CO2 loving properties?”  Oops! The rainforests that used to cover 14% of the earth are now down to only 6%.  Too bad industry is destroying what is, by your definition, our best ally against rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  Truly the culprits must be those nefarious environmentalists you mentioned with their agenda of global domination.  It’s the peace-loving vegetarians who are cutting down our front line of defense the world over.  Or maybe you think the earth is 6,000 years old, too.  Seen any angels or UFO’s lately?

Clearly you are willing to contort scientific reality into political rhetoric with a shelf life of one-to-two years, otherwise known as the remainder of the Bush administration.  The thing that gets me about folks like you is your ability to argue for or against something that provides no benefit to you or anyone else.  You might suggest that you are arguing on behalf of scientific integrity; however, the world scientific consensus is climate change is real and while humans are not the only variable in play, we are currently the largest contributor to a growing problem.  So unless you think you and your fourth grade textbook have more to contribute than the top minds of every country in the world, stop acting like an unemployed, right wing, pundit looking for a gig at FOX TV. - TheEnd

comment #52082 is correct in that over the past 100 thousand years CO2 levels have fluctuated between 150 and 300 ppm. However he ignores the fact that in the last 100 years CO2 has broken this regular cycle and risen to nearly 380 ppm in a very steep curve. Furthermore, this rapid and unprecedented increase coincides very closely with a similar increase in human activites which release ancient stores of CO2 from fossil fuels. It is this additional amount of CO2 that is the problem, not the normal cycling of CO2 between the atmosphere, the oceans, the soil, and living organisms.

Thanks for that second opinion, Harold. With more people like you maybe we won’t even have a ‘warming cycle.’

One thing though, when was it that those “millions upon millions” died?

P.S. Looks like the Vostok, Antartica ice cores got the CO2 variations way wrong, huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vostok-ice-core-petit.png

What human beings have been doing is imposing a warming cycle on the natural cycles of warming and cooling that already happen. Those cycles happened without human interference, mainly because not many humans were around and they weren’t burning gas, oil and coal like lunatics.

So, although the years aren’t getting steadily hotter (last year was a little cooler than the year before), the overall trend is an increase in mean temperature.

The thing about climate change is that it becoming unpredictable and extreme. The hot and cold spells are more extreme and lasting longer, rain is torrential, drought is more severe. Although there were few hurricanes in the Atlantic basin this year, the Pacific storms were brutal. Tornadoes and thunderstorms in February, severe frosts in California, people dying of heat or cold in inner cities.

This is what the future is all about, and the pressures it is going to put on the food supply and the safety of its citizens will be terrible. Part of the disaster in Darfur is due to increasing desertification of grazing areas, which send herders into farmland to carry on their livelihood.

I’m sure the world will survive, but humans may not. How would the U.S. deal with ten diasters like New Orleans after Katrina if they all happened at once? The original New Orleans disaster hasn’t even been dealt with yet.

I had been complaining during these winter months that every time it was a nice warm day;it rained. But,then it occured to me that the opposite was true-every time it rained-the temperature rose. In effect,the real cause of global warming are being inacted before our very eyes-water vapor rising to the clouds which are necessary for heating of the earth (food growth) and pure water. co2 is not a pollutant-it is necessary for ALL life on this planet. CO2 is being used as a political,money,and most of all-as a means of CONTROL of all nations on this planet. IF,the enviromentalists had taken the time to read their own multi billion $dollar$ borings studies in Anartica (2004) they would understand this-this planet runs in cycles of temperatures which man has very little input to its outcome.Even 4th grade science proves this. We are now entering a ‘warming’ cycle,which,if it lasts as long as the mini ice age,will be 700-800 years in duration. But,at least we won’t freeze or starve to death like millions upon millions did in the mini ice age. The bottom line is this: we breath out co2. veggies,and other plants need it for survival. The RAIN FOREST loves the stuff. They in turn give us oxygen. CO2 as varied from 300-400 ppm for the last 10000 years.