Protesting has gotten out of hand

[Tommy1234]

I'm a natural contrarian, so like the OP I believe said, when I hear about how "evil petroleum is", and how we must all move to electric cars "for the environment", my natural inclination is to use more petroleum. Imagine how much more we would be using, how much dirtier it would be, if we were all still driving around in the carbureted, uncatalyzed vehicles of 50+ years ago. Vehicle emissions today, particularly automobiles and light trucks, are a pipsqueak compared to what they used to be.

In the end, I too care about the environment, just like everyone else. Who WANTS to live in an environment that's going to kill them? But that's not what's going on here. ALL fossil fuels are the result of carbon sequestration over millions of years. It's all carbon that has BEEN here in some form or another, and its form is merely being changed when we use it. It's called conservation of mass. What's notable is that the world was a MUCH harsher place prior to the Cambrian explosion. The increase in CO2 at the time led to massive increase in biodiversity, and that's where life (and therefore fossil fuels) come from. The truth is, there's basically nothing MORE natural, more organic, than fossil fuels. Something was here, its form changed, it changes when we use it, and it will be changed yet again in the future. It's zero-sum.

IMO, the MAIN reason for the protests (and the never-ending drumbeat over the environment, and electric cars) is because people have become SO comfortable, they want for SO little, that this is the biggest problem they can conjure up in their imaginations. I guess it's a relatively good problem to have, but it sure is annoying.

Very true there

 

[alignman88]

People want to be heard, it’s human nature. They’ve been sold a bag of half truths and dividing “talking points”.
Here’s another way to think maybe global warming is a platform we’re being sold and forced to pay for.

Core samples in Antarctica from thousands of years ago show the earth is slightly cooler than previously over thousands of years. And as for the seas rising here’s a take on that. Take Florida for instance, has the most high end construction growth right along the coastline right? If the seas were gonna rise 10 feet like “they” say all that would be gone. As well as island countries like the UK. Now what banks would be pouring billions of dollars into long term 30 to 50 year loans if that was the case?

Look up Dan Pena as he laid all this out to an audience when asked “what are the wealthy of the world doing about global warming?”

Perspective folks. Everyone is too busy watching everyone else’s bobber to pay attention to real facts.

 

[Caman96]

From weather.gov
Not sure if this is worldwide or just U.S.

In 1875 the average annual temperature was 52.5
146 years later it was 52.2

Yeah, it ticked up a bit in last few years(and the atmosphere has become much clearer/cleaner in the last 30 years)but if you scroll through years it came close to that a few times. So the last few years for all this society altering change? It may drop 2° in 20 years, who knows.

https://www.weather.gov/media/slc/ClimateBook/Annual%20Average%20Temperature%20By%20Year.pdf

Could Cleaner Air Actually Intensify Global Warming?

As much of the world marked Earth Day this past week, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that air pollution has declined dramatically over the past 20 years. It sounds like good news, but science writer Eli Kintisch argues that there's a surprising downside.

www.npr.org