Global Warming

[danc]

I hope that the pessimists are right. Lets keep pumping out those pollutants into the air. No need to worry. All will be fine.

[lilkynan]

FIRST, RESIST URGENCY. If someone agitates for your attention right now, claims that some issue or other is the paramount crisis of our times, you may properly respond, "Cool your jets." Snake-oil salesmen and demagogues of every stripe seek first to create a clamor. Like a child's tantrum, the demagogue's message doesn't matter. If a movement can create enough of a fuss, it has made a start. If a persuader can make you rush, he can make you forget your senses. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" calls the carnie barker.

 

Second, remember that apocalypses don't happen very often. I remember several that have been proclaimed -- Paul Ehrlich's population bomb, the coming ice age celebrated in news magazines in the 1970s, the Y2K disaster -- but none that have actually happened. The be-robed figure carrying a sign saying, "Repent! The End of the World Is at Hand!" appears in cartoons. That's where he belongs.

 

Third, be mindful of the mechanism of propagating panic, and the personages who do it. Beware of journalists, "activists," admen, PR flacks, and salesmen. "You can't bulls--t a bulls--tter," goes the old nostrum, but, in fact, the opposite is true. People in the persuasion business will swallow just about anything. So when the persuaders start whooping it up, back off.

 

Short form: If everybody is saying it, it's probably wrong.

 

Finally, keep your hand on your wallet. Proclaimers of catastrophe almost always call for expensive government studies, programs, even entire departments, to address their complaints. Government began way back in the Primatene mists when somebody threw a barrier across a road and demanded a bribe for passage. Governance, a necessary evil, starts with extortion. Resist any demand to make that extortion any worse than it has to be.

[holdfast]

Here is the problem here out West. The Liberals and Dion are making this a top election issue, and are picking on the oil industry. Who has the least to worry because most of their votes are from Ontario and east. The West Particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan are worried that this will cause an economic catastraphy. They dont want the present or future government doing something that is unaqchievable or economically expensive. Example, The tar sands are preparing to triple production 2015. Why, the USA wants to be less dependant on OPEC and with good reason. This would go against a Kyota type policy. The West are saying look in your back yard before ours. ie the pollution from the Steel, Trucking, road vehicals due to population density and so on. I would think that Hamilton would suffer as there is a high volume of steel pipe being used out here. What I am saying is there is alot at stake with all this talk. Dont get caught up with this. All I know, is gas is low, I have a job and a small boat, and paying a low interest rate on my morgage. Life is good. However I do believe that we contribute less than a percent on global warming. The USA and China should lead by example, because it will be very expensive and all for nothing if they dont do anything signifcant. Too bad we are dependant on Wood, Steel, Fuel. You would think with all our smarts, we still depend on the combustible engine.

[aplumma]

Just because the world is changing does not always mean it is for the worst. To pick on one issue in nature that is changing and then track it to the worst conclusion is normally for the politicians to to holler about. So far everyone is up in arms as to the evils that advancement and technology has given them but they have heard about it as they drive their car down the highway to get to the job that is 20 miles away because they want to live in the country. You might be driving to your cottage with your boat in tow so you can fish and watch the game on the satellite dish when you hear this political battle on the radio. So with all of the good that we get from advancements we also get some bad. It is up to you to chose to either restrain yourself from using technology and thus slowing global warming or to admit to yourself that you like the benefits of modern living and stop paying lip service to the horrors of technology by the other bad humans. I for the record live 20 miles outside of the area I work and drive a large pickup truck and have a boat with a gas motor on it and drive as far as 2 hours to fish for a day. I find it slightly ironic that we are having this discussion on a computer on a recreational site.

 

This is not written as a slam on anyone it is just a point of view that I hold and if it were not winter I would have not spent the 5 min to type. Have a good day.

 

Art

[Chris]

Well said Deano and The Bare. Fearmongering = taxpayers dollars.

 

Just wondering how many of you guys that are jumping on the environment bandwagon have outboards over 100hp???? And how many of you will be downsizing to something smaller???

[OhioFisherman]

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002545.html

 

They had an interesting program on TV here Friday, Global warming: what you need to know with Tom Brokaw.

 

I am inclined to believe scientists before I believe politicians or business men.

[lilkynan]

Snowed in Barrie yesterday again - must be global - but not here..