The small ball on the left represents all the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc.
The slightly larger ball on the right represents all the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tons).
The climate change deniers’ main argument is that mankind’s footprint is just too insignificant, compared with the size of the world, to make an impact on the environment large enough to actually change anything. Seen this way, though, the idea isn’t so farfetched.
Credit where credit’s due: JWZ, via Apostropher.
© 2008, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
I hadn’t seen this. Point well taken. There is little doubt that mankind is pumping way too much pollution into the atmosphere. But there’s a glitch. According to NOAA’s National Climate Data Center, global temperature peaked in 1998 and has leveled off. 2007 saw a slight, but statistically significant downturn. This year is shaping up the same, and we may be entering a cooling cycle. But then the earth’s climate has always been cyclic with short term cycles embedded in longer, broader cycles.
What has me worried, if indeed we are entering a cooling period, is that the global warming theorists will be so discredited that the real problem, i.e. CO2 pollution, will be discredited with them. In short, we will throw out the baby with the dishwater. Not good.
Dick, I always thought they made a mistake calling it “global warming,” and maybe even “climate change.” There’s a strong argument for saying we’re just seeing normal climate fluctuations. But there’s no doubt we have damaged the environment – air, land, and water – and that we need to start undoing the damage now, not later. Mobilizing governments to do anything about it is that much harder, now that the argument is so focused on whether climate change is man-made or natural.
I actually heard Sean Hannity on the radio last week saying that there was no serious amount of plastic garbage in the ocean. So the forces of dominion (as in mankind’s dominion over the world & the animals & the fishes, etc) have already anticipated this argument too, and will soon be trying to stop all forms of environmental action.
Why are the stupids in charge?