Skepticism about Climate Change

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... eat less meat and more plant-based food...

Native American word for "vegetarian" - bad hunter

[LesPalenik]

Bad hunters are a problem, but even a bigger problem are the license fees to kill.
In Canada, 2018 moose licence tag costs almost $500 and deer tag is $240. You can buy a lot of brocolli for that money.

[Alan Klein]

Not only cows, but also swine and other livestock. The Paris accord focuses on CO2 reduction, but methane is about 85 times more powerful when it comes to trapping heat.

One way to reduce the livestock methane is to eat less meat and more plant-based food. It helps your arteries, too.

The problem of switching from steaks to beans means we'll fart more too.  Aren't we already contributing enough to global warming?

The whole thing is just silly.  Climatologists are going off the rail.  It's stupid stuff like blaming cow farts for global warming that just assure deniers to keep on denying.  The so-called science is becoming a huge joke.  When everything men do are seen as the cause, then nothing is the cause. 
https://www.morningticker.com/2017/10/massive-global-warming-discovery-shocks-scientists/

[mediumcool]

That really got to you didn't it Bernard? Sort of like somebody questioning the Pope if you're Catholic.

Yours was an extremely unworthy post. Rather ad hominem in its bitchiness.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Bad hunters are a problem, but even a bigger problem are the license fees to kill.
In Canada, 2018 moose licence tag costs almost $500 and deer tag is $240. You can buy a lot of brocolli for that money.

We certainly need more deer hunters in my urban area just outside of Washington DC.  The deer population is out of hand and one cannot garden any longer without losing lots of ornamentals to the deer.  Lyme disease is also a huge issue as well.  I was bitten by a Lyme carrying tick three years ago but removed it promptly and sent it off to a local lab for analysis.  Was able to get a one time dose of doxycycline which prevented the disease.

Here is a recent visitor to my yard.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Also, what caused the 50 inches of rain that fell on Houston was not that the storm produced more rain than other similar hurricanes.  Rather, it stalled due to high pressure ridges on both of its sides that kept it in the Houston area rather than moving on to drop its precipitation elsewhere.  Of course, climate change proponents blamed the high pressure ridges and stalling on climate change.  Now, isn't that clever of them?

Apparently it did produce more rain (see attachment from the VOX article I already posted), which is due to Climate Change. The trajectory obviously matters and it unfortunately also stalled over Houston (which is Weather, not Climate), but the larger amount of rain also didn't help. And will only get worse if we keep heating up (while we were supposed to be cooling of en route to another IceAge in 10000 - 50000 years).

Cheers,
Bart

[Alan Klein]

I water my flowers and shrubs more than my neighbors.   They seem to grow higher and larger than my neighbors.

More warmth means more evaporation means more precipitation. With that I agree with you. But that means there will be more water for water-starved Californians. That they will be more water hitting other areas that will allow plants and crops to grow where none grew before.

 That's the positive side of it getting a couple of degrees warmer. Sure they are negatives, like an increase in water in storms. But that also means the land will be able to grow more crops and trees to support more humans and animals and insects and other living things.

[LesPalenik]

The problem of switching from steaks to beans means we'll fart more too.  Aren't we already contributing enough to global warming?

Just received a link to an interesting report about healthy livestyle from Dr. David Katz - 1 hour in length, apparently available only today

http://event.awakeningfromalzheimers.com/episode-11at/

[Ray]

I water my flowers and shrubs more than my neighbors.   They seem to grow higher and larger than my neighbors.

More warmth means more evaporation means more precipitation. With that I agree with you. But that means there will be more water for water-starved Californians. That they will be more water hitting other areas that will allow plants and crops to grow where none grew before.

 That's the positive side of it getting a couple of degrees warmer. Sure they are negatives, like an increase in water in storms. But that also means the land will be able to grow more crops and trees to support more humans and animals and insects and other living things.

Very true, Alan, and this is why I don't find the alarmists' arguments at all credible. The alarmists seem so fixated and biased that they are unable to appreciate any benefits at all from global warming, increased rainfall and increased CO2. They seem to be in a state of denial. 

We thrive as a civilization by intelligently exploiting what we are able see as potential benefits, whilst also eliminating or reducing or mitigating whatever we are able to see as potential threats.

Eliminating a perceived threat, at great expense, whilst ignoring all potential benefits within the context of the threat, does not seem at all sensible to me.

[LesPalenik]

This could help in the prevention of future home floodings:

President Donald Trump proposed ending federal flood insurance for new homes in areas most at risk of flooding, a change that could curtail new construction in vast parts of Florida, Louisiana and along the Eastern Seaboard.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-wants-curtail-flood-insurance-195241699.html

[Alan Klein]

This could help in the prevention of future home floodings:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-wants-curtail-flood-insurance-195241699.html

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan

It's a good idea to get rid of government flood insurance.  As long as government picks up the tab for damages, people will keep building in flood zones.  If they stop subsidizing flood insurance, and home owners have to pay high rates out of their own pocket, then either they'll stop building or build more expensively on stilts so there isn't damage from floods. I live in New Jersey and have driven along the shore that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy a few years ago.  While some houses are now on stilts or houses fixed so only the garage is on the first floor, most have just been fixed up as they were.  The next Sandy will wipe them out again. And the American taxpayer will pick up the insurance payout.

The government causes similar problems with school loans.  Because an unlimited amount of money is made available, school and universities keep raising their tuition charges. 

The government's FDIC bank insurance let's banks do risky investments like what caused the 2008 home mortgage fiasco.  In the past, depositors would only give their savings to banks that were conservative with their investments.  Once you know that FDIC insures your deposits, you really don't care about those things and ignore the risks that banks take.  Too big to fail?  Banks are bigger than ever. 

The Federal Reserve keeps printing money to pay for the deficits and debts so government can keep spending more than they get in taxes and officials can keep getting reelected.  Soon the chickens are going to come home to roost.  Frankly the new tax plan from Trump is going to hurt me.  But the middle class always gets it in the neck. 

[Robert Roaldi]

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan

It's a good idea to get rid of government flood insurance.  As long as government picks up the tab for damages, people will keep building in flood zones.  If they stop subsidizing flood insurance, and home owners have to pay high rates out of their own pocket, then either they'll stop building or build more expensively on stilts so there isn't damage from floods. I live in New Jersey and have driven along the shore that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy a few years ago.  While some houses are now on stilts or houses fixed so only the garage is on the first floor, most have just been fixed up as they were.  The next Sandy will wipe them out again. And the American taxpayer will pick up the insurance payout.

That quote from Reagan is cute but I wouldn't put too much credence in a slogan like that. I don't see any shortage of corporations slurping at the public trough. In any case, in the larger picture, it makes sense to share some risks, that's what insurance is after all. If I saw more criticism of military and security spending as I see of spending designed to help people, I'd find the opposition much more credible. 

But the comments about flood insurance are not off target. Wasn't it Carl Hiassen's columns (I've only read collections in books) that made the point that it was the real estate industry in Florida who pushed their "quasi-corrupt" politicians into taking over home insurance in hurricane alleys so that they could continue to build homes after the insurance industry said "no more".

[Alan Klein]

So soil may be a better and more prodigious producer of CO2 that we can possibly control or not.  Seems to me that it just is balancing out any of human's antics.  What do you think Ray? 
There’s a Climate Bomb Under Your Feet
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-06/there-s-a-climate-change-bomb-under-your-feet

[LesPalenik]

Much worse pollution than CO2 is the amount of plastics thrown into the oceans every day.

The eight million tonnes of plastic that enter the sea every year - through our own doing I might add - is now almost ubiquitous”, prince Charles told a global conference on safeguarding the world's oceans.  For all the plastic that we have produced since the 1950s that has ended up in the ocean is still with us in one form or another, so that wherever you swim there are particles of plastic near you and we are very close to reaching the point when whatever wild-caught fish you eat will contain plastic.

Plastic is indeed now on the menu.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/prince-charles-warns-that-plastic-in-now-on-the-menu-due-to-the-amount-ingested-by-fish/ar-AAsZ2Zy?li=AAggNb9&ocid=iehp

[32BT]

Much worse pollution than CO2 is the amount of plastics thrown into the oceans every day.

This and Bayer-Monsanto are infinitely more dangerous to our lifestyle and health (and the health of our planet and ecosystem) than CO2 or temperaturechanges will ever be.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

This and Bayer-Monsanto are infinitely more dangerous to our lifestyle and health (and the health of our planet and ecosystem) than CO2 or temperaturechanges will ever be.

Don't reach for that Bayer aspirin next time you have a headache

[32BT]

Don't reach for that Bayer aspirin next time you have a headache

Why not? The more Bayer aspirins i take, the sooner that humanity will be wiped out. The sooner humanity is wiped out, the sooner i won't need no more aspirin. ;-)

[LesPalenik]

Don't reach for that Bayer aspirin next time you have a headache

Sex is a better and more pleasant headache cure than aspirin.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9906594/Why-sex-is-a-better-headache-cure-rather-than-painkillers.html

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Sex is a better and more pleasant headache cure than aspirin..

The lack of which might the primary cause of headaches in the first place

[LesPalenik]

The lack of which might the primary cause of headaches in the first place

Not necessarily! Sometimes, the sex is not worth all the headaches that come with it.