RealClimate isn’t the only climate science blog online. You may or may not have heard of these:

Climate Audit (Steve McIntyre)

Climate Science (Roger Pielke, Sr.)

World Climate Report (Patrick Micheals of Cato, and others)

EnvironmentNC

ICECAP

CO2 Science

Any way we have a better chance to get hit by a big rock than being destroyed by Green House Gases. Why do you think the Lord put a hole in the top so they could escape…I get tired of Hollywood and politicans running my life..thank you gary

Glad to see I’m not alone. BTW, to Alexey, on whether scientists were predicting an ice age back in the 70s, I’ve updated my original post to include an article written in 2001 by a member of the British Antactic Survey that addresses that specifically, and she says differently (I have to go on what I read, I was born in the 70s and don’t remember anything much except Abba).

Human beings are incredible and awesome, but we are a product of our ecosystem. We will eventually go the way of Erectus and our other extinct ancestors, but something else will come along. That’s the beauty of the Earth’s ecosystem and why it’s far more important than humanity. And our technology will influence our evolution, probably even direct it going forward. I also agree that we need to get off of the Earth and find ways to populate other moons and planets with life — not just human life.

Is global warming real, is it caused by human activity? For a long time I was very skeptical, the evidence was not strong enough for me. But these days the facts are clear enough (for me). What’s the big deal? Really, I see the biggest impact to be the melting of the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica. In the very short term, flooded coastal cities will create a lot of suffering and economic upheaval. But humans will get over it, and the Earth’s ecosystem will hardly even notice.

The answer, whatever it is, should most definitely NOT involve the production of plutonium.

I think that the problem is not that we don’t trust or believe the scientists, but that it’s so much more often the politicians and the journalists who report on what the scientists are saying. I’m astounded at the idiocy that you find in the most basic science and health journalism. I mean, if they can’t even come up with a consistent take on the Atkins Diet, what hope do we have that they can understand and interpret global climate?

(Oh, and thanks for the Infoquake review, too.)

That said, I think that sorting out our rampant over-consumption of resources is still a worthy pursuit, if only for the fact that we’ll have to learn how to be damn frugal once we get off planet, and we might as well learn the basics while we have somewhere reasonably conducive to our existence to practice on.

Interesting and provocative post, though.

but what struck me the most is something i’ve often said but have yet until now to hear anyone else say: that i don’t care about the earth, i care about me on it.

i wouldn’t say i want to live in domes - this habitat we already have is fantastic and should be preserved as much as possible. but to put the earth itself on a pedestal above human beings? sorry, no. this is a vessel. maybe eventually we’ll completely use it up and move on to another one. if that’s the case i (though probably not still existing at that point), won’t shed a tear for it.

Why is it that there are so many generally reasonable, intelligent people out there, who normally respect scientists and specialists, that completely discount what professional climatologists are finding?

I just don’t get it. It’s like many of the global warming agnostics and disbelievers will trust any scientist but a climatologist - do you think they use voodoo dolls or something? That they warn about catastrophic climate change because they think it’s funny to watch people worry?

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/index/

Just read it. Check out any theme you want. Then if you still think its bad science or that climatologists are the stupidest of all scientists, OK. But just know that’s ridiculous.