CO2 does cause warming and man is the main cause, but saying that I believe the amount of warming caused is minimal, of the 0.8C warming that has occurred during the last century, probably at least half has been by natural causes.
Is it catastrophic, I don't think so, it might even be beneficial.
"Isn't the hyperbole around Global Warming getting stupid?" - Yes, among the fossil fuel industries' puppet brigade.
"The temperature goes up and down, seas rise and fall, species go extinct and new ones take their place, this has been going on for a bajillion years." - I see a complete lack of any critical thinking with this statement. Do all car wrecks happen for the same reason? Do all trees fall for the same reason? Do all fish die for the same reason? Do all of the objects in our solar system warm and cool at the same rate and during the same time? (hint: it ain't the Sun!)
"even if we cut carbon emissions to zero another Icelandic volcano could erupt tomorrow and dump another 10 years worth of carbon into the atmosphere." - Let us say that this is a true statement, and it is not, this would only be in addition to what we are currently putting into the atmosphere. - http://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoe...
"clearly the earth isn't prejudiced against CO2 like we are." - True. Earth has no prejudice. Earth only responds according to the forcing placed on it. You got one right!
"Global warming isn't the worst problem on the earth, just another one to add on the pile of other crap we gotta deal with." - This is also true. However, global warming will likely get us, if nothing else does first. Nearly all other immediate sources that would destroy life on the this planet, as we now know it, are also of anthropogenic sources.
"have a little perspective"
"even if we cut carbon emissions to zero another Icelandic volcano could erupt tomorrow and dump another 10 years worth of carbon into the atmosphere."
If you were actually looking for perspective, you could do the math and know that all recorded volcanic CO2 output is considerably smaller than industrial output.
< the climate models aren't tracking with real world outcomes,>
Climate models are not the sole basis of the science pf AGW. which proceeded computer models by more than a century.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timel...
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. What can you predict from that statement? That adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will cause warming. And it has.
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/gistemp...
< No one's against introducing more fuel efficient technologies and renewable energy,>
Aren't they? Why do denialists make it out to be a life or death issue. Some would like to hang scientists just for saying that Earth is warming.
You are perfectly correct, global climate change is a perfectly naturally occurring condition caused by a range of factors, especially gravitational pull by the Sun and the major planets, which influence earthquake and volcanic activity, which are the main drivers of the planets climate. It is NOTHING to do with Carbon Dioxide, despite all the doomsayers claiming it is.
Science does not depend on fossil fuel industry deceptions about it.
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2010:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record...
“Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems.”
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpine...
“Choices made now about carbon dioxide emissions reductions will affect climate change impacts experienced not just over the next few decades but also in coming centuries and millennia…Because CO2 in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which could become very severe.”
http://www.physics.fsu.edu/awards/NAS/
“The Academy membership is composed of approximately 2,100 members and 380 foreign associates, of whom nearly 200 have won Nobel Prizes. Members and foreign associates of the Academy are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research; election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist or engineer.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_...
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/...
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timel...
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/index...
>>the earth is going to do what the earth is going to do<<
No, the earth is going to respond to the physical processes that control it.
The temperature goes up and down, seas rise and fall, species go extinct and new ones take their place, this has been going on for a bajillion years.
I'm not saying ignore the problem but have a little perspective, the earth is going to do what the earth is going to do, even if we cut carbon emissions to zero another Icelandic volcano could erupt tomorrow and dump another 10 years worth of carbon into the atmosphere, clearly the earth isn't prejudiced against CO2 like we are.
Global warming isn't the worst problem on the earth, just another one to add on the pile of other crap we gotta deal with.
