RE: Most of you probably believe in Climate Change but how many of you actually care?
If you promise not to try to convince me otherwise, I promise not to try to convince you otherwise. I do take umbrage with your “...do you believe in climate change...or do you side with Trump). I do not believe climate change is a “thing”, but I have believed this long before Trump had a “wet dream” about being President. If you are curious about how I came my skepticism, I can expand my thoughts in a reply.
That being said, I believe in the decentralization of power production. We have to get more solar and small wind turbines on people’s homes. This could be achieved with tax incentives. I don’t believe Government (technologically inefficient) should throw money at large Energy Companies (monopolies). More Government is never the solution, and sometimes creates more problems.
As for myself, we use electricity as sparingly as possible. First we moved to the compact flouresecents and now LEDs as the CFLs give out. We also got rid of an older auto that got about 22 mpg to a newer one that gets about 35 mpg.
Thanks for the reply, I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject. I'm not going to lie Trump was thrown in to get a bit of a rise but he is the extreme case of pure ignorance of a changing world. I would say the other extreme of radical change in human behaviour to completely reduce waste and energy use and live on a zero waste commune is not the ideal solution either.
I'd really like to find out what people really care about in this issue and your views on decentralization definitely hold true. My only counterpoint would be that it's always easier to build projects in scale as opposed to fragmented decentralization. How can we achieve the benefits of decentralization without mass adoption from the onset?
I base my skepticism on three things. The first is Science. I don’t know how old you are but I am of an age to remember when the “thing” was global cooling. Because of man made pollutants, we would end in ice and snow. Later, around the eighties, the “thing” became global warming. Only recently has the “thing” come to be called climate change (I assume this is open ended so victory can be claimed either way). The article you linked to mentions sixty some-odd models. I have read that there are so many models because at some point they fail to accurately predict. In other words, they may predict a change in climate seemingly man caused, but then fail in continuing that prediction into the future. I have also read that this has led to “massaged” data sets or “massaged” models. While I do believe something is going on, I think it is a natural cycle unrelated to anything mankind is doing. I am also of an age to remember when you could not walk out the door in several major major cities in the summer because of smog. So even if there was the slightest chance man was contributing, it has been alleviated since the seventies.
From a Poltical standpoint. The climate change movement is a political movement. It is anti-freemarket, anti-heavy industry, anti-progress, and anti-west. I see it as an attempt to cripple the US and the West and move benefits to countries that really have no desire to honor pollution control agreements (ie China and Russia). Heck, it’s Saudi money that mostly goes to anti-fracking operations
Climate change is a faith based system much like religion. If you are a skeptic you are labeled a “denier” ( much like a heretic). Even scientists who expresss a different opinion are pilloried and ridiculed. Obviously if you are right thinking you must believe!
I believe that nuclear power is the cleanest and most efficient solution, but that is not a popular position. I also believe that Government is too politicized to be believed, I don’t trust NASA to make any pronouncements on the subject. My own empirical experience with colder winters and cooler summers actually leads me to believe we are entering a “little ice age”.