As Stopa points out, the whole thing depends on a feedback mechanism built into climate models, and that feedback mechanism has yet to be properly verified. Efforts to back test models, run them against known results to see if they fit, are totally inadequate as any sort of proof.

VK3AUU - sorry but the acid oceans thing is on a flimsiest of evidence and does not depend on CO2 concentrations as such, but on the rate of change in those concentrations being too fast for the ocean creatures to adapt. That's much harder to prove or refute but, in any case, even if you accept acid oceans as a problem, it is a trivial danger compared to over-fishing. This is one of the problems of the current global warming obsession - it is blinding us to the real dangers..

The wealthy minority need a boogey man to make the poor, ignorant masses fear and tremble. Without that, they will see how we are bleeding them dry like dumb cattle and probably revolt and do away with the rich.\

SO we have the AGW boogey man. It has been the best one since the fall of the Soviet Union, when the world was asking hard questions about wealth redistribution... God help us!

But now things are moving on and AGW is becoming thredbare.

But we have another boogey man waiting in the wings.... Guess?

HA HA you schmucks!

Yours sincerely
Rupert.

Curmudgeon, I am very interested about these real dangers that we are becoming blind to. Could you do a piece for us outlining what the real environmental dangers are and how they are vastly more threatening to us than AGW?

I think that would be very interesting.

Kaep - I wonder who the "wealthy minority" really are?

If you check out the links on the authors website you will see that he is closely associated with the right-wing USA corporate think tanks which basically have unlimited funds at this disposal. They are all financed by mega-rich billionaires including the Koch brothers, the Bradleys, the Coors,the Olins, Weyerhauser etc etc etc. And the founders of net-work marketing companies such as Amway, Melaleuca.

In these days of Labor leadership struggles beware what yee plausibly argue - for Rudd may return and he considers his CO2 beliefs a MORAL crusade.

Forget not the fate of that moral guardian Henry VIII's wives.

Plantagenet

Bugsy: You ask about environmental issues other than anthropogenic CO2 caused global warming. The following from Wikipedia is a start.

"This is a list of environmental issues. As such they relate to the anthropogenic effects on the natural environment.

Climate change: — Global warming • Global dimming • Fossil fuels • Sea level rise • Greenhouse gas • Ocean acidification • Shutdown of thermohaline circulation • Environmental impact of the coal industry

Conservation: — Species extinction • Pollinator decline • Coral bleaching • Holocene extinction • Invasive species • Poaching •
Endangered species

Energy — Energy conservation • Renewable energy • Efficient energy use • Renewable energy commercialization • Environmental impact of the coal industry

Environmental degradation — Eutrophication • Habitat destruction • Invasive species

Environmental health — Air quality • Asthma • Environmental impact of the coal industry • Electromagnetic fields • Electromagnetic radiation and health • Indoor air quality • Lead poisoning • Sick Building Syndrome

Genetic engineering — Genetic pollution • Genetically modified food controversies

Intensive farming — Overgrazing • Irrigation • Monoculture • Environmental effects of meat production • Slash and burn • Pesticide drift • Plasticulture

Land degradation — Land pollution • Desertification

Soil — Soil conservation • Soil erosion • Soil contamination • Soil salination

Land use — Urban sprawl • Habitat fragmentation • Habitat destruction

Nanotechnology — Nanotoxicology • Nanopollution"

More coming next post....