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Originally Posted by BankItDrew
How does one prove to you, or myself, that the climate warming changes are man-made? Or do you subscribe to the idea that the earth is going through another change, just like last time, before humans. This is really at the heart of your argument. Where is the breakeven point for you?
I don't really think it matters where the break even point is.
I went hiking recently and saw a 25 foot deep basin carved into rock. 25 feet deep, and just as wide. Think about how much ice had to melt and run off to create a hole that big, in solid rock. All that ice melted 14,000 years ago before man ever even thought of fossil fuels.
So it seems plausible to me that changes in the earth's temperature could simply be a naturally occurring phenomenon.
Proving whether the changes are man-made or natural, or determining my own personal 'break even point' seems moot. My only point here is that if it can't be definitively proven one way or another, then it's not really something a government should be embracing as policy.
Assume that the climate changes ARE man-made. What are you going to do about it? As I said earlier, even if all the best case scenarios come true from the Obama era environmental regulations, then US carbon emissions will only drop by about 1%. The planet will not notice!! You can double a car's fuel efficiency, but if the number of drivers triples....that's a net loss for the planet
Pandora's box is open when it comes to fossil fuels. Trying to close it would be a pointless and wasteful exercise of government. You'll never slow down industry, commuting, and consumption enough to reverse climate change. And you'll certainly never do so acting unilaterally as a single government.
Assuming for a minute that it's provable and true that the Earth would be perfectly fine in perpetuity but for the interference man, then the only measures that mankind could realistically take, at this point, that would have an impact are profoundly drastic measures. I mean, we need to kick about 4 billion people off of this planet to make the system work again.
My argument isn't really about whether or not climate change is real or not. It's not really about whether or not it's caused by man. It's about whether or not addressing it is a practical application of government.
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