... seeing the steady rise in NZ atmospheric temperatures over the last 40\50 years, has left me in no doubt as to the nature of the problem.
Global warming
is occurring. There can be no doubt about that. It is the normal consequence of the ending of the last Ice Age. The controversy arises when attempts are (1) made to identify the cause and (2) if necessary, promulgate an effective and universally acceptable corrective action.
Sometime in the 1960s I saw a graph of carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere over Mauna Loa Observatory, HI. Back then, only part of the data on
the graph below had been collected, but it was enough to show a disturbing trend: the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was
monotonically increasing. Recent observations indicate the rate of increase is increasing. The questions then (as now) are (1) why? And (2) what effect does this have on the Earth's climate, specifically its heat energy budget with Sol?
The "politically correct" answers are (1) anthropogenic creation of excess carbon dioxide and (2) anthropogenic-created global warming as a result of all that CO2 we humans pumped into the atmosphere.
Conclusions: we are all going to die as a result of actions taken by our own hands! Welcome to Hotel Earth. You can check out, but you can never leave. Maybe the cockroaches will survive us.
Or the world can implement any of a dozen or more corrective "solutions" such as: Kill all the cows, whose intestines produce over fifty percent of the greenhouse gas methane. Plant lots of trees and restore the rain forests to absorb CO2 and release more O2 into the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Strictly limit the population of the Earth. Ban all use of fossil fuel. Use giant pumps, driven my nuclear reactors, to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and decompose it into elemental carbon and oxygen. And so on. Of course it will take a strong-arm dictator of the world to accomplish any of this, and it may still be too late for corrective action.
All the above presupposes that CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is the
cause of global atmospheric temperature, rather than simply the
effect of global atmospheric temperature. There is a convincing body of experimental evidence that indicates atmospheric CO2 concentration is an effect, not a cause... of anything. Perhaps everyone here should
view this excellent documentary that takes the position that it's all a Great Global Warming Swindle, not science at all, but politics.
So, maybe it's best we just call it quits and enjoy what's left of the 21st Century. The human race has had a pretty good run, but all things eventually dissolve in the oblivion of time. Whether we humans are the cause of global warming or not, the Earth will keep on spinning and moving around the Sun, sometimes hotter than usual (after an Ice Age ends), sometimes colder than usual (during an Ice Age). But barring a
gamma ray burst completely sterilizing the planet, life of some form or other will probably continue.
