I think I understand the real, and the political issues better than most. What are the ramifications for continuing to push the status quo, and who benefits? If you answer the question of who benefits, and you follow the money, you will know who also buys the politicians and the "oppo-research.

The climate of the earth has been changing since the very beginnings of the earth. It was obviously different during the times of the dinosaurs and during ice ages. Climate change did not start with humankind's evolution into fossil fuel burning industrial societies.

What can human beings do about climate change which is actually driven by volcanic eruptions and other natural events, sun spot and other solar activity and changes, our moon's orbit's ever increasing radius, earth's own orbital variations, axial precession and other natural occurrences?

IMHO pollution in general, especially by countries such as China, India and Russia, all the plastic thrown into the sea, overpopulation and such need to be addressed but as to whether or not our activities initiate climate change to even a measurable degree is not remotely understood much lessen proven.

What is clear is that proponents of humankind being responsible for and having the ability to reduce climate change are in one way or another profiting by selling the concept to the public. Both avarice and power over others are their driving forces.

To actually believe humankind can control the earth's climate is simultaneously both incredibly naive and ludicrously arrogant.

Your analogy is not a good one. When we don’t know the extent of the problem, or even if there is a problem, it is impossible to know what to do.

It is true we don't know the extent of the problem. It seems like every credible report that comes out shows it to be worse than earlier thought. This reminds me of the cigarette companies arguing many years ago that smoking and cancer were not linked. They also bought a few politicians and "scientists" to support their argument but didn't have the money that the petroleum and coal industry and companies like Koch Industries to buy enough to really influence many people or buy enough politicians.

The solar panel industry, Tesla, wind farm companies and the like have plenty of politicians in their pockets.

With or without climate change (is this good or bad since the earth originated?) you should not build a home in a flood plane and expect that it will not be damaged by a flood. So to start lets use local zoning to help reduce the problems we currently have.

This is another poor analogy. If you don't believe there are funded investigators who toe "the anthropogenic global warming" line then you are naive. There have been various dire prognostications that were put forth that haven't panned out. Without domain expertise, it is impossible to judge the actual credibility of various reports. It is like me trying to judge the credibility of a clinical trial for a new drug. I simply don't have the expertise to understand the issues of a drug trial.

Ed, neither of these articles is a compelling reason to spend money on "climate change". We can believe that climate is changing and that indeed it is because of greenhouse gases, but how do you get the world to change and stop industrialization? Especially since industrialization can bring the end to hunger and poverty?

It is way too general to blame the monied big businesses for the ills of the world. Anyone who WASTES money is in a real sense wasting resources.

Both sides have got to stop chewing and swallowing doctrines whole.

Well, these guys are doing their part.

New Zealand scientists are breeding sheep to fart and burp less - ABC Rural - ABC News

If we do not work toward the middle, we are doomed.

If we do not stop dehumanizing those who are not like us, we are doomed.

If we do not stop the unrestrained greed, we are doomed. (No. I am not what some of you want to call me. I just happen to think that unrestrained greed is bad economics. We have seen it before and we might be headed there again.)

If we do not stop falling for the old "Divide and Conquer" routine, we are doomed.

If we who have everything we need stop seeing the pain of others, we are doomed.

If we do not learn to see through manipulation, we are doomed.

If we never question anything, we are doomed.

If we do not stop excusing the inexcusable, we are doomed.

If we continue to abdicate our ability to think for ourselves and continue to let the screens in our homes tell us what to think, feel, and do, we are doomed.

If we do not notice that there is so much anger and it is being fanned constantly, we are doomed.

If we cannot see hypocrisy, we are doomed.

If we do not stop and look in the mirror and ask ourselves who we really are, we are doomed.

etc.

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Uh-oh. I think I just managed to close this thread.

Hopefully, salvation rests in the ability to recognize unbridled hyperbole.

Aw, c'mon, Rap, I would happily match you any day. Say high noon. LSL. (Of course, I am up north right now.)

Being a moderate and all that entails, I must see you as an individual and acknowledge that even though you can sometimes behave in a cantankerous manner and aim your slings and arrows at me, I really do admire your wicked wit.

I am headed North tomorrow but I never rise before noon, so I must decline. By definition, we are from different generations. Some genius has declared that I was born ten months too early to be a boomer, so I was forced to become one of the youngest curmudgeons.