You seem reasonable.
As to the person stating that the last time CO2 levels were this high in the atmosphere, vulcanos were going crazy spewing noxious gases all through the atmosphere.......and the earth survived.
Well ain't that just great. Were we trying to grow soybeans, corn, rice and cows at the same time to feed ......how many billions of people now?
You all don't get it. All it takes is to screw the weather patterns up just enough that our crops are not able to grow to full yeilds. Maybe a cold snap in May when all the fruit trees are in full bloom. Maybe a drought that goes on for years in the middle of the country. Oh wait, that's already going on and, yes droughts have hit the middle of the country before.
But sea levels are rising around the world, crop lands are going under water,
You know what? Somehow, through God or Good Luck, the world evolved into a well balanced, orderly system. We had plants that depended on CO2 to grow (which us mammals happily supplied) and we had animal life that needed Oxygen to grow, (which the plants happily supplied.) We have a carbon based life system and we had an abundance of carbon stored in oil and coal. We had balance.
Now we have severly depleted the earths ability to handle the amount of carbon we generate. A huge carbon trap exists in the form of the rain forests. Which we proudly watch as they are cut down to raise cattle for cheap hamburger. You can't cut down the greenery, burn up the carbon deposits and not expect the system to become out of balance.
A huge heat trap exists in the oceans and the water is warming. Releasing more heat into the atmosphere.
We have crops that have come to depend on growing and producing within a certain time frame and certain temperture ranges. Screw all that up, by changing the weather patterns and our food producing ability takes a big hit.
We don't kNow what burning billions and billions of tons of oil and gas will do to the world BECAUSE IT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE.
But it (burning oil and coal) represents a lot of released energy over time and something has to change.
We do know the last time carbon levels were this high. Big vulcanos and big animals. And I don't think we would have found the earth to have been a very friendly place for us humans.
Of course if you believe the Creationist Museum in KY, we could walk with the dinasors again??
Funny that you are looking for a reasonable person, since you don't seem to qualify.
Did you know that every 20 thousand years, the earth wobbles just a little bit, and because of that wobble, significant climate change occurs. The last wobble gave rise to the Egyptian empire because when the lush region of the Sahara dried up and the nomads of that region were forced toward water. These very same nomads began to band into communities and eventually cities. When next that wobble happens, the odds are that the Sahara will yet again become lush and green
Also, did you know that once upon a time, the Earth was fully covered in ice? They called that time, "Snowball Earth".
Before the advent of glaciers, the oceans (the real key to climate and second strongest influence in climate after the sun) currents moved around the globe in a freer pattern then they do today. This helped to stabilize the temperature of the Earth. When the Isthmus of Central America rose up and blocked the exchange of water between the Atlantic and Pacific, it began a chain of climate changes that brought us Ice Ages and those periods of warming between them.
We are currently between two glaciation periods and the planet IS getting warmer. It has NOTHING to do with Humans. The very arrogance of such a belief cries out for reasonable people to just stand up and slap them hard across the face until their sanity returns.