Instead of trying to fix global warming, we should put all of our efforts into the prospect of interstellar colonization. I'm kinda getting sick of Earth.

Still, it's completely consistent with the GOP talking points on the topic.

The problem with this country is this insistence on having "balanced" opinions.

The reality is that you learn more from a panel opinion, where you have the main consensus viewpoint describe by a representative group, and the minority opinions given by the minority.

For example, a discussion of global warming, would be best done by a nine-member panel, with seven people representing the view that we are either at, just past, or about to hit the tipping point, one person who believes it might trigger a setback effect that would literally induce a worldwide cooling ice age period, and one person who would be the global warming denier.

But, alas, the media has this thing about "balance". Reality, like science, isn't balanced. Gravity doesn't care if you don't believe in it, nor do massive global temperature changes that will literally melt half of the world's ice and change our atmosphere. All they care about is how much we push the global oscillator over the edge.

Hey, global warming is great. See, I have this circulatory problem, and so my feet get cold and numb if the temperature is less than about 80, so global warming is quite all right with me!

Let's see here, global warming has the potential to:

• lead to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people through famine and war,
• displace hundreds of millions of people through land becoming uninhabitable,
• and drive thousands of species to extinction.

Yup, when you really think about it, it's just hilarious. Keep the jokes coming, jackasses.

Let's remember these are the same people who say the jury is still out on evolution or the age of earth (is it 10,000 year old or millions?)

That Mr. Blunt isn't too sharp, is he?

Mr. Obvious,
This may not seem so obvious, but I don't think the enemy on global warming is religious fundamentalists. They're just too easy a target. The enemy, when you get right down to it, is the status quo.

That includes powerful business interests: the oil companies, the auto companies, suburban developers, road builders, departments of transportation, the businesses like Wal-Mart and Costco whose economic model depends on cheap and easy automobile use, and on and on and on. Most of the American landscape and the American economy is built on automobile dependence, so fighting global warming really means challenging the way America is built and does business.

Keep in mind that Imhofe represents Oklahoma, whose biggest business is oil and natural gas. There are four Fortune 500 companies based in Oklahoma City, and all four are energy companies.

But beyond that, the status quo also includes the regular suburban Americans who are not about to deny global warming but who also are not about to bear any more than a token sacrifice -- let alone give up their automobile-dependent lifestyle -- in the name of fighting global warming. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has made a compelling case that the most effective way to battle not just global warming but also Islamic terrorism and our dependence on foreign oil is an additional $1 gas tax. Another New York Times columnist, John Tierney, goes a step further and proposes a fossil fuel tax -- which would be offset by cuts in other taxes or go into the creation of private Social Security accounts. These guys are hardly liberals. But what's sad, as Friedman has pointed out, is that not one of the 545 members of Congress has stepped forward to champion his proposal or something like it.

Why? I guess because we don't have true leaders today. Every single politician is afraid of (a) the business interests and (b) the voters. Instead, we get Maria Cantwell pandering with her fake fight against the oil companies' supposed price gouging.

My point wasn't that religious fundamentalists are the main problem, but that the same anti-science sentiment that has given creationism a place in our schools also impacts global warming.

So while fundies are the catalyst for the issue, it's the great masses of stupid, apathetic, uneducated but not-especially religious masses that are the problem.

Look at organic food, it's become trendy and now big business is falling all over itself to offer it (granted they've missed the whole point about organics but).

If the stupid masses got excited about global warming we'd see big business offering solutions left and right.

Hey, I like recycling, it helps. But my landlord doesn't allow recycling at my building? What gives? Isn't this now illegal? Can I do anything, like report him? I've emailed Public Utilities, but am still waiting to hear back. Sorta off topic, but not really...

How I wish it were just -one- jackass....

What more evidence does the world need in order to embrace the fact that global warming is happening? Do people think that a sun god will come down from the heavens and decree the official start of the process?
-19 hottest years on record within the past 20 years
-mass extinction of coral reefs
-unprecedented storms
-carbon levels in air about 500 standard deviations above the average for the past 600,000 years

I am a student at Stanford University, and it has recently been leaked that the Hoover Institution is paying disgusting amounts of money to the few scientists around the world who doubt global warming to disseminate their opinions. Despite 95% of scientists in the field being in consensus, business money still suceeds in creating "debate".

I would have thought that the heat wave this summer would have changed people's opinions. Obviously not. How can politicians say there is not enough evidence when out of 928 abstracts of articles on global warming, a total of ZERO disagree with the fact that it is happening.

Either global warming or nuclear proliferation will end life as we know it on earth. And right now, we are failing miserably at both of them. Invading Iraq while Iran and North Korea manufacture Uranium to their hearts' content, and discussing whether there is enough information on the subject while the world boils under us.

Put on your sunglasses people, it's about to get hot.

MMMCQ

M-A, that is definitely illegal. Keep trying to contact SPU. Their Apartment Customer Service # is (206) 684-7665.

the fight to reduce harmful pollutants, clean up our act, and stop global warming begins here, with each of us, and doesn't have to be hindered by the *one* jackass in DC.

in fact, we have our own champion against environmental irresponsibility right here, ready to fight to make WA a leader in alternative energy, sensible growth, and responsible environmental policy. his name is bill sherman, he's running in the 43rd, and he's the only candidate backed by environmental leaders the WCV and Sierra Club.

OK. So, if there's all this consensus on global warming's cause and effects, why can't you provide a link to a neutral source, rather than the UCS?

Yeah, you know those crazy scientists . . . what a group of partisan hacks!

How about the journal Science? (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/306/5702/1686.pdf) I know, another crazy left-wing "reality-based" publication . . .

America should show Congress what they think about the 110th Congress' judgment, then, and vote the right wingers who don't think global warming is a problem out of office in November.

It's obvious that you people don't listen to Rush Limbaugh. If you did, you would know that global warming is caused by underwater volcanic activity, and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with human activity.

Oh, and don't forget - the word shifted on its axis during the big Tsunami, and that is affecting temparatures also.

Oh, and don't forget, Rush likes to get his prescription drugs on the black market, because they don't set distribution quotas there.

Yeah, we should all read more Michael Crichton, too; he's got it all figgered out! Don't you see? Environmental terrorists are actually wreaking widespread destruction aimed at galvanizing the world against global warming, all in an effort to scare up funding for their crazy research!

Global capitalism is a primary factor in global warming. In the old model of industrialized nations, ie core states, with second and third world countries comprising the majority of the global populous, pollution was limited. Now that second and third world countries are becoming industrialized and moving up the economic heirarchy, pollution is becoming more widespread.

It's similar to the population growth model - once a country is able to overcome high infant mortality, they experience exponential growth because they are still largely undeducated (education being the primary factor in reduction equalization of the birth rate).

When the U.S. went through it's population boom and became an industrialized nation the overall size of the populous was still small enough that we didn't exceed the capacity of the country's resources and when we did, we were able to acquire resources from less developed areas. We were also at the front of the pollution curve, which means that we were the primary pollutors rather than contributing to a pre-existing problem. Humans are literally running out of planet as India, China, Brazil, Mexico, etc (already with high birth rates and enormous populations) are hitting industrial highs.