Look, humanity is just a tiny little blip on the big, climatological machine we call planet earth, which has a long history of being both warmer and colder than it is now, all without any help from us. Before anyone buys into this trendy, politically correct "We humans are overheating the planet, and we're all gonna die!" nonsense (we'll get into WHY it's been made politically correct and trendy later), a little history lesson is in order.
The last time humanity had a serious climate problem, it was a cooling,
not a warming problem. It was called the "Little Ice Age", and depending on how you wish to interpret the historical data, it began sometime between 1300 and 1450 A.D., and lasted until about 1850. We have been in a warming period overall since, though we had a period of significant cooling between roughly 1937 and 1973. Note that this last occurred during a period of rapid industrialization with an absence of modern pollution mitigation. As a matter of fact, when this whole "environmental movement" started in the late sixties-early seventies, some of the same types screaming about "global warming" now, were telling us the danger was "global cooling"! Yep, you head right; all those emissions were going to "Cause another Ice Age!", or so it was said. Didn't happen, obviously; but the point is, there's always been a group of "Chicken Littles", ready to proclaim that the sky is falling, all to bring attention and support to their political and social agenda. I am continually amazed, at the amount and volume of junk science that can be bought with enough grant money; and even more amazed at how many people are ready and wiling to uncritically accept it; then again, if the planet is doing something we don't like at the moment, we simply MUST be able to control it ( the logical inference from that being that we therefore must have "caused" it). The alternative, after all, is admitting that we, as a species, are not quite so powerful, smart, or technologically competent as we would like to believe we are.
That last is why, when a washed-up, defeated, political hack and congenital liar (yes, I mean Al "I invented the internet, I discovered Love Canal, my daddy taught me to plow steep hillsides behind a mule!" Gore!), says it's so, so many politicians, fawning media types, and people in general rally to the cause without question, right? Well, partly that, and it does make a good story, but there's just a bit more to it.
The real reason (as usual) all comes down to green, and not green as in trees, but green as in money. Kevan already brought up a part of this; notice where the new, environmentally conscious products are coming from (from bags to CFL bulbs, to you-name-it)? China, which also just happens to be, as a nation, the largest single polluter on the planet! Follow the money trail, from corporate fat cats to political lobbying groups to the campaign coffers of politicians of BOTH major parties and you will have the answer as to who wants an agenda that has steadily shifted America's production resources (and a lot of American jobs!) to China. This is all about profits, big corporate profits, which are to be had at all cost, and the environment, the American consumer, and most of all, the American worker be d*mned! The theory is, we can make more money selling out our means of production, and our jobs, to a country that can use sweat shop workers getting paid what Americans would never accept, in conditions Americans would never tolerate, to make the products cheaper, and if telling the sheep that they we are doing this in the name of protecting the environment makes them more willing to be fleeced, so much the better! If we can also use that as an excuse for more taxes, to fund more entitlement spending that helps politicians get re-elected, even better (have to keep those same sheep fat, dumb, and somewhat happy while they are being sheared, you know)! I do trust everyone here understands that any politician, once elected, has one primary, overriding goal-get re-elected! In the end, the rich will get richer, everyone else will be dependent on the politician's largesse, and the Chinese will prosper (and pollute) more than ever, all in the name of profit!
That assumes, of course, that Mother Nature doesn't step in, and ruin it all by handing us another cooling period. Fortunately, that just may be beginning, and I for one, hope it is a real doozy! Bring on the blizzards; I'll be laughing while I'm shivering, just at the thought of that bunch of greedy, lying, egomaniacs trying to explain THAT!
Those of you who doubt this, take a look at the "carbon footprint" of Al "I'm only trying to save the planet!" Gore's mansion in Tennessee; that'll tell you how much he
really believes in that snake oil he's peddling!