Right, well here's my take on it
Global warming is a fact. This is fairly well recognised and agreed.

Also fairly well recognised is that, were there no humans on earth, the planet would be getting warmer anyway, as we're currently coming out of an ice age.

However, it is difficult to dispute the argument that the rate of warming is accelerating, and that this acceleration is at least in part due to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, as we release millions of years of locked-up carbon into the atmosphere in only a few hundred years.

The problem lies in just how much of the increase human activities (not just vehicles and power generation, but also cattle rearing etc) are responsible for. The scientific models are getting pretty good (although no doubt conspiracy theorists will dispute this), but it is an inexact science.

But the biggest question of all - is it really going to be the disaster that the environmental scientists, and policitians, say it is?

Yes, sea levels will rise a bit, and many low lying areas will be flooded. Coral will be perhaps killed (although I'm sure it will adapt, as it's been around longer than many lifeforms), hurricanes may become more intense and more frequent, droughts may become worse and longer lasting.

But on the up side, areas of the world which are currently uninhabitable due to their being too cold, may start to be usable. We could all live in sunny Siberia! It could be that conditions there will be such that more plants will grow - and mop up CO₂.

Nobody really knows. And besides, do you see the economic powerhouse that is China giving up its monumental growth just because a few million Brits want them to? No way.

My real fear for the planet is the sheer number of humans. There are already too many of us, and the population is set to double in the next century, according to some estimates.

Just my opinion. Feel free to debate/refute/agree at will.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 30 Nov 2007, 9:48, Reply)