The FACT is that the physics don't lie. Human-generated CO2 will inevitably enhance the greenhouse effect, which will inevitably increase surface temperatures on earth. NO CREDIBLE SCIENTIST disputes this phenomenon.
The question is, where do you go from there? Obviously, the inhabitants of the planet should work to produce as little CO2 as possible. Maximize energy sources that produce little or no CO2, maximize the thermal efficiency of those devices (mainly vehicles of one sort or another) that must produce CO2. Optimize thermal insulation of homes and workplaces. And so on.
Parenthetically, the Fukushima incident and the optimization of "fracking" have been a disaster for mankind's campaign to reduce CO2 emissions, by discouraging the proliferation of safe, clean nuclear power and encouraging the construction of gas-fired power plants (and eventually cars and trucks). But regardless...
We come now to the geopolitics. There is a large plurality of people in the "developed world" (including the U.S.) who want to regulate and restrict - essentially "punish" - producers of CO2 with fines, taxes, surcharges, fees, and so forth, and in the process they run the real risk of promoting an economic catastrophe. The classification by the EPA of carbon dioxide as a harmful pollutant (which is bullshit) is an example of the power of these forces.
Like it or not, China, India, and soon Africa, are now building, and will continue building carbon-fired (mainly coal) power plants for the next couple generations, TO AN EXTENT THAT MAKES ANY EFFORTS BY THE U.S. TO CURTAIL CO2 EMISSIONS MEANINGLESS. It's like, we are trying to bail out a boat with a teaspoon while there is a big hole in the other side of the hull with water pouring in. We are wasting our time and effort.
In this country and in Western Europe, the "greens" HATE private industry, and capitalism in general. They are using fear of "global warming" or "climate change" (since the recent data don't really support the claims of warming) to promote irrational regulation of industrial activity, mainly out of pure resentment. And this marks the political battle line over global warming. The expression "watermelon" pretty much describes the green movement: green on the outside, but red on the inside. Fucking socialists, all of them.
BTW, the melting and expanding of the north polar icecap is not a good measure of global warming. In extremely cold conditions it doesn't snow much (It almost never snows at the South Pole, but when it does snow, it never melts), but as the temperature rises closer to the freezing point the amount of snow increases.
The complicity of the media in the "Global Warming" debate is demonstrated by the fact that they almost never mention the benefits of a warming planet. Longer growing seasons and milder winters in the temperate zones (where most of the world's population actually lives), and so on.
