One of our biggest topics for argumentation is Climate Change. As always, our opinions are often more persuasive than the actual facts.
Fact # 1: Climate Change Deniers are wrong if they go so far as to say that climate change news is fake. Climate Change is a universal constant. We have known this ever since the last ice age. Our climate is constantly changing, but gradually.
Fact # 2: Since Climate Change is a constant that has been going on forever, it would be a mistake to characterize it as a catastrophe. The sky is not falling, Chicken Little.
If you find it hard to reconcile Fact 1 with Fact 2, welcome to the inevitable dilemma we now face in the modern world.
The genius thinker Freeman Dyson, who died in 2020, is often portrayed as a champion of Climate Change Deniers. He was not. His actual message is that we should not try to do anything “spectacular” to reverse climate change. We should, instead, deal with the problems presented by climate change incrementally and practically as they arise. See the video.
The neo-Marxists slander skeptics as “deniers” like holocaust deniers. You did say, “…if they go so far as to say that climate change news is fake.” Yes, there are some who think that climate change is not happening. But news reports are biased toward the sensational. With big government everything is political, including science funding, research selection, interpretation, and reporting.
In the huge mass of information propagation, with many biases and uncertainties, I think the best conclusion is that humans are contributing to warming. Sea level rise is especially problematic for Bangladesh and other poor coastal and estuarian people. Dikes to the rescue.
In the US, we can help by taxing consumption, not production, via HR 25, The Fair Tax Act of 2021 which replaces federal taxes on payrolls and incomes with a progressive retail sales tax, together 93% of federal tax revenue. It does not replace excise or import taxes. We could then tax greenhouse gas emissions and base tariffs on human rights and environmental behaviors of the foreign governments. Don’t subsidize green energy because that causes market distortions and corruption.
Richard, you said, “I think the best conclusion is that humans are contributing to warming.”
Of course! That much is obvious. Humans would be contributing something to warming just by standing around breathing. The question is to how much, not to if.
Capitalism is destroying the planet.