Point taken but we should stop talking about the planet. The planet is a ball of silica and iron with a molten core and a thin crust of rock. On top of that is a coat of dirt from which we get most of our food. Over that is a tiny wisp of gas without which there is no life here. This isn't about the planet, or the environment, it's about the atmosphere. It's very easy to screw that up. It's also very easy to fix it.
-drl
Christine Canelos Welsh said:
I happen to believe that evidence supports that human activity is contributing to global warming. I also happen to appreciate the skeptical questioning by those who believe otherwise. We need critical thinking on all matters before us, that’s what we hold most dear in science.
However, I find that I don’t much care whether it is or it isn’t human caused. We should be changing the way we live on the planet, not just because of this threat, but because intrinsic value of having a clean environment is that it is good for us, both economically and for our health.
If the threat of global warming, human caused or not, scares people enough to change their ways, frankly, I’m fine with that. We do a lot of things to prevent the “what ifs” in our lives, why not this one? The statistical likelihood of my house burning down is small, for instance, but I still keep smoke detectors and fire extinguishers handy just in case.
If the threat, even the possibility of human-caused global warming causes people to embrace alternative, renewable energy technology and to conserve the amount of energy they use in the first place, I'm fine with that too.
This is a darn small planet overall, by not limiting the emission of man-made greenhouse gases, even if we are not contributing to global warming, we are contributing to the degradation of air quality, water quality, and mucking up a great deal of plant and animal systems, with which we ourselves are symbiotically connected. If the United States doesn’t take the lead on this issue, emerging industrial nations never will. If we ignore this, we are effectively peeing in our own well. Bottoms up, folks.
