I agree that we can’t wait until we know ALL the answers to address the problem–the situation is too dire to treat as an academic exercise–but I think we already now enough about the cause of the current problem to act.

What you said in your posts reminds me of when my husband and I went scuba-diving in the Buck Island National Monument during our honeymoon last October. From all of the pictures I’d seen of coral reefs and the IMAX movies, I was expecting some kind of underwater forest, teeming with fish, turtles, *sharks* (eek!), etc and chockablock with coral. I hadn’t realized before getting in the water that all of the pics I’d seen had been taken 10 years before–or had been taken in places where coral was still abundant and the reef was still flourishing.

It was an eerie feeling, being 40 ft down and still being able to breathe, and the world under water was *completely* unlike *anything* I’d seen on land–but it was a desert compared to the pictures I’d seen of healthy reefs. There were relatively few fish, and the coral on the reef was rather sparse and stumpy-looking. Yes, the living coral was brilliantly-colored, but they were islands of color interspersed with a lot of white. White = dead coral.

I will try to get to those article tonight, at least the ones that I don’t have to pay for! And if you do get hauled off to copyright jail let me know, I’ve always wanted to plan a prison break!

There have been several interesting articles in ‘Science’ recently RE climate change and global warming and the newly-discovered natural cycles that one must consider when modeling the climate. They are available on http://www.sciencemag.org/. For some of the articles, you may need a subscription to read the entire article. If there is a subscriber-only article you wish to read, post here asking to read it; I subscribe to ‘Science’ and will post the link to the full article, if possible and if I won’t get hauled off to jail for violating copyright laws. ;)

I have also posted summaries of these articles on a couple of threads in the BAUT, if you are a member of that forum. The BA also discusses GW on his blog.

I don’t know what causes global warming. I don’t know if it’s possible to stop it, or if it’s a natural phenomenon beyond our control. However I would like to see some of the current talking heads on both sides of the issue take some of their speaker fees and maybe set up some funds to pay for some of the possible results of global warming. Can you imagine the expense of having to evacuate the coastal regions of all the continents? The food and medical issues? Rather then buy carbon offsets to pay for global concerts perhaps a high interest savings account would be a better use of that money…just in case.

Pressuring the transport industry by using *children’s health* or the huge numbers of deaths which happen every year is a much more understandable than a vague ‘The Earth’s temperature seems to be rising and this looks like it’s being caused by CO2 emissions, so you’re bad and need to change.’

I recycle, not really to ’save energy’, but in order to keep large amounts of stuff out of the landfills. Why stick a bottle in the ground when it can be reused? Again, especially in the UK, I think people respond to the idea of “landfills” and not wanting to stick stuff in the ground, rather than ‘Recycling might save energy, though it might not cos, you know it takes a lot of energy to recycle plastic n stuff…’

I don’t think *reducing* energy use is a good aim at all. We should be reducing pollution and generally cleaning our environment because it’s simply *nicer* that way.

It’s the same thing with your body. You might have a health issue that could potentially cause you problems in the future. Let’s say ‘high blood pressure’. You’re overweight, you eat badly, you don’t exercise etc… You can go to your doctor and get a pill to take which will regulate your blood pressure *without* dieting or starting to exercise… *But* if you *do* change your diet and start to exercise you will not only help your blood pressure (and perhaps allow you to come off the pills), but also will gain loads of other health benefits not directly related to your blood pressure- lowering your cholesterol, lowering your heart rate, eating more fiber, making you generally feel good about your body….

What we seem to be doing w Global Warming is arguing over whether it really is ‘eating too many fatty foods’ or ‘not exercising’ and working out whether we should blame our *parents* for not teaching us about nutrition, when we should be taking a pill quickly *and* change our lifestyle for general, holistic health… it’s the *blame* thing that is causing the problems…

Some of the mitigation strategies have been shown to be ineffective in small-scale trials (seeding the oceans with iron), but there are others that sound promising (artificial trees). Some people are proposing sending a satellite up to Earth’s L1 point to block a portion of the solar radiation coming in; this may work, but the price tag would be enormous. Others have suggested seeding the upper atmosphere with particulates (SO2 has been suggested for use in this strategy) to create an enhanced ‘global dimming’ effect; however, this would not be a permanent solution, as these particulates would not remain in the atmosphere. Moreover, there may be huge unintended environmental consequences of doing this; we MAY make things worse.

If CO2 levels get much higher, we may *need* mitigation strategies *in addition* to reductions in man-made CO2 emissions in order to stabilize the climate at a reasonable level. However, wholesale planetary engineering is a LOT harder to do and is riskier AND costlier than not emitting greenhouse gases in the first place.

Sorry for the long posts, Gia. GW is one of my pet subjects. :)

Your example of the cat is a really funny one– years ago, our cat knocked over a cactus plant on our table. My wife uprighted it, cleaned the mess, and then left it as it was. The cat knocked it over again. Mrs. BA swore at the cat, and I told her “The first time it was her fault. The second time it was *your* fault!” She laughed, and agreed. We put the cactus where the cat couldn’t reach it. In fact, we know she can get almost anywhere in the house, and so we don’t have many plants. We had to make a minor change in our lifestyle to accommodate the cat.

My cat is global warming. We’re all doomed.

At the moment it’s like there’s been a glass of milk spilled and we’re arguing about whether the cat knocked it over or whether I did… when really we should just clean it up before it soaks into the carpet even more and starts to smell…