To argue that climate change is not occuring is IMO akin to arguing that organisms do not adapt to their environment. It is my personal opinion that both the right and the left have reached consenses on the fact that it is occurring. Melting polar ice caps in the arctic, antarctic as well as melting glacial ice throughout the world is a bit difficult to argue with. Increased death rates in Polar bears as well as coral bleaching across the globe and impact on other organisms simply support the fact that it is occuring. IMHO, the question is no longer if climate change is occuring, but to what degree it is occuring, and to what degree we are responsible.
I agree that global warming cannot be considered in and of itself, pollution certainly plays a role as well. However we must keep in mind that we are by far and away not the only country involved to argue how clean industries in our country have become is truly of minimal significance in the face of countries like China and India leaping forward into their own industrial revolutions.
I would argue that some companies have policed themselves and done a good job of it, unfortunately they are in the minority. Government fines and penalties in this country as well as the world as a whole, are not nearly severe enough to detour multimillion dollars industries from polluting. When it is cheaper for a company like this to dump illegally and pay the fine when caught than it is to dispose of waste responsibly, the obvious result is illegal dumping on a grand scale.
Also, one must keep in mind that with issues like this, it is not within our ability as a country to impose our values and desires upon the world. This issue is one like whaling that has no clear boundaries or evidences to back it up, and so long as there are none, other countries as well as cooperations will debate the fact and prevent any significant effects to combat it from coming to fruition. Look at whaling as an example, look at the whaling industry. while most countries have agreed that many whale populations worldwide are in trouble and gotten on board with the agreement to suspend whaling operations there are still countries in which it is perfectly legal. And, as a country it is not within our abilities to impose our desires or our penalties upon these other countries. Many would prefer to believe that everyone agrees that our poor marine friends are in trouble and has accepted our decision that they are endangered and need to be protected. The truth of the matter is in fact far different.
Well said Randy,
It is interesting that you bring up whaling. At one point Denmark was the top whale oil producer in the world. At that time Denmark was quite the world empire. As the whale population decreased they chose to expand their hunting grounds in search of more whales. This increased the cost of procuring the oil that they harvested from the whales. Instead of seeking a new fuel to maintain their empire they continued to expand their search further and further therefore increasing the costs more and more. At this point Great Britain began to mine coal and use it as their new primary energy source. The same thing happened. As they mined and burned all the coal in Britain the had to search further and further to keep supply. Instead of seeking a new energy source they kept chasing coal even at the expense of invading other countries and expanding their empire. Then comes the US with its' plentiful supply of oil. We are doing the same thing. Those empires collapsed because they failed to evolve and it collapsed their economy's and their empires. If we don't decide to be the developers of the next big energy source we will suffer the same fate. The investment in clean energy is an economic imperative as well as an ecological one. Being that we are the largest consumers of fossil fuels we can make a difference regardless of what other countries do.
Originally Posted by Wy Renegade
