[Lanny_MacDonald]

Originally Posted by Azure

Once again, here comes the whole 'need imperial proof that global warming exists.' Like I said, everytime someone has a problem with what Gore presents, this arguement gets thrown in our face. Very nice.

You mean the way the "imperial [sic] proof" that it doesn't exist argument keeps getting thrown around? Nice rhetoric, but that's all it is. There is little imperical proof on either side, there is just more supporting evidence on the side that humans are contributing greatly to the failure of the ecosystem.

Would you people get over it? There is NO DEBATE as to whether or not global warming exists. The debate is over what causes it.

Better check your Cliff Notes. The debate is still raging quite hard as to whether Global Warming exists.

And frankly, I find it ridiculous that you would risk the welfare of millions of people, just to try to fix something that is could very well be natural.

More rhetoric, and real lame rhetoric at that.

Risk the "welfare of millions" just to fix something that could be natural? Cancer is natural, yet we "try" to fix that. Polio is natural, but we did everything we could to eliminate that problem. These are just two examples of issues that affect "millions" that we decided to do something about. Now change the magnitude of the argument you are attempting to make. We are talking about a GLOBAL issue that affects every single man, woman, and child on this planet. That is BILLIONS of people. What's worse is that this issue also impacts every living and breathing creature on the globe as well. The failure of the biosphere is not an economic issue, it is an issue of survival for our species and possibly every other one as well.

What does it take for some people to wake the hell up? It took a fishery dying in the Atlantic before the people there got with the program and started to understand the impact they had on that ecosystem. Is it going to take a total failure of our environment, and a mass extinction, for us to get it? People fail to realize just how fragile the environment is until it is usually too late. I hope this is not one of those times because it is an issue that affects us all.

I keep hearing how "Global Warming" is bad for business? How so? So we start using existing fuels more efficiently and exploiting environmentally freindly fuels. How does that hurt the economy? To do all of these things you require greater R&D, and with that come more high paying jobs for highly skilled people. How does that hurt the economy? To clean up these industries you are going to need new equipment, new plants, and new skilled workers, which means more jobs in the training sector. How does that hurt the economy? To bring these new technologies on line you are going to need improvements in the infrastructure that exists, and an extension of the infrastructure itself, which means more construction and more development of services. How does that hurt the economy? To take advantage of these new systems and standrads you are going to have a cottage industry develop to retrofit existing systems and structures to take advantage of the new technology. How does that hurt the economy? Then there is going to be a flood of new products developed to generate and store energy, and then to use the new energy source, which means more jobs. How is that bad for the economy? Yes, there will be a slow change in some jobs and there will be a transition that takes place over time as a new energy standard emerges, but this will take place over time and happen through natural market forces. No big economic armageddon as the fear mongers project.

One last point. If the whole fossil fuel economy is doing so well, why are the North American car manufactures all hurting so badly? Why is it that GM was on life support, and now Chrysler is in intensive care? Isn't this just indicative of the broken economy that people are worrying so much about? Maybe its time that Cerebus took a serious look at the white elephant they just purachased a chunk of and decide to try something new. Maybe Cerebus should sit down with Tesla and work with them to bring their vehicles to market? Wouldn't THAT meet the demands of the market AND be economically sound? It would certainly be environmentally friendly. Wouldn't that make everyone happy?