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by briandear 2873 days ago
Nobody on the mainstream sides of the climate debate are claiming the climate isn’t changing. We are claiming that human causes have an effect less significant than the alarmist side claims.

Basically, if we all stop running our air conditioner, it isn’t going to have any significant effect on long term global temperatures. Basically we object to the idea that lowering standards of living is a meaningful cure for rising temperatures. Humans absolutely cause pollution, nobody “denies” that and most of us care deeply about actual pollution. But once CO2 started being considered some kind of pollutant, the environmental movement essentially jumped the shark in my view. CO2 is just as much a pollutant as oxygen but it is being treated by politicians as if it were benzene.

3 comments

Actually “CO2” in the context of climate change discussions shouldnt be seen as the specific gas with the same name. Usually it’s a short hand for CO2e https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_equivalent
CO2 is a pollutant just like O2 is a pollutant. The earth has a certain balance and the physical phenomena as well as the biosphere collectively support and rely on this balance. If you add too much O2 you'll get a mass extinction. This was the causes of one the earliest mass extinctions on the earth. [1] CO2 is an essential gas for life to be sustained, arguably as important as O2, but that doesn't mean you can arbitrarily add CO2 to the system and expect similar outcome. At some point you'll break the system. This is true for other "good" gases too such as O2, N2, H2 etc...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

If not CO2, what do you consider pollution which influences climate change?

How do you consider oxygen to be causing climate change?

What would you suggest Humans do to reduce their negative impact on climate change if not "turning off the AC"?