I'm not sure about causes and effects of climatic change so I'm sitting on the fence with regards to global warming....all I would say is that we as humans are unable to control:
1) Earth quakes
2) tides
3) storms
4) Rainfall (although I did hear something once about a Paul McCartney concert were they did something or other to make it rain somehwere else...sorry can't remember the details).
5) High and Low Temps
6) Cloud cover
7) Volcanos
8) The gulf stream
9) any other major enviroment occurance.
So what makes us think that we can effect or control "full on" climatic changes?
Any hill walker that's been on a mountain in a storm or sailer that's been at sea in a large swell knows he has no control over what the enviroment does and all he can do is go with it and hope it lets him live this time.
I think on a larger scale that's how I see global warming... No matter what/who or how/why it started it certainly seems to have started or indeed as a cycle continued (but goodness know the final climatic climax, if there is one) and all we can do is go with it and hope it lets us (humans) live.
If that's the plan old mother nature has for us and our planet then fighting it is as futile as swimming up a fast following river just because out cosy cabin is that way and we want to get back to it....if we turn and float with the current maybe there will be a nicer spot to live further down stream or maybe there won't...the point is that fighting it won't change it, we'll just end up knackered and downstream anyway.
We can all do our bit by turning off light switches, turning down the central heating etc and I do practice that but to me at least it's about making me feel less guilty of wastage as opposed to honestly believeing that I'm making a difference globally. I hate waste, as a child I eat a full dinner plate if I was hungey or not as I couldn't stand to see food thrown away...it's not a greed thing, it's a waste thing and I'm still the same now.
Blimey....what a waffle! leon, there's loads of fungus about near me which I would have expected to have gone by now...still, means I can keep eating it for long...thanks
I do miss the nice crisp cold winters we used to have though.
Cheers all,
Phil.