- Capitalism and Alternatives -

We seem to have very little control over our climate.

Posted by: Ludwig von Mises ( USA ) on August 18, 1999 at 15:59:15:

In Reply to: One comment. posted by Gideon Hallett on August 10, 1999 at 15:16:16:

(big snip)

: There are opponents to the Greenhouse theory. Of course there are; well and good; it's part of the scientific debate. However, their ideas are being used by right-wing free-marketeers as an excuse not to clean up after themselves; the oil companies are funding people who say that the oil industry isn't causing climate change; and funding their airtime. The best phrase to describe the greenhouse sceptics is "a small but vocal minority". And yes, they can be as wrong as the next person.

Ok, so the chart would indicate that the more industrialized we get, the higher the tempurature gets, and the theory is that if we stop putting out pollutants, the tempurature will stop rising and possibly cool down. However, there have been several points in time where the temp has been at extremes. Take Pangea(the giant land mass, I don't know the spelling). That was a very warm climate. Then, after whatever happened(asteriod, etc), the earth began to cool down and form separate continents. Eventually, were entered the Ice Age. The earth warmed up again, and then cooled down into another Ice Age. After that, the earth warmed up, with only slight variations to where we are now. What we are in now could be another slight variation, or we could hit an extreme and then begin to cool down. The point is, we seem to have very little control over our climate. Outside of the last 300 years, no human or other creature had any signifigant pollution, yet they went to extremes greater than anything anyone alive has ever seen. The dinosaurs and other pre-historic creatures had no way of polluting, yet all of Pangea was a tropical climate. Pre-historic man had no way of stopping or starting pollution, yet the earth still went into and out of several Ice Ages. Man in history has expirienced climate changes which he had no part in, just as we are expiriencing now. And as easily as you can say that the opposition to the pollution-induced global warming theory are just right-wingers trying to bail out corporations, I can say that the creators and disciples of that theory are just left-wing authoritarians trying to find a way to take out corporations.




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