Let me start by saying that anybody who seriously denies that a human-induced change of global climate is occurring is a buffoon. If your allegiance to hard capitalism is that strong, then fuck you asshole. I often hear the retort; 'Climate has always changed, look back through history.' And so it has, often radically, with stark consequences for the composition of ecosystems. But it's really a matter of rate - it's never happened this fast before. There's lots of evidence and we needn't belabor the point here.
But I have beefs with the town criers who have taken this to be the major issue of our time.
One, we really are nowhere near being able to blame nearly all the extreme weather events we witness on human-induced climate change. It seems to be a kneejerk reaction on the part of many 'green' journalists and other types to discuss every drought, flood, hurricane. typhoon, or tornado as if it was caused by human-induced climate change. We can't do that. Those things have always happened and we cannot quantify what proportion of the current events is a consequence of HICC. This behavior gets irritating because it is so uncritical and emotional. Likewise, it is weak to cite the observations of old-timers who 'have never seen such things before'. Extreme weather events and cycles often occur at frequencies that are longer than human life spans. We may or may not be seeing things that are influenced by HICC.
Two, the issue is often sung to the mantra of 'saving the planet', or 'saving the earth'. This is nonsense. The planet is under no threat from climate change, human-induced or otherwise. Many segments of human society certainly are. Things could get ugly for many people. Many, many species are under threat. I guess we could say the face of the planet as we know it is under threat (not in and of itself a bad thing), but the planet itself is not. This is really just a matter of semantics and maybe I shouldn't harp on it...but it bugs me.
As it has been for the past century at least, over-population is the central issue of our time, from which all other problems flow, make no mistake.
Damn, I had to use that bloody HTML format!
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That's what I used to say till all these assholes who are trying to scam me popped up. Die motherfuckers, die.