Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to So you think that industry types would be willing to kill future generations of their children and grandchildren for money?

Why would they change now? It has always been that way.
Laurie Street — (archived)

There are countless examples of industry doing things that they knew were harmful at some level and as long as the short term bottom line was positive, they kept doing it. If the harm can be moved far away either geographically or temporally, go for it! I don't think they want to believe the harm is really going to happen, but that's not an excuse.

Sure there is uncertainty, but when almost all of the world's scientists involved in the field come to a 90 to 99% certain conclusion, there isn't a lot of room on the other side.

Saying that global warming might bring benefits seems to me a little like playing Russian Roulette, alternating shots between your head and a juicy cow. Except it's the world that's in the sights.

I'm sure far more people are harmed by excess heat than by excess cold, as SteveS pointed out. People in the tropics are used to 40 to 45 C temps, but if they go to 50 to 55, it will mean huge nubers of deaths. Same for Europe/North America if temps go from 35 highs to 45 highs.

Is global warming a good thing?

Ask the people in BC where millions of acres of pine trees are dead, because winters haven't been cold enough for many years to kill pine beetle larvae. Billions of dollars in lost forest.

Ask the people in the Arctic who are seeing open water where none ever was seen in human history.

Ask the people in Greenland who are finding that the ends of many of their peninsulas are actually islands.

Ask the people in the European Alps that are seeing their mountain glaciers totally disappear.

Yes, there will probably be some positive benefits, but are you willing to sit by complacently just in case everything is ok?

If your house has a lot of smoke coming from it, would you sit back because it might just be the kids making a harmless smoke bomb? If the local fire fighters told you there was a 90 to 99% chance that it was a real fire?

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