Climate change believers would gain: Cleaner air, less economic dependence from hostile nations, keeping our food supplies available, keeping air-producing rain forests available.

Climate change detractors would gain: Continued economic dependence on hostile nations for oil (leading to more wars), automobile manufactures, and more profits to add to the billions already made by fossil fuel companies.

Who is in the position to gain the most from the two sides? Big Businesses, and the governments they buy.

I just don't see what the climate change advocates have to gain. I see no real reason for a “conspiracy� to convince everyone to change their lifestyles.

Are we going to also pretend that deforestation isn't happening, that smog doesn't exist, or that the ozone layer isn't deteriorating?

Sure, natural events may be contributing to climate change, but man-made pollution must have an affect as well. It may be simply escalating the changes, but it is an indisputable fact that we have changed the world.

If these changes are as rapid as so many reputable scientific associations say, then we need to do something. If we could just slow the climate changes back down to their natural levels, then fine.

If we err, would it not be far better to err on the side of caution?

How much money do you pay to combat the alleged GW? I know I pay zero.

This part just doesn't make any sense to me at all. What is this GW conspiracy that everyone speaks of and who stands to profit from it? By what means? How does it compare to the profit of the oil companies and industry?

What is interesting, is the nature of the comments.
Our intellect is only capable of conceiving thing in 2d. Either, or. This or that.
When multiple factors greater than 2 are interwoven & chaos ensues. It is not yet possible to make predictions & may never be.
But it is fun to speculate.

[...] CALENTAMIENTO GLOBAL NO ES CAUSADO POR LA VARIABILIDAD DEL SOL. 21 de febrero de 2008. El incremento gradual en las temperaturas globales se está haciendo más pronunciado, haciéndole difícil su explicación a los que buscan su causa en la variabilidad del Sol. Según mediciones realizadas por los científicos, el aporte que produce nuestro Sol en el clima es de alrededor de un décimo del 1%. En cambio, los patrones de calentamiento atmosférico se han ido elevando a partir de la década del 60 del siglo pasado, con el incremento de la actividad humana (industria, transporte, generación de potencia). Más información en: http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02/21/solar-variability-most-likely-not-the-cause-of-global-warmin... [...]

Its, intelligent, relevant and very carefully made. I have read many scientific articles in my life, but this one is outstanding.

K.R. Frank

The Hispanics can, and I have a lot of respect for the legal ones in our country. The illegal ones? Not so much.

Keep rootin' for Obama. He'll give you change. In fact, it will be all you have left in your pocket.

I will add that GW or climate change or whatever it's called now is more about a belief system than science. I have a kid in school in grade 4 and they are being indoctrinated in global warming belief system. Kids this age don't have the science education and background to understand what they are being told.

Al Gore tells us the science is settled because he doesn't want people looking for themselves. The Canadian prophet of GW, David Suzuki, is advocating imprisoning politilical leaders who challenge man made global warming.

Such nonsense.

Be honest – the reason you dispute humans being responsible for GW is that you dont want to stop using your car or change your lifestyle.

Your comment about Hispanics tells me all I need to know about your right wing views. I personally hope Obama gets in.

…I've never smoked pot and I don't posses a Gratefull Dead album.

Bah! What rubbish. A lot of these global warming advocates sound like the pot smoking, long haired Grateful Dead "heads" that used to plant trees on some of our crews down south before the Hispanics took over.

I don't trust any weather forecast beyond 48 hours either, and by the way, you still have to get up for work in the morning.

Unfortunately for us – the Earth is all we have. We have nowhere else to go.

The fact is that – within our lifetime – we could see the total disappearance of the polar ice cap. Some of this ice is over a million years old – it's been there long enough for polar bears to evolve to live on it.

The probability that this melt happened by chance within two hundred years of the industrial revolution is too much of a coincidence.

Perhaps this is why we haven't heard from ET – Developed societies simply don't survive long enough to communicate.

Also, i'd like to point out to anyone who thinks it's arrogant/egocentric of us to think we might be influencing nature and climate, let's just start with the fact that at least 1/3 of Earth's arrable land is today used for farming. That's growing livestock and plants. This does not include the living space we occupy, nor the area industry takes. And it's not like there was nothing there in the first place.
If you could look at Earth at night from POV of a sattelite in a geosynchronus orbit, you'd see plenty of Earth's surface covered by artificial light.

GW or not, we humans will survive no matter what, i'm not worried at all. We have technology and that takes us way beyond the survival game.
To my disgust though, everything else on this planet suffers and will suffer even more by the time we're done with it. So in my perspective it's much more arrogant to assume we have no impact and we should just proceed as usual, taking advantage of everything within visual range and beyond.

This story is nothing but a ruse..

And a poor one at that..

One comment said we had the money to "solve this"..

All the money in the world will not solve this, as man is not the cause of any suspected warming…

It is all about the Sun and the orbital parameters of the Earth's orbit.. Just ask the previous Ice Ages that formed and receded in the past…

And another thing..

I don't trust a weather forecast for 48 hours from now.. Why would you trust one 1, 5 , 10 or however many years out in the future these idiots are suggesting.. I can predict that we are warming because there was Glacial Ice in Missouri 16,000 years ago.. So it is warming.. Big deal..

and yet another point..

What is the number one Greenhouse gas???
Water vapor, by a long shot.. Can they model it accurately?? Not a chance..

Too bad teaching actual science went out the window years ago.. This is such a patently false theory that thinking objective people discounted years ago. But the truth and facts do not currently gather grants now does it..

Pity..

Anybody here watched 'An Inconvenient Truth'? It already clearly points out the sun isn't a factor in global warming. Plus, as Laszio said, the Milankovic cycle cycles every 200,000 years. However, according to 'An Inconvenient Truth', the amount of warming we have had in the past 40 years is double the amount shown by ice cores up to 650,000 years old

Here it is, put forcefully, by David Archibald – “Solar Cycle 24: Implications for the United Statesâ€? http://www.warwickhughes.com/agri/Solar_Arch_NY_Mar2_08.pdf

[...] Solar Variability Most Likely Not the Cause of Global Warming February 21st, 2008 | Category: Astronomy, Contributors The gradual increase in global temperatures is getting harder and harder to pin on the Sun and its energy output variability. The Sun has a variation in how much energy it outputs but this variability is only about one tenth of one percent. The pattern of atmospheric heating since the 1960s is showing an increase with the increase in human activity (industry, transportation, power generation) and neither are showing signs of slowing down… (more…) [...]

This does not rule out the fact that it still may influence us.

Even though the variability of the energy of the sun is only by .1 percent, the earth does not receive more than 1 percent of the total output of the sun. So a little as it may be, it is still likely a great factor even if it is not directly seen by our weather patterns.