......Powell reviewed 13,950 peer-reviewed scientific articles published between January 1991 and November 9, 2012 that mentioned --global warming-- or --global climate change--. The grand total of articles that questioned global warming or whether rising emissions are the cause: 24. That's 0.17 percent of all the literature on the topic....

http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/15/why-climate-deniers-have-no-credibility-science-one-pie-chart

No debate that the earth has warmed and cooled now or ever really in my mind.

The debate is how much, how much is caused by man and how much man can do about it!

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In response to tvoter's comment:

In response to NO MO O's comment:

....lol.... 

Sure, kid. Sure.

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In response to WhichOnesPink2's comment:

I guess I sum up the warmist/alarmist opinion this way:

It's happening, people are causing all of it, we can't possibly stop it, so let's become socialists.

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Matty is playing Harry Ried again.

I thought the outdated the earth has a fever meme went out 2-3 years ago.  Yes climate change is real, its always been real.  Frankly I'm more concerned about our impact on the environment from a health perspective of clean air and water.  Let's focus on those and if we get those then we'll most likely address mankinds impact on the climate.

The trouble is that, without tracking every last atom on Earth, there is never going to be an exact enough answer that everyone can agree upon for just how much man is contributing for holdouts like tvoter to support politicians who want to do something.

First they denied that man had any impact on warming. When confronted with overwhelming evidence and consensus to the contrary, they retreat to "ok ok. Man is having an impact. But since you can't tell me to the tenth decimal the degree of impact, well, we just shouldn't do a single thing at all."

Which is nonsense. If a person applied that sort of reasoning to living their lives, they would be paralyzed in inaction until the foreclosure firm tossed them out on the street. And then they'd probably starve to death because they couldn't decide which street would yield the most in begging returns.

But hey, at least our children and grandchildren will be paying the price. F**k 'em. Right?

In response to massmoderateJoe's comment:

PS: Ryan wanted to cut the agency that is responsible for focusing on the pollutants you think should be focused on.

ok ok. He didn't specifically name the EPA, he just wanted to cut everything after $100 billion or so. 

In response to NO MO O's comment:

In response to WhatDoYouWantNow's comment:

In response to skeeter20's comment:

Your logic is nonexistent.

You mean refer to the heat-trapping properties of CO2 v. Methane.

That's rate of impact, not absolute impact.

 I recently went hiking in the Northern Cascade Mountains, famous for the number of spectacular glaciers. The problem is that most of them are gone, or recceding at an alarming rate. Some of the larger Glaciers have lost up to 1/4 of their mass, which is a direct result of less snowfall and higher temperatures(almost 2 full degrees warmer in 2012 that it was in the mid 1950's) Scientists attribute higher levels of Carbon Dioxide in the ice pack and atmosphere as a main cause of the melting, these are man-made gases from burning fossil fuels.

Every year I go back, the snow pack gets lighter and the glaciers get smaller. From what I've seen, global warming is for real.

In response to skeeter20's comment:

The problem breaks down to, in part: a) the consumption habits of people who eat the cow meat and b) the climate damage from the feed lots where the cows are kept.

This is to say nothing about the volume of methane coming from a lot of peoples' mouths...for instance, the terribly discredited climate change deniers.

The US has approximately 5 % of the world's population. Yet we are responsible for over 30% of the world's solid waste ( trash). Lets start there.

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In response to WhichOnesPink2's comment:

In response to WhichOnesPink2's comment:

Well as far as I'm aware there are no practical methods to simply sucking CO2 and Methane out of the air immediately. However, it would help significantly if we halted the massive deforestation of areas like the Amazon and started planting more trees than ever. The trouble is getting leaders to use political capital on that rather than, say, drilling deals.

Mandated improvement of internal combustion efficiency is also a great way to go. The engine could be way more efficient. There just hasn't been enough economic pressure to make it worthwhile in the past. Obama did a good job with this one.

"if it's as dire as I keep reading about then we need changes NOW."

That's rather the point. Which is also why the lack of things with immediate impacts is not a reason not to do things with longer term impacts. Even if we can't fix it completely, doing nothing will only make things worse.

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In response to WhichOnesPink2's comment:

As you've mentioned viz. another social issue (obesity), information is the first step.  We have to acknowledge the situation before we can adapt as a species.

This means giving no quarter to the propagandists who insist that the earth "will right itself" and no action is necessary.  (Maybe it will...but if so, it will be without Us.)

Then, it's important to understand the connections to everything we do, whether it's driving a car, eating meat, heating our homes, etc.  The individual things we can do are indeed very small, but that just means there's less of an excuse for doing it in the first place.

Re: obesity...it's like everyone who needs to lose weight loses 5 punds all at once and keeps it off.  The end-toll of health care savings would be enormous.  Conservation is like that, IMO.

(On public transportation, I present L.A.  8 million people and next to no public transport.  Lots of cities need it but don't have it; very few have it and don't use it.)