That guy is a kook. I'm sure we have an impact on the environment and we need to do something about it but to think that an earth that has withstood hundreds of millions of years worth of volcanic eruptions, ice ages, meteor impacts, etc., etc., is going to completely collapse over something that has only occurred in the last 150 or so years (since the industrial revolution) is a tad bit overboard.

Keep in mind this is the same guy who in the 80s basically said New York would be under water by now. He's always calling for disaster 10-20 years down the road and then pushing the timeframe out when nothing he predicts happens.

None of the scientists that believe global warming is a real threat indicate that the world itself is in any danger of collapse....just most living things. Ask the dinosauers.

The planet will hang around as it has through all the upheavals and the cockroaches will take over for a few millenium. If the global warnings are correct there is a point of no return we will eventually reach. We can and probably will just roll the dice, we just hate bad news.

its not a matter of whether the earth will survive... its a matter of wheter or not we will... We cannot continue to dump billions of tons of Co2 into the atmosphere and expect there not to be a reacion.... this is the same attitude that stated we could just dump our waste into the ocean and there wouldn't be an effect because its just so big we cant make a dent in it... its assanine and short-sighted...

Perhaps, just perhaps, we aren't the ONLY cause of climate change, but I can tell you for a fact that we are causing a lot more damage than you care to admit. Calling someone who tries to present you with evedence a "kook" is a lot easier than admiting there is a problem you are afraid of, or a solution you are too set in your ways to implement...

No, I understand that. I know the earth won't go anywhere. I'm talking about the ecosystem collapse part of their argument. I find it hard to believe that "most living things" are going to be gone because of global warming. I think it is more like "some living things"... know what I mean?

And we (meaning life on earth) will adapt just like we always have.

And he's still a kook.

Do something for me... go to science.com or space.com and look at venus... just any info they have on venus... it is a prime example of what happens when the greenhouse effect runs rampant... read the facts on that planet and then tell me how we are gonna adapt to surface temps above 300degrees and sulfuric acid for rain... granted... this is an extreme example, but if we dont put this in check... its exactly what will happen... as for life "adapting" ... the climate shift is becoming more and more rapid... there would be no way that we could adapt to it that fast... also, how do we adapt to the colapse of the food chain? first the Oceans die, then the plants, then the animals that eat the plants, then the animals that eat the animals that eat the plants ... then us...

You just dove off the deep end... Sorry.

He may be a kook but he's got a lot of company with high scientific credentials. Fact is that no one seems to know for sure and arbirtrary dismissal of either study seems pretty foolhardy.

Shep has said it very well.

The thing that surprises me is that we are so prone to be paranoid about things like terrorism, homosexuality, sex education, needing to own a gun, nuclear power, etc. etc. etc. This potentially huge problem can be brushed off as if it were a non-issue by many of us who have no scientific knowledge at all.

We are a strange species indeed.

I said it in my first comment that I know we have an impact and something needs to be done about it.

It's the hyperbole I have a problem with. And Hansen has a lot of that. A lot.

I understand what you mean.

But there seems to be a tendency to dismiss an idea because we don't like/respect the person who presented it.

There's a very old expression that seems apt here, something about "throwing out the baby with the bathwater."

Good point.

See Venus hommie... read the whole post and dont just pick out the details...