Global Warming ..

[Slag_Bandoon]

  I know that nothing I say will change anybody's mind or left/right enviro/right to resources biases.  So I can only suggest that each of us re-examine our priorities.

(Rhetorically, of course)
 Does Earth come first?
 Country?
 Golf?  
 Family?
 Career?
 God?              
 
 "You're worried about losing your beard when your head is about to be cut off"  Village elder in Akira Kurasawa's 'Seven Samurai'.

[Rick Shefchik]

Okay, I'll bite:

1. Family -- That voice in my head when I'm playing golf is my wife's, telling me I should have been home an hour ago. Golf doesn't do that when I'm talking to my wife.
2. Career -- If it's a choice between playing golf and getting fired, I need the money more than I need golf.
3. Country -- No country, no golf.
4. Golf -- Everybody knows golf comes before earth; if you put earth first, you hit it fat.
5. God -- He's had plenty of chances to move up, but when my ball's heading for the pond, he never seems to be listening.
6. Earth -- A great place to build golf courses.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Slag,
You've mixed immediate and long term cares here.
Over the long haul we either listen to the environmental concerns being expressed and evaluate them or we stand the chance of losing the planet. This idea gets lost on many people due to shortsightedness on their part. Love Canal, Hanaford, etc., should be touchstones for us to look at and understand how easy it is to really mess things up. Hopefully scientists will determine the true extent of global warming but until that happens it is not something to just brush under the carpet. A one degree change in temperature over a very long time would turn the Sandhills into desert. It would also melt snowpacks too quickly causing farmers in the west much difficulty. The dept. of agriculture looks seriously at global warming. It may not be a worry in our time but needs to be monitored so our heirs can experience the high quality of life we presently enjoy.  
So, for the long term health of my extant and extended-over-time family I put earth first. Not much else matters without a healthy place to live. Of course, when I see those bright lights in the tunnel I will definitely get religion.  

[John Lyon]

I do not know if global warming is true or not.  Here is what I have read about he debate that I find interesting:

If you are a scientist and ask for intellegent debate and question the basic premise based on data and science you are called an estremest and are seriously threatened with funding cuts and black listing.  It appears that many rational voices are silenced.

In the early 70's wasn't the big threat was global cooling?

Greenland is a sheet of ice today,  about a thousand years ago it supported farming.

One bad volcano can instantly impact global weather with ash and more CO2 than many years of human activity.  Should we put lots of effort into stopping all volcanos?

If we are so arrogant to believe that we control the weather, then it should be possible to move the earth a few thousand miles further from the sun (radiation is reduced by the square of the distance) and solve this problem once and for all.

Since all of what I said is probably BS, the driving force to support the stop all CO2 activity is the threat of having to play on bermuda grass in Michigan.  This is too much to bear and the risk of ruining good golf far out weighs  the millions that will die if we stop all internal combusion engines, home heating and other modern technology.  

[DMoriarty]

Earth First! . . . .





. . . We will mine the rest of the planets later.  

[Steve Lang]

Seems no one has mentioned on this go-around on the topic that global warming has been going on since the last ice age!   There's also the 11 million year solar cycle at play, but definitely things are warming.

So what are humans to do?

Besides Turboes's termite link to GCA, think of the potential in North America for new courses in Canada!  

[ForkaB]

Rick S.

Great Post!

Rihc G.