Climate change fight 'can't wait'

[MikeWM]

It’s about the first big policy direction Tony Blair has had in years that I fully agree with!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6096084.stm

The world cannot afford to wait before tackling climate change, the UK prime minister has warned.

A report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%.

But taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic product, the 700-page study says.

Tony Blair said the Stern Review showed that scientific evidence of global warming was “overwhelming” and its consequences “disastrous”.

Mike

 

[gelsbern]

If as Christians we are to believe the bible, even symbolically how the world will end then we know it ain’t global warming that does it. Well maybe, but it will be one big temprature shift, not in a few degrees a year. Also, the earth has had many warm periods and many ice ages with and without humans around, and I think it is egotistical, and in fact a bit of a god complex humans have if they they they can really affect the system God has put into place.

Again, we’ve only been measuring temperature for a small fraction of time the earth has existed. Ice core samples have shown that there have been many cycles of warming and cooling in the earth’s history, both warmer than it is now, and cooler than it is.

But again, as Christians, we know the world will end in fire. That’s the global warming we should be preparing ourselves for.

As far as man being able to have any true impact on the climate, I think that belittles God in that somehow he had no idea what would happen.

 

[MikeWM]

If as Christians we are to believe the bible, even symbolically how the world will end then we know it ain’t global warming that does it. Well maybe, but it will be one big temprature shift, not in a few degrees a year.

No-one is saying that global warming is going to bring about the end of the earth. It may well bring about the end of civilisation as we know it, but something would survive.

Also, the earth has had many warm periods and many ice ages with and without humans around,

Yes it has. It doesn’t prove a thing about whether we are causing climate change or not though.

and I think it is egotistical, and in fact a bit of a god complex humans have if they they they can really affect the system God has put into place.

If we let off every nuclear warhead on the planet we certainly would severely affect the system God put into place. The fact that humans have the ability to severely change the planet we are on is a fact, not a ‘God-complex’.

Again, we’ve only been measuring temperature for a small fraction of time the earth has existed. Ice core samples have shown that there have been many cycles of warming and cooling in the earth’s history, both warmer than it is now, and cooler than it is.

Yes. Which proves very little about whether humans are the primary cause of global warming or not. If you’re in a car going down a hill and your brakes have gone, you’re gonig to crash at the bottom of the hill anyway, but things will be an awful lot worse if you press hard on the gas.

But again, as Christians, we know the world will end in fire. That’s the global warming we should be preparing ourselves for.

Well, I believe in good stewardship, and I’m pretty sure the Catholic Church does too.

As far as man being able to have any true impact on the climate, I think that belittles God in that somehow he had no idea what would happen.

What an odd argument. It doesn’t fit in with any theology I’m aware of (why not apply the same argument to the Holocaust? To Hiroshima? To the Black Death?)

Mike