Anthropogenic Global Warming

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Kytiara said:

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So tell me, why is it so important to hedge our bets on something like AGW when we can see people dying today?

I'm sorry - but are you joking?

What makes you think ANYONE (in high government) cares about people dying? How much was spent on the Iraq war in the last few years? How much of a difference would this money have made in countries like Africa? Sudan? In addition, how many EXTRA people have died from the Iraq war (compared to say, keeping Saddam in power?).

Its already been shown by some studies (sorry, no time to research/link) that several of the conflicts in central Africa are a DIRECT result of AGW. This already has resulted in potential deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

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So much money is being spent on ridiculous things these days. Talking TENS of BILLIONS of dollars (if not more).

At least AGW (IMO) is a worthy cause. Renewable energy sources, hybrid(other) cars, more efficient industry (generalised), better coal mining practices(big one in Australia), destruction of native growth forests.

If it was up to me, I think we (humanity) have an obligation to stabilise our drain of natural resources on the planet, stabilise our creation of greenhouse gases (and other waste materials), stop the destruction of  rare animal species (etc..)... THEN we can get back to our "private" wars, political issues (and so on).

And as a completely separate issue, one day (assuming we make it that far :P), we will have to (as a species) be responsible enough to stabilise our population growth - and limit it to a certain (hard) number. In many ways, it has been our uncontrolled expansion/growth as a species that has caused all of these problems. Our endless "obsession" with growth is becoming dangerous, and it may yet lead to the total destruction of our species.