579 .. what if you're the one who is wrong?

I expect like any extremist, it will shatter your world view.

What do you do when the facts change?

I change my mind .. but right now the facts don't support it.

What do you do 579?

Find a website with a better answer?

What is it you expect people to do .. you sound like a religious fanatic shrieking at everyone to repent as the end is nigh.

Do you think that a world convention to stop CO2 production is actually going to happen? China, India and Russia as well as the US, all stop their progress .. no way.

When people use hysteria and exaggerations to make their point, when they ridicule any skeptics, they undermine their own story, and you have what we have now, most of the population do not believe it is anything more than natural cycles, and if mankind is contributing in any small way, it's probably not CO2 (no proof) and giving money to the UN is probably just as good as throwing it away.

What do you believe will actually happen?

Ranting hasn't helped has it, and many have sure gone down that road. Pithy little statements pasted everywhere that this is the hottest year ever, before the end of the year .. smacks of religious fervor, not rational thought.

We'll adapt, as we always have, don't swallow all the doom laden prophecies, have a look at history, full of false prophets.

rpg: it seems you are at the other end of the spectrum to 579.

When you say "it's (AGW?) probably not CO2 (no proof)" - that indicates to me you don't understand science.

When you say "I change my mind (when the facts change) ... but right now the facts don't support it" - that indicates to me you don't understand the facts - or don't want the facts to be true.

Prove something in maths, sure.
Prove something in engineering, sure.
Prove something in science, nope.

Anyone who has had the most fundamental of training in science knows that you can't prove anything in science. I can't prove gravity will be the same tomorrow as it is today. However, due to the weight of evidence supporting the theory, probably it will.

RPG My being wrong won't hurt anyone, your being wrong will be devastating.
I would rather ere on the side of caution than do nothing. The biggest byproduct of man is pollution, so it stands to reason to suspect that is the culprit. You don't have to be a scientist to determine that.
I assure you i am not religiously inclined, My view of religion is it does nothing but cause wars.
So do as i say and you will be forgiven maybe.

Funny isn't it RPG, these warmest types claim they have some understanding of physics, & then quote the IPCC's AR4 as if it was somehow something other than a laughing stock, having more holes in it than a prawn net. Next thing some of these people will be claiming that the UN is interested in Oz as anything other than a whipping boy, & a cash cow.

Bonmot, I suggest you go do some physics. Try some basic stuff. Oh, & don't expect to get anything scientific from a manifesto put out by a failing political organisation, with an axe to grind.

bonmot .. I'm an engineer, and this statement of yours "Anyone who has had the most fundamental of training in science knows that you can't prove anything in science."

is just rubbish .. please, it's just too stupid for words, so I won't even bother.

So you say the facts can't change? "When yada yada" - that indicates to me you don't understand the facts - or don't want the facts to be true"

A year ago, if you mentioned that there was any kind of solar influence on climate, you would have been howled done by "proofs" by the enlightened know all AGW believing scientific community, who claimed they could "prove" (see above .. and try not to blush) that the sun had zero influence on our climate .. yet today, there seems to be creeping in, since sunspot activity has all but ceased and we appear to be heading for cooling, papers that support that perhaps there is some influence from the sun .. that it doesn't just average out .

So the facts do change .. what do you do when this happens?

But of course, since nothing in science can be proved (!) this is all wasted on you.

Trying to be clever is one thing, but trying this on, is just the most ridiculous thing I have seen. You're not clever enough to turn my words around to entrap me, so don't bother, it won't change my worldview OK? Except to now decide you are not to be trusted in conversation.

579 is an eco activist and will squirm and wriggle out of anything, since he is religious and it's pointless trying to address his pithy statements. He clearly subscribes to the doing something is better than doing nothing, even if it stupid, theory. He wants to gamble on our future and try to stop the climate changing .. personally I'd rather see money poured into saving lives, halting malaria for instance, than wasted on climate science since at the end of the day, we can't change anything anyway, it's an expensive folly.

RPG You have lost it big time. There's nothing you can do about it so why bother. That is a cop out of the worst kind.
The balance of nature has been compromised in the very air we breath.
The affects of atmospheric pollution was known in the mid 1800's
At the rate global pollution is increasing the faster the effects of green house gasses are accumulating. That is kids stuff. Even a sceptic can see that, maybe. Big business will never acknowledge the word pollution. It's in their own interest not to.
That's about as simple as i can put it to you, that's grade 4 stuff.