On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:29:34 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Dec 20, 1:02?am, WaIIy wrote:
On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:26:31 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould

wrote:
I'm surprised you aren't seeing many folks in the "the earth isn't
even warming at all" category.

Duh, you see many folks, just not the ones that need government grants.

There's no proof of global warming, it doesn't even make sense.

There you go, JAFM. A good example of "there's no proof that earth is
even warming at all", and right here in the NG. I wouldn't be
surprised to find that almost 1/3 of Americans agree with that
sentiment.

I disagree, to the point where I believe the earth is in a warming
trend. I also believe that warming and cooling trends have long been a
part of the natural cycle. My concern is that we might warm too much
and too quickly; and *if* that's a possibility we should be concerned.
I don't subscribe to the "it's all man's fault" school of thinking,
but neither am I prepared at this point to say that we are unable to
screw up the climate just as we have screwed up much of the rest of
our environment.

Overall I agree with your assessment.

What is happening, though, is that the economic forces related to the
subject is going to hamstring Western economies to the point of deep
recession or even total depression.

The nubris exhibited by those who believe, despite historical and peer
reviewed evidence to the contrary, that mankind is totally responsible
is creating a whole disruption in the economy, stifling research into
alternative because the money that would normally be available by
grants, industrial research and even academic research is being
invested in making more money via commodity trading and whole new
economies trading carbon credits. The money supply needed to produce
new products and science is busy making money in monetary markets.

Which doesn't produce anything but money.

The rush to ethanol is creating a huge disruption in the food supply
chain. This morning I was down at the local farm taking some
picutures and conversed with the owner. He showed me his feed bill
for his milk cows and beef cattle - he's paying twice what he paid
last year and he can't hedge because his suppliers fully expect it to
double again before spring. He's seriously thinking of cutting back
on his herd because even though beef prices are rising, he can't
afford the same size herd because he can't feed them economically.

He can't even lock in seed corn prices for another three months -
right before planting season. Normally, he's locked in by now for
delivery in late March.

We're making a huge mistake with this whole rush to mitigate climate
change that we can't do anything about.