What climate change? Meltdown trumps fears at APEC

Friday 21st November, 06:50 AM JST

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powderfinger at 03:03 PM JST - 21st November

"Oh, and I forgot to mention - I met the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Tuvalu earlier this year in Tokyo - they had come to Japan to look for funding to help their islanders mitigate the effects caused by their island sinking."

Tuvalu, eh?I can go one better. It were just last week and I was at my local tachinomi and I met several guys from NASA!, astronauts they said they were, been to the moon an everthing. And they told me just the darndest news - seems old Sol is at a point in his cycle where he is emitting more heat than ever. One of 'em, hearing me translate in my near flawless J-speak for the benefit of one of the girls behind the counter, thought I was credulous enough to actually believe in MMGW, and he beat me round the head with a Birtish newspaper -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/16/do1610.xml

I called for another beer.
mikihouse at 03:05 PM JST - 21st November

global warming? man-made? duh! Have anybody studied the effect of sunburst and exploding nova on the effect on tiny planets like the earth? As usual, man playing gods. These naysayers can't even accurately predict the weather in one day and then claim they can predict the values in 1000 years...get a l ife
SushiSake3 at 03:06 PM JST - 21st November

powderfinger - 'I called for another beer.'

Were the first 10 not enough? :-)

You still have no case to refute the fact that the effects of climate change are as real as your ignorance of the issue. :-)
nandakandamanda at 03:15 PM JST - 21st November

Back to the article at the top of the page for a quick second, you will notice that it says 'global warming' at the beginning without specifically mentioning the causes.

Thus, countries like Tuvalu will increasingly find their waters rising, and we will increasingly need to think about how to help such low-lying areas and their people.

If the cause is man-made, then that is one angle to attack.

If the cause is increased sun activity gradually releasing CO2 long-term from the oceans, then we will need to consider how to live/ride with that. Perhaps we need to address both sides.

Meanwhile, this year has been exceptionally cold so far...
hereandthere at 03:33 PM JST - 21st November

climate changes happens (warming and cooling), that is a scientific fact, backed-up by billions of years of history.

human activity influencing global climate change through CO2 output is just not scientifically possible, no matter how hard we try.

we are not significant enough.
SushiSake3 at 03:39 PM JST - 21st November

hereandthere - "human activity influencing global climate change through CO2 output is just not scientifically possible."

LOL!! That would be even funnier if you were serious. :-)
thepro at 04:49 PM JST - 21st November

'I won't believe climate change until I'm on fire! Prove that I'm on fire!'
majimeaussie at 04:56 PM JST - 21st November

We need more pirates....

Sushi, as others have stated I understand that almost all scientists agree that the planet has been getting warmer. The question comes about as to what is causing this warming. There are many theories. Some such as the amount of solar output are natural issues, some such as CO2 are possibly man made (it is also argued by some scientists that the increase in CO2 is the result of the warming, not the cause of it). At this stage there is no definitive proof of the causes.

Do I think nothing should be done because it is not proven. No I don't. I believe it makes sense to take action already in case it is man made. I disagree with people stridently saying that one idea is correct (when it hasn't been proven) and that others therefor aren't worthy of consideration.

It is very easy to use analysis to make a theory meet past data. The case for MMGW is at this stage. It may prove to be correct (there is a lot of circumstantial information that indicates it may) or it may not be correct. For example, there are thousands of different financial models that can predict past financial problems, but they don't seem to do as well predicting them.

One of my favourite graphs is the graph of the number of pirates vs world temperatures. There is a very good inverse relationship. Based on this we need more pirates in the world. Maybe this is why the world temperature dropped recently with the increase in pirates in Somalia.
smithinjapan at 05:55 PM JST - 21st November

sushi: "You still have no case to refute the fact that the effects of climate change are as real as your ignorance of the issue. :-)"

Oh, now you're just being unfair to powderfinger! how can he possibly refute his ignorance? Doesn't his ignorance contradict his ability to be able to refute it?

Anyway, I do agree with you that he should have stopped the Thanksgiving drinking after the first 10.

It is also very fun to watch all the people who so strongly insisted that bush was right to attack Iraq and that there were WMDs come on here and insist that global warming is wrong despite all the evidence to the contrary. Sadly, like with the WMDs, when it's too late they'll still deny they did anything wrong.
hereandthere at 07:06 PM JST - 21st November

let's see... if you choose to insist that humans are contributing to "global climate change" via their CO2 production, then should be rejoicing in the "global financial meltdown" since it will lead to a halt in productivity globally... as factories shut down or go out of business, jobless increases and less driving etc. problem solved...

and don't forget the pirates...
Sarge at 09:20 PM JST - 21st November

"What climate change?"

Heh.
Helter_Skelter at 05:51 AM JST - 22nd November

This whole issue of "global warming" is more about anti-capitalism and anti-big oil than it is about the environment. Leftists love this issue for political reasons, as an attack on evil corporations and businesses, especially American ones. This is really about pushing their socialist agenda. There may be some small component of environmental concern, like the polar bears, but that's about the extent of it.
HaroldSteptoe at 06:04 AM JST - 22nd November

Helter Skelter- Global warming is a fact that cannot be disputed. oh yes, i have studied the climate and global warming IS man made.

Jeremy Paxman said that global warming is the biggest threat to the worlds economy and security in the 21st century, and i agree.
hereandthere at 12:28 PM JST - 22nd November

Jeremy Paxman!? now there is a real authority on climate...

funniest comment ever, thanks Steptoe
bushlover at 11:55 AM JST - 28th November

[It'll be funny to hear them explain to their grandkids, if we survive that long as a race, how 'it's not THEIR fault! How could they have possibly known' their grandkids wouldn't be able to play outside, feel the rain on their faces, or breath natural air!?]

Sorry I'm late on this one but this is surely the funniest thing I've read here. Smith watches too many Arnold movies. And by the way what is 'natural air'? Sounds like something we could use to increase global warming which we all know is caused by liberal do-gooder save the planet spout hot air types who are increasing the methane emissions from all the bull they spout.