Originally Posted by: renAll I will offer is that we don't have a test planet to experiment on, so we might want to be careful. Everyone seems to be an expert these days... but how many of us have any idea beyond watching a TV show?

I think a number of the nay-sayers now just want to have a different belief from the majority. I used to know a bunch of people who thought climate change was happening / was a fact / was man-made blah while 'the establishment' was offering other explanations or flat out denial. Now the same people say it isn't happening once the prevailing view is that it is. Not levelling that at anyone here - just in general...

Regardless of my personal beliefs on climate change or government involvemment in our lives, I do find it frightening that society en masse can be persuaded so quickly and easily that 4x4 driving / failure to recycle etc are crimes against humanity.

The media is driving this thing... I've no idea what's going on, just that 'climate change' is now a justification for any action taken by anyone (in the UK it is used to explain tax changes). People will profit from it... not least the scientists who write the reports and justify their budgets.

Agree. It just so happens that Global Warming is the crisis flavor of the month. I don't think that there's any question that some things are happening and we should be more thoughtful about our consumption. Limited resources on this rock, don't you know. But will Manhattan be under water in 25, 50 or 100 years? I honestly don't know. It just has that feel of a media fed frenzy.

I could be wrong. It's been known to happen. Not often, but it does happen. :D