Global Warming, Fact ? or fiction ? Options

[Turin Machine]

I just wondered whether members have any opinion ? Is it a myth ? is it a way for certain unscrupulous parties to cash in ?

[TallDarkAndHands...]

I just wondered whether members have any opinion ? Is it a myth ? is it a way for certain unscrupulous parties to cash in ?

All I know is that its chuffin cold and wet today for June.

[Andy Capp]

I just wondered whether members have any opinion ? Is it a myth ? is it a way for certain unscrupulous parties to cash in ?

Who knows? A bit of both, I'd say.

[Andy1]

The 70's and 80's June to September for me used to be long hot Summers, playing football on dusty pitches where the grass hadn't seen water in weeks. Summers now seem to be mainly wet, windy and cold. Is that due global warming

[Andy Capp]

The 70's and 80's June to September for me used to be long hot Summers, playing football on dusty pitches where the grass hadn't seen water in weeks. Summers now seem to be mainly wet, windy and cold. Is that due global warming

Meanwhile; allegedly, the polar ice caps are melting.

[Jayjay]

When it is really hot and we dont get rain for weeks, that is global warming. When we have cold, wet, windy summer months then they call it climate change.

[Biker1]

I just wondered whether members have any opinion ? Is it a myth ? is it a way for certain unscrupulous parties to cash in ?

Obviously the mean temperature of the earth's atmosphere fluctuates over the long and short term.

Events such as the Ice Age confirm that.

Whether the current trend upwards (I presume this has been proven?) is due to man's activities I have yet to be convinced.
I tend to think that these fluctuations are more of a natural occurrence.
There are many organisations who believe that more CO2 is good for the planet.
Here is one of them.

[On the edge]

Global warming or not - can't see any celestial oil tanker - so whatever, we are in trouble!

[Andy Capp]

When it is really hot and we dont get rain for weeks, that is global warming. When we have cold, wet, windy summer months then they call it climate change.

Global warming (or cooling) will affect the climate. One follows the other as it were. Historically, global warming or cooling are fact and is undeniable. Whether we are experiencing anthropogenic global warming is not definite, but scientific consensus tells us it is likely.

[GMR]

I just wondered whether members have any opinion ? Is it a myth ? is it a way for certain unscrupulous parties to cash in ?

I think it is a bit of both. I've heard arguments from both sides and they are both very convincing. The trouble is the majority of the listeners are not experts and are stuck in the middle looking both ways. I do accept, though, that the governments have cashed in; using it as another excuse to put up taxes for 'your benefit'.

[Biker1]

Global warming or not - can't see any celestial oil tanker - so whatever, we are in trouble!

When oil gets scarce, I mean really scarce, how will the remaining supplies be shared out?
Will it be shared out?
Will it result in wars involving countries fighting over what remains or will we be civilised and share it out nicely?

Seeing as most major countries' economies are based on it, it could get nasty!

[Berkshirelad]

I suspect that well before it actually runs out, the price will become prohibitive enough to force other technologies to the fore. Thus negating the need for oil.

As far as global warming/climate change is concerned, I am neither a fanatic nor a denier; I am a sceptic. I accept that the planet is probably in a warming cycle but I am not so arrogant as to believe that a single insignificant species is to blame. suited. It suited/suits the governments of the time to have a big scary excuse for new taxes - you will all note that any 'green' tax seems to be additional instead of replacing non-green taxes.

The only slight possibility arising from humankind's interference is the removal of vast amounts of forest around the world which decreases the planet's ability to sequester carbon.

[On the edge]

I suspect that well before it actually runs out, the price will become prohibitive enough to force other technologies to the fore. Thus negating the need for oil......

That's a worry off my mind then - just believe in miracles!

[GMR]

I read that an Irish Space agency plans to send a rocket to the sun.... because of the extreme heat on the sun's surface they are now going to launch at night. I think that is a wise decision.

[Biker1]

the price will become prohibitive enough to force other technologies to the fore. Thus negating the need for oil.

And what "other technologies" are those then?
Don't forget it's not just fuel we use oil for.
It is used to make many things

[Turin Machine]

Ok, so far so good. It seems to be a fairly open minded response. I wonder why more people are not of the same mind, brainwashing perhaps ?

[Simon Kirby]

And what "other technologies" are those then?
Don't forget it's not just fuel we use oil for.
It is used to make many things

We've used wood for several thousand years just as it comes, and engineered timber materials like ply is old technology, and even the newer technologies like MDF and glulam beams are mature technology. I'm sure there's more development of engineerd timber to come. Vegetable-based polymer technology such as boi-plastics is also getting quite mature now, and I'd be surprised if genetically engineered bio-polymers weren't the only kind of plastics to be found in 25 years.

I think the fuel techniology we still need is an engineered bio-diesel that isn't produced by agriculture because there isn't any spare land in the UK to grow it and if we come to rely on something that can be grown in Africa then our energy security is even worse than it is now. If we invested £20B in nuclear fusion there's a good chance we'd solve that, and then we really would have pretty much limitless energy, and then a chemcial process that turns water and CO₂ into biodiesel give us a convenient fuel for when mains electric won't do.

Whether or not there's anthropogenic climate change (and I accept that there is) peak oil is very much a real and present danger and I think we'd do well to have an alternative before the oil-war escalates uncontrollably.

As for people cashing in - well yes, kind of - change has always presented opportunity, and nothing wrong with that.

[On the edge]

So we are all OK then and Tony Benn's prediction that nuclear energy will be too cheap to meter will, at long last, come true. Put another way, electric cars have been around as long as petrol ones and have always been seen as cleaner and more efficient. Save for the storage issue - what ever might be said by the advertising today; its still not solved. How do we make invetors work faster? Pay bigger bonuses I suppose.