Originally Posted by
Wogsterca
All of the climate issues make one assumption, that without man's intervention the climate is a constant. However scientific research has shown it to be considerably warmer and cooler at different times. Technically we are in an ice age, something that would have been easy to figure if you would have been out in the -15℃ we had here last night. The earth gets warmer and cooler on a roughly 40,000 year cycle, the last time we were at the coldest part of this cycle was roughly 10,000 years ago. This means we are actually on the warming side of the cycle, even if we hadn't discovered a way to control fire, even if we had never discovered oil, it would still be getting warmer, by small amounts we are seeing. Glaciers would still be retreating and animal life would still need to adapt to different conditions.
Having said all that though, when you take millions of tonnes of toxic waste and dump it into the air and water, there has to be a price to pay. I don't think on a grand scale we are paying that price yet, but future generations will, and the later part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century will be know as the most selfish time period in mans history. I could say more, but I have to go catch a bus to work.
I don't know anyone who thinks weather is a constant... maybe Glenn Beck. Weather is very difficult to predict, as is climate change. The only constant is change. Depending on whose data you look at we are nearing historic highs. One of the websites that argues against the influence of man publishes data that suggests the planet hasn't been this warm for about 100,000 years. As you say, it's hard to conceive of the idea that we've pumped thousands of tons of junk into the air and that hasn't had some effect. It's also idiotic to claim we haven't had climate change and climate cycles long before man started to burn coal and oil.
The real danger is that things don't just warm up gradually at the same rate everywhere. We have more extremes and ocean warming increases hurricane formation.