I am a liberal, but I am not a climate scientist. I am probably better informed on this topic than 95% of my countrymen. The evidence presented to me and through personal observation of more than 50 years on this planet leads me to believe that there is there is no doubt that the climate has changed and the the earth's surface is warming. I can roughly interpret the data that is put forward, but as it is said there are damn lies and then there are statistics. Having said all of that I side with the climate scientists and the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) whose over 2000 scientists came to an agreement looking at the best data they could find that there is high probability (90% chance) that the cause of this warming is from greenhouse gases. If I could get a 90% probabilty of winning the lottery everyday, then I would become the richest man on the planet. That being said,  I hold open the possibilty that there may be another cause of climate change. It may be that greenhouse gases in concert with increased sun spot activity is causing climate change. At this point I don't care, because we are experiencing massive and possibly catastrophic changes to the enviorment and only fools would ignore the problem.
What harm would there be if the world began to switch to renewable energy sources? The oil companies and oil producing countries would be harmed, though somehow I know that that oil companies would land on their collective feet, but maybe their profits would be reduced. So I have to keep an open mind to the possibility that many skeptical scientists may be shills for these entities whose profits may be reduced in all of this.
What do we have to gain? I see countries gaining stability and greater independence through the ability to produce energy supplies on their own. I see the the US less involved in the middle east, with less cause to commit men and women to war there. I see this as a way to reduce the power of despotic oil producing countries. I see it as a way to create new jobs in this country and create new technologies, because sooner or later fossil fuels will be come exhausted. I imgaine a world where limitless supplies of energy from the sun can continuosly clean and filter water to supply unlimited clean water to the people of this planet.
I have not heard any convincing argument from global warming skeptics about why we should wait to transition to renewable energy sources and you haven't convinced me either.
Good post though. 

by mmosespt on 11/24/2009 11:10:42 AM EST