Humans destroying biosphere

BSM1 said:

For your sake I truly hope this doesn't keep you awake at night.

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I don't know how he could sleep at night, with the cabal of scientists from around the world are watching him 24/7, making sure he recites his Earth propaganda correctly, lest he release too much carbon.

dust1n said:

Consider that the Head of the Congressional Committee on Science, Technology and Space is Lamar Smith, the douche from this general area who:

"Smith, the current chair of the committee, has publicly criticized scientists and journalists who are “determined to advance the idea of human-made global warming,” and he has backed up his rhetoric with a hard line voting record. During his 25-year tenure in Congress, Smith has voted to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, opposed tax credits for renewable energy and raising fuel efficiency standards and rejected the Kyoto Protocol.

As ThinkProgress points out, Smith has a powerful incentive to deny the existence of climate change: throughout his career, Smith has received $500,000 from the oil and gas industry.

5 Anti-Science Congressmen On The House Science Comm.

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Since you're mentioning human-made global warming, I'd like to point something out. There are two issues going on. One is that there is a global climate change. The other is if humans are the cause. To the first, we know for absolute certainty that the climate is changing. The research done to check this is of very high quality, so to deny it, is to deny evidence. However, the second issue, if it's human made is a little harder. Even NASA says it's a 90% chance that it's caused by humans, or perhaps it's rather 90% of the cause is likely human, not sure which way it is. Anyway, there's a high certainty that the climate change is caused of industrialization and pollution, but that point is inferred from the data and not a direct evidence.

Or put it all this way, I know without a doubt that the average temperature has increased. But I can only believe or have the opinion that we're the major cause of this.

Then we have the third issue. Can we stop it? And if we can't, or if it takes to long, what can we do to save ourselves?

Seyorni said:

Yet another study painting humanity as a planetary infection:Humans creating sixth great extinction of animal species, say scientists | Environment | The Guardian
Discuss.

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"Destroying the biosphere" isn't accurate, but I too lament the fact that we're replacing all those diverse & interesting critters with ever more lawyers, fry cooks, telephone sanitizers & marketing executives.
I don't need any more humans here.

Ouroboros said:

Since you're mentioning human-made global warming, I'd like to point something out. There are two issues going on. One is that there is a global climate change. The other is if humans are the cause. To the first, we know for absolute certainty that the climate is changing. The research done to check this is of very high quality, so to deny it, is to deny evidence. However, the second issue, if it's human made is a little harder. Even NASA says it's a 90% chance that it's caused by humans, or perhaps it's rather 90% of the cause is likely human, not sure which way it is. Anyway, there's a high certainty that the climate change is caused of industrialization and pollution, but that point is inferred from the data and not a direct evidence.

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Sure, given the amount of scrutiny given to this topic, concluding that AGW wasn't a reasonable deduction from many, many empirical observations means that we can pretty much discard being certian about most things. It's far rarer than often that humans get to achieve 90% certainty about anything.

"In its Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 90 percent probability that human activities over the past 250 years have warmed our planet.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a better than 90 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.

They said the rate of increase in global warming due to these gases is very likely to be unprecedented within the past 10,000 years or more. The panel's full Summary for Policymakers report is online at http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf"

Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: Causes

Or put it all this way, I know without a doubt that the average temperature has increased. But I can only believe or have the opinion that we're the major cause of this.

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It's not true one can only believe or have an opinion like this. The claim that humans are in altering the atmosphere around them is a falsifiable claim.

Then we have the third issue. Can we stop it? And if we can't, or if it takes to long, what can we do to save ourselves?

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That is very complicated indeed. Can we stop it? Physically there is nothing that is stopping humans from doing it. But, humans might be limited in their foresight and interests to actually achieve anything. Look at this thread, where plenty people are willing to risk it to the point to the point of making many parts of the planet uninhabitable for their grandchildren, and then don't tend to care much about it.