jdreyer wrote on Mar 28, 2012, 17:46:

Rossafur wrote on Mar 28, 2012, 14:16:
A couple quick thoughts about the human CO2 emissions article:

1. As one commenter pointed out, the argument is akin to saying that since people killed each other before guns were invented, guns couldn't also be used to kill people.

2. The Daily Mail is *not* a super reliable source.

3. "The research was recently published online in the journal Earth And Planetary Science Letters and will appear in print on ****April 1****." [emphasis mine]

Heh, well it's probably not a joke, but, yeah, there's a huge logical fallacy here. Of course global warming can occur on its own, through vulcanism or solar activity or some combination. Does that mean we're NOT causing it artificially by burning billions of tons of hydrocarbon fuel? Of course not. Burning that much fuel and increasing the CO2 PPM could ALSO cause global warming, and the bulk of evidence suggests that it is.

Regardless of all that, we should be reducing our reliance on hydrocarbons. Coal pollution causes more illness and death than any other energy source. Oil is a huge security risk given that most of it comes from countries whose populations hate us. The natural gas boom is created by fracking, which is causing earthquakes and polluting drinking water in locations it's being extracted (although it's by far the cleanest, lowest impact hydrocarbon).