Originally Posted by Anthony
in response to your first comment. It has been a proven fact, in textbooks (some of which i have had), that the global climate does change and when it does the CO2 cycle tries to keep it in balance. Water is meant to absorb the excess CO2 in the atmosphere to drive the levels down because as CO2 sinks into the water it eventually dissolves into the material in the ocean (the rocks) and eventually is released again from volcanoes. This controls the climate and the greenhouse effect from running ravagely out of hand. That is why there is no more ice age today because of the global warming.
Oh yeah... I know that... that's what I spent a fair portion of my college career studying. The issue at hand is that suddenly, we're unlocking huge amounts of hydrocarbons from these stored resources (Notably, trees and oil) and doing damage to the ecosystems that trap this excess carbon (Trees again, but also oceanic algae). This is a problem. And while I do agree that the planet will balance itself out given enough time, which it's good at, life for us will suck and be drastically different for us in the end, pending we haven't blown each other up by then. And by us I don't mean the US speicifcally, as most of us have enough money to run to new land and pretend everything's alright. By us I mean everyone, including the 3rd world countries who's cheap economies we depend upon.