Quote Originally Posted by psychocat
I'm with you till we get to global warming , it isn't that I don't believe in climate change I just don't believe man has such an impact.

The climate has changed many times before man had machinery or even before man existed , ice ages and the like are all part of the natural order.

The planet is in a constant state of change and evolving in it's own way.
This is exactly the kind of thing the dinosaurs used to say!

But on a more serious note, you are right that natural climate change has always occured and will continue to occur. However, there is geologic evidence that past natural changes in the climate coincided with natural changes in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Human beings are responsible for doubling the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere --- that part is proven, and even scientists who do not agree that global warming is occurring agree that it is humans who have increased the CO2 concentration. Most climate scientists think that the increased CO2 will result in a dramatic climate change, and because the CO2 concentration has changed more rapidly than ever seen in the geologic record, many think the climate change will occur suddenly and chaoticly. Fossil evidence shows that climate changes also coincide with increased rates of extinctions. So if sudden and dramatic climate change does occur, we should expect a lot of species to not be able to survive.

It's hard to believe that human beings are so significant to be able to permanently change all the weather on the entire planet, but if you accept the well-proven fact that we have already changed the atmospheric composition, you should be able to extrapolate that to the possibility that the climate will change as a result. Very few reputable scientists doubt it.

I think that human beings will probably survive climate change, but it is not guaranteed. We may end up as bones in the ground, and the next intelligent beings to inhabit this planet may someday ask, "Do you believe in humans?"