joedirt wrote:
Did you notice the pictures were taken from a Jet flying over the Arctic? Did you notice that they are basing their claims on satellites that were launched into orbit above the planet? Have you noticed that a lot of the climate scientists quoted in the research are constantly flying around the country and taking boats to Antarctica or Greenland to do their blessed research? My point being that the very people telling us that the end is near and that we need to turn away from our fossil fuel consuming lifestyles use fossil fuels with impunity in their daily lives. They are a bunch of hypocrites. They tell everyone else that they need to eliminate fossil fuels from their lives / their jobs, etcetera and yet they have no problem living these fossil fuel intensive careers.
Obama did more than any previous president to combat climate change, but in the end, world greenhouse gas emissions under his tenure increased dramatically due to his anti-business policies in this country fueling explosive growth in places like India and China as manufacturers shifted production from this country to Asia. Greenhouse gas emissions in this country have been falling since the Bush administration, so you would be better posting your environmental rant on the Chinese or Indian equivalent of letsrun than on this message board.
Both of your points are idiotic.
The first, the assertion that climate scientists using fossil fuels to do their jobs is hypocritical, is totally moronic. Yes, the jets they fly around to do their research contribute a small amount of CO2 to the atmosphere, but obviously if their work even contributes to a tiny percentage reduction of a nation or the global emissions, it is a huge net positive. Stopping all research that emits a gram of CO2 means no research will be conducted, gee I bet that would make things better. Until we have electric jets and a space elevator, we still have to burn a minuscule fraction of the earth's fossil fuels to perform that kind of research.
Second, the idea that the US should just throw in the towel because other countries are also pumping out significant emissions is also moronic. Despite all the poo pooing of the US in recent years, some of it certainly justified, the US is still undoubtedly the most influential nation on world affairs, and anything it can do to lead the way towards reducing emissions is a good thing. Also the US is still one of the biggest emitters both in total and per capita, so there is plenty of good that can come from just the US continuing to reduce its own emissions, even if other nations don't follow suit.