why is climate change suddenly the main topic now?

Question

why now? i was taught about climate change(green house effect...) as a child at school but the problem is only now being addressed. i don't know about you, but i feel it is too little to late. At a time when china is about to prosper, where our and america's have done is abit selfish.
I doubt the minor changes that are happening will have any effect on our climate. If we are to slow this global warming, we need drastic measures, that are unrealistic but will work. small things like switching off appliances- i doubt would help much anyway especially with the amount of cars on the road today, which is always increasing. You want to help? the only way is to either stop petrol or ban cars from the road, which is an impossible idea, so climate change is and will continue- i look forward to more sunny days.

I agree with what you all say. there are 6 billion ppl on earth, how many cars?
think of it this way... a green car amounts to something like sugar free soft drink or electric supercar.
As we speak- we are limiting our carbon emissions through small steps, but in saying that, new cars, new tv's , products, everything are bought each day, each second, even our food. We ahve pineapple in uk, mangoes our import, export, and i with my small solar panel on my roof is going to offest all of this. Even ths solar panel, how much carbon did it take to make that?
No change will help, we live in an unsustainable earth, i can't grow my own crops and be totally sustaionable- no one can- idont know the true facts but if a person needs to be fully sustainable, they need a certain area of land( lecture once told me) and in this day and age, impossible.

Answer 1

At present the U.S.of A. is the greatest polluter closely followed by China,India and Russia.The 2% we in the U.K. could save is only a gesture however it is an opportunity for this tax mad government to grab more of our money. Whilst I support recycling etc whatever we do will be of little effect.

Answer 2

When I was 7 (in December 1969) I considered the problem of y2k (of the year change) and wondered how cool it would be to be alive in that year, it was an idle thought more along the lines of whether my watch would have to be wound a long way back to zero but after becoming a programmer I forgot all about it until a meeting in 1997 where our company said we might have a problem. I think it is no surprise that humans do not react very well to potential threats. We are much better at fight or flight decisions. So thats why the issue of global warming is suddenly getting a lot of concern. I am concerned that my housing investment may be valueless in 40 years if the seas rise more than about 5 feet. I worry that if the land area of the world decreases and climates change drastically then my off-spring may be drafted into the war of all wars as a result of worldwide mass de-hydration and starvation.

I agree if humans are the cause, it is too late to prevent it completely ..... if the world is already warmed somewhat it would take a lot to cool it even if we stopped the cause today.

I would like to see more research along the lines of the human causality issue. I am praying global warming is an Astronomical blip that may soon reverse of its own accord, rather than a human caused one way ticket to the end of the world. But I have a bad feeling about this.

Answer 3

There are several reasons why "Global Warming" has become so popular recently. We could say its as a result of the world waking up to the problems that face our grand children, or we could say that as a result of the changes in our climate we are all aware of the changes facing each one of us.
However the real reason why it has become so high profile in the world media is that some body in the government worked out that they can do just about anything to save the planet and we the dumb public will except it. How in there right mind will question the government about raising the tax of over sea's flights or the fuel escalator or company car tax on higher Co2 emitting cars or super high road tax on four wheel drive cars or allowing power companies to pay a lot less from the electricity sold to them by micro generators than the price paid by the same micro generators for there electricity.
The list goes on and on and on.
Left me ask all of the yahoo community out there, From all the additional taxes we have paid for "Global Warming" or non environmentally life style choices what concrete things have the government done to reduce the effect of global warming???
To me its just a gravy train, strange how the government has been able to take the hit from reduced tax revenue from smokers now and not 20 years ago when they new it was toxic.

Answer 4

As you say it has been a known issue for 20 years, as has bio-diversity, 3rd world debt, peak oil ... all covered by fine words and resolutions at Rio World summit

But people (voters & consumers) will oppose any change of their habits because of dry scientific predictions, (even if there are better, cheaper, healthier, more fun alternatives available) - so nothing changed; a situation the fossil fueld global corporations were happy to support.

In the last 5 years there have been dramatic headline events, thousands dead of heatstroke in France, flash flood in Boscatle, 36inches rain in Mumbai, ross ice-shelf breaking up, huricain Katrena, Australian drought, lake chad disappearing, Stern report .... even George Bush has had to admit that climate change is happening.

(Al Gore traces his involvement back to his professor in the 80s)

The time lag in the climate system is decades, so action now will not avoid the processes currently underway - expect fewer sunny days as more energy in the system means more violent summer storms. And if artic melt turns off the atlantic conveyer then Europe will have a climate like Newfoundland.

Answer 5

There was in the earlier days of the global warming theory much controversy over its existence but i now feel that the general scientific community is beginning to agree on the reality of global warming yet at different levels. As you may have seen on television recently there is still people who doubt its existence because of the claim of "natural cycles of global warming" yet at the moment the earth is meant to be slowly cooling into the next ice age where as it is actually rising. Though you must also consider the economic cost as one of the reasons so little has been done. Arguably going green opens up a whole new market for green products , but it also puts more pressure one existing industries to clean up their act minimizing profits, hence Americas reluctance to join in any international agreements minimizing pollution.

Answer 6

Even though it has been a current topic for many years I think it is because the main stream media caught onto it by way of Al Gore's campaign. You can think what you want of Al gore but the issue and the content that he has brought to everyone attention is 100% correct and current. I am a scientist myself and science don't often get the momentum it needs to carry over a message. It needs some strong political will and celebrities to carry the message to mainstream media. I personally think Al Gore has done a great awareness job by doing what he and many others have done so far. Al Gore even got others like Richard Branson to financially support more effective ways to clean the airline industry. I hope the global warming issue also receives a lot of support from the Gates and Warren Buffet foundations.

Answer 7

Thank you for the rant, now for my answer to your question 'Why is climate change the main topic now?'

Whenever an event occurs the media send their reporters to report, they could recruit staff from local media organisations based, in the case of a new lettuce being discovered, in Greenland, as an example, who could send reports via email, or whatever, to reduce the amount of travel by foreign correspondents and thus cut the world medias carbon footprint but, like with the hit BBC TV show 'Fun Classic Cars In Manchester' or 'Life On Mars' as it is better known, where would be the enjoyment there?

Car manufacturer management must have families of their own, they must look forward to their kids having kids and their kids doing the same, poisoning the air that we all breath for $ or € or 元 or Â¥ or £ or whatever seems to be insanity.

My calls for religious buildings to be converted into houses for horses, roads to be re cobbled, fright to be taken off the roads and put onto rail and car manufacturers to reprogramme their robots to make carts, carriages and horseshoes have so far been ignored, I will continue to argue my case to industry, government and religious organisations.

Answer 8

Global warming has been in topic for almost 5 years now, but every year the concern increases. Hence the reason, they started making Hybrid cars. But yes, to agree with you, it is a little too late to make changes. If we were to, the United States would have to pass laws banning and changing things, such as gas and diesel powered vehicles, and develop new alternatives that are more economy friendly. On top of that, our government would need to put more money into cloning, so we can re-create tree's and quit cutting them down. Recycling would need to become mandatory by all means, throughout every single household. Bonfires, would have to stop, and many factories would need to be shut-down, or an alternative to how they produce their products would need to be created. Though, it would hurt our financial state, more then it is already hurting, it would help OUR United States from adding to the Global Warming, but, every country around the world would need to take part in this to even slow it down, and eventually cease our Ozone layer from deteriorating. We also need to find ways to help repair it, but I'm not a science wiz, so I wouldn't have the slightest clue on how to, lol.

Answer 9

Climate change is natural.....it's been going on for years.

The only opinion I have is to recycle as much as possible and quit littering. Also, conservation should be kept in mind..........people are so wasteful.

The Inconvenient Truth is the third-highest-grossing documentary in the United States to date.
The film's distributor, Paramount Classics, is donating 5% of the box office receipts and Gore is donating all of his proceeds from the film to The Alliance for Climate Protection (of which Gore is both founder and chairman).

If it was such a sucessful documentary, why is Paramont donating ONLY 5% ? And Gore is putting 100% to a company he is chairman............sounds odd to me.

Answer 10

I agree with you. The major damage has been done in the last 30 years, and the USA is the biggest abuser of the environment during the last 100 years.

Artificially accelerated climate change (global warming is a cumulative effect of many different gross exploitations of our environment. At this late date, even addressing all of them as drastically as possible may not be enough, but it must be done.

As for China, I believe they will do well anyway; they are leading the research into alternate energy sources and nanotechnology. Green can be quite lucrative; big rewards await those who adapt first to ecological constraints.