Re: SOLVING REALLY BIG PROBLEMS

[Nick Palmer]

OK revtec, at least I read your posts!   you wrote "The thermal condition of this planet is set by the output of the sun.  Compared to a one or two percent fluctuation in solar radiation, anything humans can do down here is totally irrelevant"   The thermal condition of the planet is set by the output of the sun PLUS the heat "retaining" capacity of the atmosphere and land. Without the natural greenhouse effect of the atmosphere, Earth would be an ice planet. This solar output red herring is the latest rhetorical trick of the global warming deniers. Obviously it has an effect and so does volcano CO2 output - another (earlier) rhetorical trick, also water vapour. THESE are all irrelevant because they are NATURAL variations we have little or no control over. If the solar output was dropping and we could predict that there would be no large scale volcanic outpourings for a century or two then environmentalists may look kindly on INCREASING our output of CO2 etc to stabilise things. The point is, the arguments of the global warming deniers are more or less functionally equivalent to the guy who doesn't switch the electricity off when he rewires a house because people can get struck by lightning...   Nick