Squeers:) They be alot of words:)....Iam but a humble servant:)

"and celebrates the scourge that is humanity on a planetary scale"

Air Time you say thats abused, my my:)....if what I have put here you find not to your reading, may I suggest a fictional subject that wont get you upset, with the winds of reality:)

Human populations are the main cause to all what I put here. The only one's that find this evidence frustrating are the money-makers that promote human growth knowing that it spells the end of man kind:)

Squeers:)....How was that?...:)

Just joking my friend.......we all know the human economies and the industrial engines must and cant stop.....maybe the Time Machine is more to your liking by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media. This 32,000 word story is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre.

I think some of your own words might be mixed up in all what the youth can see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmBM1v2XU80&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJLcOQwL69U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd4c_b1PLj4&feature=related

CACTUS

"....except perhaps greenhouse gases. But they are most assuredly not pollutants and make our planet livable."

Well, in that case, it seems that our planet is becoming more livable by the moment....highest level in 800,000 years

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-05/global-emissions-on-the-rise/3712166

"....man's genius for improving the technology to locate, develop and refine these resources."

Care to take a trip to the Alberta Tar Sands? (you might be able to get a job scraping bird carcasses off the surface of toxic sludge ponds)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/essick-photography

Yes, thanks for the link Poirot--lots more yummy "plant food".

More important, from my point of view is the subtitle: "New research has found global carbon emissions surged by a record amount in 2010 after falling during the international financial crisis",
which bears out the thesis I've been peddling for years, that carbom emissions are the inexorable product of economic growth, which equals material growth and carbon byproduct.
The "market-based solution" idea is idiotic, and thus so is a carbon tax. There is only one way to reduce emissions globally and that's to terminate consumerism and the growth engine, shrink economies and cut real consumption--real austerity measures. This won't happen unless it's forced, though, by economic collapse, which will be much more costly in terms of lives than proactive action would.
Not a problem for the author of this article, of course, because the more plant food the better!

"it can't get any worse."

It can and it will.

Squeers,

Thanks for pointing out the fallacy of this article in your post on Sunday (though I think some posters may have misinterpreted that part your rightful criticism may have been aimed at them - which of course was not the case). All the same, this article has been a valuable contribution - as it has identified the very questionnable bent and itentions not only of the author but also of the organisation he represents. We should be on our guard when encountering articles or media coverage from a similar origin.

Poirot,

Thanks for the most enlightening links. The horrendous vista of the tar sands mining in particular presents a salutary message on the depths of mankind's potential worship of mammon and loss of respect for self and just about everything else. We are indeed in a death spiral, and only hell on earth awaits - unless?

It is quizzical how we can at once gasp in awe at the wonders displayed on National Geographic and such of new and amazing species filmed for the first time in the ocean depths, or of unique species in jungle or forest depths, and yet to be studied, or of the minutiae of marvels revealed by the microscopic lens, and yet, and yet, shrug off all concern as we see those self same environments razed, pillaged mercilessly, or rendered toxic. We are sick, just so very sick, and need to raise a scream of anguish to the heavens, that all may hear, and hopefully heed. But there is no hewn cry, no appeal to the gods, just deathly silence (save for those immediately labelled as fruitcakes, troublemakers, tree-huggers, or the unholy unwashed).

It almost makes one want to give up and withdraw from the race, such are the depths of man's depravity.

Thanks Saltpetre for the comment. My post on Sunday was a bit rushed and hyperbolic now that I look at it again (sorry about that to the author, but the topic arouses passions, and so it should!), but as you say I wasn't directing it at posters; indeed I only read the article--all rhetoric and no science. It's a shame we don't get more articles from those qualified on the other side. Graham once confessed to having sought out a piece by Matt Ridley; perhaps he could go digging among the 95% of climate scientists who do believe in AGW?