Global warming?

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Redux

One thing we do know, with a very high degree of certainty and as near unanimity as can be achieved, is that spewing billions of metric tons of man-made CO2 (from autos and coal-fired power plants) into the environment every year has NO positive impact.

The positive impact is elsewhere in the equation: to allow us to live, in numbers, in comfort, and to move around as necessary to drive the economy and improve the standard of living of the entire world.

I have yet to see an argument for not acting now, other than "lets debate it more" even though we know there is nothing positive that can said about the excessive man-made CO2 emissions.

Here are two of them:

Weakening the economy could prevent the massive projection of power, intelligence, influence and will, that will be necessary to get China, India, and Russia to go along with the plan.

There may not be enough general political will to embrace an environmental project aimed at helping something highly abstract, especially during a recession with a deep budget deficit and other big budget items on the table.