An Inconvenient Truth. The end of the world in our lifetime?

[Quicksilvre]

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Global warming is real, but we are still within our bounds for temperatures the planet has already witnessed. There are gaian regulating mechanisms for temperature increase and pollution as well (global diming), so as long as we don't overload those mechanisms we should be fine, but that is what we are starting to do, and then it goes very quickly froms seemingly fine to totally [censored].

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Quite right. It's going to get worse when places like China and India industrialize, since for now, the burning of fossil fuels mean economic production. (For the short term, that is. Plenty of alternative fuel sources are being played around with already, but oil is still the best fuel source around for now.)

Part of the reason the US produces so much CO2 is that the US makes so much stuff. The US produces maybe 20 percent of the world's goods.* That's still worse than average--the difference comes from things like excessive gasoline and electricity usage.

It doesn't take too much to cut into that--just replace the SUV with an ordinary sedan and replace some of your light bulbs with flourescent ones, and already you've made some progress. Pulling the reins on your heater or air conditioner (just a few degrees) can save more. Hell, just turn the damn light off if you're not in the room.

* -- Wikipedia--List of countries by GDP (PPP)

[Subfallen]

Yah, this is pretty much it for a very pretty % of the human race; it happens. Also, anybody who's "scared" about this is retarded and should just get it over with now. W/e.

[esad]

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I hope I'm overreacting because the evidence presented in the film was terrifying to say the least.

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Which is the exact response that they hoped for. All films attempt to illict a highly emotional response from their audience and it looks like they got you hook, line and sinker. Any movie like this has an agenda. Don't be so navie to think that the filmaker's agenda is purely the "good of mankind." People lie. People with good intentions, doubly so.

Whether the movie is factual in it's assertions is highly debatable. I can remember this same doom and gloom prophecy back in the 70s and guess what? 30 years later we're still here. Call me in another 30 years and we'll see what new doom and gloom prophecy they've come up with then.

[xorbie]

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you are probably overreacting, and the people who are going to come in and disagree with you are probably douchebags.

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[Quicksilvre]

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I hope I'm overreacting because the evidence presented in the film was terrifying to say the least. Every day the ice on greenland and Antarctic are wasting away. The film showed that if 50% of the ice in Greenland melted and 50% of the ice in the Antarctic melted it would raise the sea level world-wide by 20 feet. That means most of the US east cost, almost all of Florida, most of Ontario, all of Manhatten would be underwater.

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The prediction I see is a two-foot rise in sea level is century. I would call a fifty-foot rise very unlikely.

The rise of the sea is not a big a deal as people moving from increasingly hot climates to cold ones. The population movements are probably going to have a bigger effect on people than the actual weather.

[esad]

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you are probably overreacting, and the people who are going to come in and disagree are going to be called douchebags because it has become very un-PC to question the severity and causes of global warming.

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FYP

[dogdrool]

The same claims were no made 30 years ago. Different claims, like if we continue to pump out the CFCs, we're going to have a gigantic hole in the ozone layer, were made. But we took action to correct the problem.

Inconvient Truth doesn't say it's hopeless. It points out a new set of problems -- some that surprised and exceeded predictions of scientists from 30 years ago, in fact -- and also suggests some corrective actions.

People who think that billions of people jabbing the environment with relatively new technologies like the combustion engine have a negligible effect on the environment just have their heads in the sand.

[TomCollins]

There are several things in the global warming debate that are often overlooked.

1) Is Global Warming Happening?
2) If so, is man a major contributor?
3) If so, is there anything that can be done to slow it down?
4) If so, what does that cost? Do these costs outweigh the benefits from trying to stop it?

This movie, and other Global Warming Activists start with 1 and immediately jump to a conclusion on every other question.

[Quicksilvre]

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But we took action to correct the problem.

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Right--another example here . (Cliff notes: timber shortage in the US was solved with fossil fuels.) There's definately things like solar power, wind power, more widespread use of hydroelectric and nuclear power, ethanol, and so on.

I think it's very silly to deny there's a problem, but it's not as if the world will end. Humans tend to get through problems well, as long as they admit they're there.

[wacki]

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I read a book that made a convincing argument that human warming has managed to avoid an ice age. So warming isn't all that bad.

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I bet you that book was funded by Exxon. What book was it?