I know it is often at your peril that one wades into the waters of a topic like this but I thought it might be interesting to see what we thought on various topics

Personally I adopt (perhaps not surprisingly) a fairly moderate position on the topic. Unlike some on the right (e.g, Limbaugh et al) I do believe global warming is real. There clearly has been an increase in overall surface temperatures over the last 50 years and I think it is also clear that these increases will have an impact on the environment.

However I do think some of the objections from the non GW crowd are reasonable. For example it is reasonable to question how much the temperatures have increased. It is only in this century that weather-gathering has become a true science and thus to compare temperatures from today to ones from 1850 is of debatable value.

Further, I also think it is reasonable to say that a significant portion of the increase is the result of a normal cycle. Indeed reading suggest than the 1750-1900 period was actually unusually cool compared to normal reading so some of that increase may simply be restoring the norm.

Finally I think it is fair to debate what good it does the US and Europe to make major changes in our daily lives when India and China are pouring out huge amounts of pollution with no sign of slowing down.

Now none of this does not mean that we should not do everything we can to have clean water and clean air. Even if there was no GW at all, this would be a good idea. But we also need to balance those changes with the impact they have on our daily lifestyle. Unless we all want to give up our computers and move into stone caves, we need to offer a balance

So what do you think gang ?

How real is the problem? How much is due to humans and how much due to nature? How much of it is truly bad and how much normal cycles? And how far should we go to correct things?

Have at it. If we get a good discussion going, we can make this a regular thing