Why is it that we seem so slow to act about global warming?

Question

looking for a better answer than that first one.

Answer 1

because people are stupid

Answer 2

Are you talking about the US in particular? Well have you ever noticed that how our policy makers are ALWAYS late to the game with every new problem that arises!!! I'm talking about both Dems. and Republicans. For example:

This whole sub prime mortgage crisis began to boil over this summer, and a few of the Presidential hopefuls, including Hilliary Clinton, proposed a $50 Billion bailout fund for homeowners and banks. Thanks, but where were you 2 or 3 years ago when these risky mortgages were getting sold to anyone with a pulse??

Or how about 911, before that there was never really any major security in our airports. It took a bunch of hijackers and a tragedy like 911 to force us to change.

Or how about that bridge that collapsed in Minn.? Now that lawmakers see the effects of neglecting spending on infrastructure, they're starting to put money in the budgets to fix these problems.

My point is I guess we haven't had a tragedy large enough yet to cause us to do very much about global warming. Please note that Hurricane Katrina must not have been a big enough problem. I mean after all, it was mostly poorer people who were affected by that storm! Now if Katrina would have swung up the east coast and hit the Hamptons instead, you better believe that we'd never have another new coal plant built here again and you'd seen tons of solar panels and wind mills all around!

Answer 3

There is no man-made global warming and thus no need to act to do anything.

The cliimate changes, always has & always will. Just in the 20th Century the climate went multiple periods of warming and cooling. Many of the same people preaching global warming today were preaching global cooling and the next ice age just 30 years ago.

The entire push about global warming is to control you, control your actions and control your money through higher prices and taxation.

The best thing you can do to help the environment, yourself and the economy is to be as productive as possible. Through the expansion of our economy & technology our environment continues to get cleaner and humans live longer, healthier and better lives.

Don't fall into the trap the global warming pushers are trying to set.

It won't be that much longer and you will hear less & less about global warming and then these same pushers will try to find another catastrophy to scare you with so they can continue their quest to control you.

Answer 4

Too many people are waiting for the governments to do something rather than doing something themselves. Some companies don't want to until governments force them to because it will affect their bottom line and the shareholder must be kept happy. Other companies simply wish to fund confusion and denial. People want cheap crap because they have become too reliant on the convenient lazy way of life and they don't want to change. You know, once upon a time there was no such thing as the Clapper, to feed yourself you had to do more than open a box, TVs didn't have remote controls and you had to get out of your car to open the garage door. Governments don't want to do anything unpopular like a carbon tax because it threatens their chances at re-election.
The reasons are endless.

Answer 5

Because the issue has become all mixed up with simply taking good care of our planet.

One person suggested we make out own soap. Another moron wants us to go back to horse and buggies. It is that type of suggestion that tells people to ignore most of what they hear.

The main argument against it is the fact that their global warming god, Gore, uses more electricity in a month than most people use in a year. He uses more fuel in one flight with his jet than I use in a year with my car.

That is part of the reason people are honestly skeptical about this whole thing.

Answer 6

Many people are content with the way things are. They can choose to search for truth and understanding, or they can choose to be followers of what ever belief system they want.

Those of us with concern for the future have taken action and changed or are in the process of changing how we do things, based on what we feel is best for the future. We can only lead by example... and show there are other ways to live that have less impact on the planet and leave a better world behind for others.

Many Americans right now spend most of their time just trying to survive anyway they can today, and never think about the results of their actions upon tomorrow.

We have not had to live with very many mistakes made in the past, that effect our lives today.

You can gain much insight into the minds of others in a place like this, you begin to see their level of consciousness and awareness, even as they hide behind anonymity and rhetoric.

We have had such poor leadership for so long now, many people are lost and confused. And many are so far gone, any effort to teach them or help them is a waste of time.

This place we call Earth is a living thing. It can take care of it's self, and it will only take care of those living things that learn to live within the natural systems provided. Man now lives beyond his means in so many ways... and a day of reckoning will come, it always does.

I predict not much will be done on the scale needed to prevent some of the worst case senerios, then the question will be who survives and how.

Answer 7

It's all about protection of short term profits, at great expense to all of us.

Here's what the Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James Hansen, has to say about the so-called "skepticism" that departs so far from the underlying science:

The deceit behind the attempts to discredit evidence of climate change reveals matters of importance. This deceit has a clear purpose: to confuse the public about the status of knowledge of global climate change, thus delaying effective action to mitigate climate change. The danger is that delay will cause tipping points to be passed, such that large climate impacts become inevitable, including the loss of all Arctic sea ice, destabilization of the West Antarctic ice sheet with disastrous sea level rise later this century, and extermination of a large fraction of animal and plant species (see “Dangerous”, “Trace Gases”, and “Gorilla” papers).

Make no doubt, however, if tipping points are passed, if we, in effect, destroy Creation, passing on to our children, grandchildren, and the unborn a situation out of their control, the contrarians who work to deny and confuse will not be the principal culprits. The contrarians will be remembered as court jesters. There is no point to joust with court jesters. They will always be present. They will continue to entertain even if the Titanic begins to take on water. Their role and consequence is only as a diversion from what is important.

The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children. The court jesters are their jesters, occasionally paid for services, and more substantively supported by the captains’ disinformation campaigns.

I am puzzled by views expressed by some conservatives, views usually expressed in vehement unpleasant ways in e-mails that I have been bombarded by in the past several days. It is a bit disconcerting as I come from a moderately conservative state, and I consider myself a moderate conservative in most ways. It is puzzling, because it seems to me that conservatives should be the first ones standing up for preserving Creation, and for the rights of the young and the unborn. That is the basic intergenerational issue in global warming and the headlong use of fossil fuels: the present generation is, in effect, ripping off future generations.

Is it possible that conservatives have been too quick to support the captains of industry? If we allow industry to continue on a path of denial, to focus on their short-term profits, to deny the rights of our children, grandchildren and the unborn, if the planet passes climate tipping points, will we not share in the infamy, the infamy of the captains of industry?

It seems to me that the present situation, with only minimalist actions to mitigate global climate change, reflects, at least in part, the “success” of the disinformation campaign that the captains of industry have at least tolerated, and, in some cases, encouraged and supported. Of course Nature will, eventually, reveal the truth, but there is potentially great harm in the disinformation, because it increases the likelihood that we will pass climate tipping points.

Answer 8

Since global warming is clearly a cyclical event (every 1500 years), we have little, if any, effect on it. To think that human behavior has had anything to do with it or can stop or reverse it, is arrogant.

Period.

.

Answer 9

Because to do something about it requires the collective will of people from around the world and there are many conflicting economic issues.
The vast majority of countries have ratified the Kyoto protocol and most are trying to do something about it.
The three major countries which have not are the US, India and China.
India and China feel that to impose any kind of controls will stop them achieving the economic benefits that the developed countries have achieved. I think the major US objection is that to implement controls would reduce US competitiveness in a situation when it already has a huge trade deficit.

Answer 10

Most people still do NOT beleive it;
Of those who do believe it, most still do NOT think it is man-caused;
It is like the garbage blowing all over America; most people think it is someone else's problem;
People do NOT want to do without...They don't care if their is global warming, they want to take a hot shower for an hour, they want to heat their house/business/shopping mall to summer like temperatures and when summer comes around, they want to cool those places to wintertime temperatures; they don't want to walk a block, even though their doctor tells them they need exercise; they like to drive those golf carts, ATVs, snow mobiles and all those other motorized vehicles; they like to drive those big, gas-guzzling pickups;
So, to sum it up, people are wasteful, lazy AND dumb.
I am a senior citizen; I walk a half mile to get the mail; my house is about 60 degrees in winter, have no air-conditioning, drive a Saturn with 34 mpg.

Answer 11

The main reason is because we're so dependent on fossil fuels to provide us with cheap and convenient energy.

If global warming were due to cotton candy emissions, we'd have no problem. We'd just stop making cotton candy and few people would have a problem with that.

On the other hand, our entire society is built around fossil fuels. 52% of the US power grid is fueled by burning coal. Almost all of our transportation is fueled by burning gasoline. Not only does burning fossil fuels make our high tech lifestyles easy and cheap, but oil companies are also making a ton of money. Some of them (primarily ExxonMobile) have funded a misinformation campaign to create doubt that fossil fuels are causing global warming, and people want to believe it so they can keep driving their gas guzzling SUVs and watching their 50" plasma screen TVs guilt free.

On top of that, our current president is an oil man. He has a vested interest in keeping us dependent on oil. He doesn't even try to hide it - Bush has specifically stated that he doesn't want to commit to concrete greenhouse gas emissions reductions because it will hurt our domestic oil companies.

We were relatively quick to phase-out clorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the 80s and 90s because they were creating a hole in the ozone layer and we weren't terribly reliant on them. Fossil fuels are a much tougher nut to crack because we're extremely heavily reliant on them. Fortunately we're developing alternative energy sources rapidly. The only question is whether we're willing to make the effort to phase out our fossil fuel use quickly enough.