Climate Change - WHO Be Crazy? Deniers or Believers?

So the climate-change debate is roaring on thanks to the disastrous increase of tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes,tsunamis and such occuring all over the planet.

While most of what I am seeing lately is what I'll call pro-cc and anti-cc arguments, the topic is whether or not IT (Climate Change) is happening.

The pro-cc folks will say "Hey moron, yes it is happening, can't you see that?" They will then proceed to slam the GOP for promoting the whole Global-warming-aka-climate-change-is a hoax standpoint.

While I will join in with them and be the first to say screw the GOP, what do the Democrats (really) think they can do about it? Let me point out just a few facts.

FACT 1- The earth is millions of years old.
FACT 2- YES. Climate Change is real.
FACT 3- YES. The earth's climate has changed dramatically on its own, over the course of time. Remember the Ice Age?


Scientists say that in the past 400,000 years (only a miniscule amount of time in comparison to the millions of years good ole' mother nature has been around), that carbon has never been present above 300 ppm, except until our lifetime.

Now I am not a scientist, nor do I claim to be, but my first question, as a critic thinker is...How exactly do they know what it was 400,000 years ago? Much less, 200 years ago? I mean, the technology to measure such levels surely hasn't been around more than a half-century, right?

One side of the argument is that when we burn fossil fuels (coal,gas) the carbon in the fossilized material that has been locked into the earth for millions of years is released back into the atmosphere in the form of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This leads to the position that CO2 needs to be drastically reduced.

FACT 4- Even if carbon dioxide (and methane, which I haven't even discussed) emissions stopped entirely today, climate change will still continue:
A: Due to the length of time that both compounds remain present in the atmosphere, and
B: Because the earth does go through its own, natural, cyclical heating and cooling stages.

So, while the GOP position is to deny that any of this is happening and that man has any role whatsoever in it, The left side argues that we must, must, MUST tax everyone on the planet for their CO2 emissions and that will just solve the whole damn thing.

What's wrong with this picture?. Where is the middle ground? I am not a climate change denier, yet I also don't believe that carbon taxes/carbon credits will solve the earth's woes.

My position: YES it is real, YES it happens naturally, YES, man helps speed it up and makes the situation worse.

NO, denying it won't do anything other than cause this whole back/forth distractionary argument, NO, taxing the entire planet isn't going to stop a damn thing, and NO, consumers (especially Americans) are not going to give up their cars and other shiny little toys that they can't take with them when they die. It's called greed.

Bottom line - the Democrats can go screw themselves right along with the Republicans. Neither one of them have a solution and never will.

Really, there isn't much anyone can do to stop this pattern, other than to live more simply and strive for personal responsibility - to not contribute more to a bad and worsening situation. Is that going to save the planet? No, but it makes me feel a hell of a lot better.

I guess you could say living in the country has given me a new perspective on life. It's like an old country man once said, the earth is like a dog. Every once in awhile, it has to shake off all the fleas.

this blog entry was inspired by Snarkipedia's video (below)