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An inconvenient truth

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An inconvenient truth, is that Al Gore's propaganda movie to get us all to go back to being Amish? Hmmmm, I'll give the matter some thought, when I see Al Gore do the same.
 
If you've seen the movie or read the book--which you obviously haven't--you'd know that he does not advocate "being Amish" (i.e., being technologically illiterate). He tells us that global warming is a threat to humanity. That's not propaganda; it's proven science.
 
I like the message the movie says, but I'm angry. The world is just bringing this on themselves by using toxic chemicals. It's only when the Earth is beyong repair when we realize what we have done. All they need to do is just cut back on the CO(2) release, and our ozone will heal. (And maybe give us some snow!)
 
Honestly, cutting back on CO2 emissions at this point wouldn't change much. If we're suffering global warming outside of the usual global temperature variations that the Earth experiences anyway, it's due to the CO2 emissions from back in the Industrial Revolution. The effects of our CO2 emissions now won't be felt for decades, if not a century.

While we certainly should cut down on CO2 emissions where possible and practical, there's far more worse things than global warming that can be traced back to CO2 emissions, as far as I'm concerned. If I couldn't take the heat, I wouldn't live in Australia. There's no reason to get our underwear in a knot over it at this point in time. While long-term global warming may very well be a problem that demands a solution (and to be honest, I really haven't seen enough qualified science on this to throw in with either camp, other than a Penn & Teller's Bullshit episode from years back, and I imagine that things have changed since then), reducing CO2 emissions isn't a magic bullet solution for the issue.
 
Barb said:
If you've seen the movie or read the book--which you obviously haven't--you'd know that he does not advocate "being Amish" (i.e., being technologically illiterate). He tells us that global warming is a threat to humanity. That's not propaganda; it's proven science.
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Well, if Global Warming is a threat to humanity, I suggest that we all eat drink and be merry cause there aint a darn thing we can do to stop it. To actually think that humans can cause global warming is hogwash. Wether the earth is heating up, or wether is it is just part of a cycle(entirly possible as we have been recording the weather for what, a couple hundred years) there is nothing we can do to stop it, and to say otherwise is wishful thinking.
 
It is true that massive (and catastrophic) climate changes have occurred long before humans (or the ancestors of modern humans) had even mastered fire. Any global warming event that is major enough to cause harm to life on earth may well just be a part of the earth's normal cycle of climate changes that have been occurring since millions of years ago. Of course, the byproducts of industrialization might be speeding up the process.

...And then I think of the phrase "nuclear winter" and find it amusing that some people think we'll burn ourselves to death while others think we'll freeze ourselves to death. Decision, please.
 
I actually dont see evidence of Global Warming. I think its just part of a cycle. I heard some scientist in Russia is saying, Global Cooling. People were saying that we were headed into another Ice Age not too long ago. Whether GW is true or not, I dont know. But what I do know, is that if it is true, than we are just screwed. There is nothing that we can do to stop it if it is true, and if we actually believe that we can influence the weather, we are just setting ourselves up for a letdown.
 
ShowCreator said:
Well, if Global Warming is a threat to humanity, I suggest that we all eat drink and be merry cause there aint a darn thing we can do to stop it. To actually think that humans can cause global warming is hogwash. Wether the earth is heating up, or wether is it is just part of a cycle(entirly possible as we have been recording the weather for what, a couple hundred years) there is nothing we can do to stop it, and to say otherwise is wishful thinking.
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While we've only been directly recording the weather for a few centuries, bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice can provide a lot of information about what it was like long ago. Watch the movie. The 600,000 year graph debunks the "just part of a cycle" claim quite well.
 
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ShowCreator said:
Well, if Global Warming is a threat to humanity, I suggest that we all eat drink and be merry cause there aint a darn thing we can do to stop it. To actually think that humans can cause global warming is hogwash. Wether the earth is heating up, or wether is it is just part of a cycle(entirly possible as we have been recording the weather for what, a couple hundred years) there is nothing we can do to stop it, and to say otherwise is wishful thinking.
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To say that humans do not contribute to global warming is scientific ignorance.

"Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise," the report concluded.

People are responsible for the spike in global warming in the last 30 years, says a new US government report.

ShowCreator said:
I actually dont see evidence of Global Warming. I think its just part of a cycle.
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Because 70-degree weather in New York in January is perfectly normal, right? :rolleyes:

Because icebergs breaking off of the Larsen ice shelf are nothing to be worried about, unless you're a polar bear.

Greenhouse gases (including CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide) have increased over the past century due to more industrial activity. The concentation of CO2 in the atmosphere is estimated to be increasing by 1.4% annually.

Perhaps if you pulled your head out of sand long enough, you'd see the same evidence that has convinced scientists that the earth is indeed warming.
Evidence such as thickening or weakening of ice or permafrost, for example.

ShowCreator said:
I heard some scientist in Russia is saying, Global Cooling. People were saying that we were headed into another Ice Age not too long ago. Whether GW is true or not, I dont know. But what I do know, is that if it is true, than we are just screwed. There is nothing that we can do to stop it if it is true, and if we actually believe that we can influence the weather, we are just setting ourselves up for a letdown.
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Global warming did lead to global cooling about 8,200 years ago and it's possible that this could happen again. El Nino is frequently cited as a possible source for global warming. Nobody is suggesting that humans alone are responsible for global warming. What Gore and other scientists are suggesting is that people wake up and see the evidence for themselves. One person driving a hybrid car might not do much, but what about 1,000 people? 10,000? 500,000?

To suggest that humans are totally powerless to counteract what they've done over the past century is ridiculous. Granted, they might not totally solve the problem, but they certainly can attempt to fix it.
 
I have not seen the movie. Is this just a YouTube video,or an actual documentary? If it is the latter, I would very much like to see it and buy it.

TBH the topic of global warming confuses me a little bit, because everything is either part of a cycle or our own doing. Evidence nullifies other evisence and whatnot.

Based on the little knowladge I have about the earth and its cycles, im more inclined to say that its a product of us, however I am sure that the cycles have something to do with it.
 
"An Inconvenient Truth" is a documentary film that was released last year in theaters. There is also a book, written by Gore, with the same title.

I think it's a little bit of both, which is why I posted a question on the subject in the Ancora Imparo forum. But to suggest, as ShowCreator did, that humans have nothing at all to do with it, is simple ignorance.
 
pkmn Trainer Zach said:
I have not seen the movie. Is this just a YouTube video,or an actual documentary? If it is the latter, I would very much like to see it and buy it.
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It is in fact an actual documentary. If you have Comcast and On-Demand, I've seen it there. Otherwise, you could probably find it somewhere else. But really, I suggest the book, as it is bound to have even more information. I have not actually read the book as of yet, but I have seen it and based on the thickness of the book, I'm guessing it has more information than an hour and a half long documetary.
 
The book has charts and graphs, as well as very startling photographs of just how much certain glaciers have receded in the past century.
 
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