Give me the reasons why you are a climate sceptic?

[malificent7]

I'm not by the way...but neither am i overly anxious about it.
Some of my friends are and are also very against Greta Thunberg etc. So is it possiblook e to be worried about climate change but anti Greta and/ or do you think climate change is baloney?

Given the recent bush fires in Australia i think we should all be aware that we are all at the mercy of our climate, even if we don't think change is man made.

I'm not a climate change sceptic, but I don't think that truanting and whinging is the way to combat it. People need to grow up and realise that change a) means they need to have less, drive less, fly less, breed less, eat less be less comfortable b) stand for parliament if they want to change laws and c) protest at the real culprit nations.

I'd have more respect for Thunberg if she tried to get those messages across.

but say that and the hard of reading fools immediately pile on.

Two main reasons:

1, The Romans grew grapes in northern England. Possibly just about feasible today.

2, The Victorians skated on the frozen Thames. Completely unimaginable today.

Ergo, the climate is cyclical and Europe is currently in a warm spell.

OK, I’m certainly not denying that human induced climate change is real and important but it’s not the only cause.

Climate change is cyclical and throughout the history of the world the temps have risen and fallen.

Climate change is not solely or even mainly man-made.

Remember the huge fuss about the hole in the ozone layer? Then it disappeared. Because things constantly cycle and change.

I’m hugely concerned about plastic and litter. Not concerned about climate change. It’s a bandwagon for virtue signallers who haven’t done independent research.

I'm not a sceptic in the sense that I do believe humans are obviously causing damage to our climate. I don't like extinction rebellion though or their methods. I agree about there being a climate change bandwagon. I don't know what they're achieving in the way of actual results so fair play if they are making a positive difference. I haven't noticed much change.

I don't have any strong feeling towards Greta, except I feel she is probably a bit young and being thrust into the spotlight as some kind of great figurehead probably isn't too good for her.

As pp have said the climate is cyclical and not all within our control. I think there's a touch of arrogance to think that it is.

I really hate waste and the excesses of consumerism. I notice that younger people in general (not all) seem to be far more wasteful and consumerist than older people, favouring convieniance and style over making do. Yet they're the ones who are supposed to be the eco-saviours, so I find that a bit odd.

Also for one of my jobs I had to do some research on an internet personality who is known to be very "green". And something that struck me is that they recommend products to their followers as an eco friendly alternative to things we usually buy. And I was left a bit dubious, not about the intentions of the person, but the truth that buying 10 different 'eco-friendly' products online from 10 different places and having them ordered to your house in 10 different deliveries, is really better than walking or driving to your local shop, buying 10 regular products and walking back home with them. I'm not convinced that would work out better for the environment, I could be wrong. Sorry that's a bit of a tangent but I did wonder about it.

Climate scientists know about the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age, and how they fit into a much wider pattern. They aren’t scaremongering. They have examined everything from ancient air bubbles trapped in Greenland’s ice cap to South Pacific coral and from the Ocean Conveyor to carbon sinks in Russia. They understand ice albedo feedback and the effects of contrails. They haven’t reached their conclusions lightly.

c) protest at the real culprit nations.

You mean the ones we have conveniently outsourced most of our manufacturing to? Yeah, it’s their pollution, not ours.

Climate is cyclical.

Man is part of nature.

Nature will survive but maybe not as we know it.

Quite happy to see the human race wipe itself into oblivion.

I'm not a sceptic, I believe it is real. However, I don't think the average person can make a difference simply be recycling and eating less meat. I recycle everything I can, but my council does appear to do much with it. Much of the recycling gets mixed in with rubbish, and recycling collections are every two weeks when it should be weekly.

The only way to deal with it effectively would be for massive corporations and governments to reduce their carbon emissions and waste, but they're not doing their bit.

I have no doubts that we’re all wrecking planet.

I just get annoyed at the people who moan and whinge about people wrecking the planet when they’re doing it themselves!! Everyone in the modern world is doing it, including Greta Thunberg and people on here who get all worked up about it.

I'm the same Polly but I am disturbed by the worrying effects it's having on us. Another stick to beat people with and make them feel bad.

They are busy building HS2 and ruining the countryside etc but that's ok

I'm not a climate change sceptic per se, but I am a pragmatist.

I'm not a fan of Greta as she is little more than the person in the office who cries and looks doe eyed to try and get their own way - I don't fall for that kind of BS.

I want to listen to scientists, politicians etc who understand the nuances - the cyclical nature of climate, the economic impacts, the nation states who won't level up etc.

I'm more interested in adapting to the inevitable, than wasting time trying to tame a beast that is untameable unless you do something drastic like letting half the planet die and going back to a primitive way of life. Who wants that? Not me for sure.

because scientists believe the average temperature when the dinosaurs roamed the earth were far higher than now, and they didn't use deo!!

I'm not a sceptic and I am trying to make my family greener.

I'm not a fan of the Greta Thunberg movement. I've nothing against her personally and she seems like a lovely young women, but I worry about the long term affects of someone so young being in the public eye in this way. We've seen plenty of other examples of that not ending well for other young celebrities. I think it will be very hard for her to retreat back in to private life if that is what she wants to do, plus she may feel obligated to carry on even if she doesn't want to.

I wouldn't want it for my child for these reasons.

It something that happens no matter what. Nothing we do will change that

interesting to note the massive reduction in pollution over China due to the coronavirus lockdown. So we can do it. Of course this means job losses and reduction in living standards but that is what it is going to take.

I repeat, Thunberg and her cult need to go protest there, and of course spread the message to stop buying Chinese products. She was waving a chunk phone about FFS.

and whoever organised a mass gathering on a lawn in a wet February needs a good slap for being really, really stupid.

Not quite the question of the thread but I have been meaning to ask for a while if anyone can explain the point of the school strikes to me. When workers strike there is a clear cost to businesses both the striking staff's actual employer and other general services. The aim is to make the employer suffer to win the argument.

But what is the point of not going to school other than to have a protest? Is it just the protest itself? Is not doing it on a Saturday meant to draw more attention? I can see that it might cause an increase in parents needing to take a day off if they want to accompany children to a protest but that would be agreed annual leave anyway so no cost to business. I just don't get what impact it is meant to have.

I am perfectly accepting of climate change. It's happened before, it will happen again.

Nature will win, ultimately.

Do I think we, the human race, can do anything to stop it? No
Do I think we, the human race, can do anything to slow it down? Yes
Will that happen? No

Because you'd need everybody working towards the same goal and I cannot see the human race ever being able to work collaboratively to achieve this.

The only circumstance I can can ever envisage the human race coming together as one is against a common enemy who threatens the entire planet. Unfortunately, climate change isn't that.

I'd have more respect for Thunberg if she tried to get those messages across.

The messages you list are exactly the messages Greta Thunberg is promoting. The protests are the clearest way to draw attention to the scale and importance of the problem. Schoolchildren, if you hadn’t noticed, don’t have the vote.

Climate change is cyclic, but the issue is the rate of change. Habitat loss, fragmentation and extinction rates are higher than ever before. This is the real problem.

I think Extinction Rebellion and the likes push people further away from making a change with radical and bullying behaviour.

I am personally making changes. I don’t expect others to. Each to their own.

The climate is cyclical - I recall the Coming neEw Ice Age being bandied about in the 1970s.

As mentioned above the Ozone Layer and Acid Rain all died a death after the hype.

Flagellating the bad west and lauding worthy noble savage is typical of an Anti West agenda

India - China - Gulf states creating pretty wee islands to look pretty where are you now Greta, Extinction rebellion and the hypocites?

Temperature data strting in 1850 was bad enough, now it seems to satrt in 2010. I think they had thermometers and pens and paper long befor then so why not give us that data?

Attenbourough, BigWigs, Prince Charles etc calling humans a "plague", a "cancer" - not celebrating Covid 19 are you not? How about the Holocaust and other massacres - a good thing?

It was all about peak oil throughout the 70s and 80s, now that seems to have died down. Lets face it, if we use less carbon based energy we will not use oil as quickly and will not be in hock to the Arab nations who, without oil will de-emerge.

Pollution whether oil tankers pumping out tanks, people throwing plastics in the street - all crimes again the environmnet shoudl be prosecuted as strongly as the "isms" and "phobias".

There seems to be a theme that a lot of young people have been gulled into the belief that there is going to be a massed die-off and they will be culled or die before they have "lived". No idea where this has come from, but it need sto be stopped.

I’m Australian and 100% agree with your final statement. I’m not a non-believer in climate change - obviously it exists, it’s happened loads of times, it’s a thing. However I always preserve a degree of rational scepticism about claims of man made climate change or that we are experiencing climate change etc. It’s not that I don’t think we are, I think it’s probable (based on my limited understanding of climate science) that we are, but I really couldn’t say for certain that we are or that we have caused it etc.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do anything about it. There are so many reasons to cut pollution even without climate change and climate change (whether cause by humans or not, whether today or in a thousand years) is inevitable so it is wise to develop more sophisticated geo engineering technologies to mitigate against any risks posed by climate change or even temporary changes in weather patterns.

I don’t like Greta et al for the reason that I think that in their rabid belief they are harming the efforts that would make a real difference. Shortsighted leaders can dismiss climate change but they can’t dismiss deaths caused by poor air quality, people can try desperately to lower emissions through personal action but this wouldn’t be as helpful as investing their time and money into R&D instead.

The hole in the ozone layer closed because of the ban on CFCs, it didn't just magically repair itself. Of course the climate runs in cycles but human activity is accelerating that at an unsustainable rate. We really, really need to rethink how we live.

The Government won't even close schools down for a few weeks, or test temperatures of people travelling, they are not going to make us all reduce our way of life to stop/slow pollution and waste.

I don't think it is fair that Greta is not on school, has missed so much school and I am concerned for her mental health. Britney 2.0 will soon rear its head.

I believe in pollution and litter. I don't believe in this global fear mongering. I believe temperature changes and moves. Why wouldn't it? We spin on a ball, moving round a black pit of a universe. We are forever changing.

Remember the huge fuss about the hole in the ozone layer? Then it disappeared. Because things constantly cycle and change.

Wrong! An international cooperative effort with a clear plan of how ALL countries from developed to developing would phase out the use of CFCs has halted the increase in the depletion of the ozone layer. It is beginning to recover. It is so wrong to use this as an example of doing nothing because nature will sort itself out. (Just because it's not in the news doesn't mean it is okay.)

Anyway, worse than climate change (or another thing to be made worse by climate change), is the fact that we have less than 60 years of top soil left for agriculture globally. No more top soil means no more food.

Another point and slightly related to Greta Thunberg. Why do you think she gets such a hard time? Why do some people the ozone layer is fixed? The press is mostly right-wing and don't report responsibly. Did you know the most dangerous branch of journalism (journalists killed in their line of work) is environmental journalism - not war reporting?

Some of these responses are truly depressing. Yes climate change is cyclical but you must realise that the speed it's changing at is not normal or sustainable and that is caused by humans and our excessive consumption. Yes, we will die out - and not that far in the future in my opinion - but at what cost to the rest of the planet and its species which will be extinct and were unable to affect their own future?

I guess the ozone layer fixed itself the same way the Y2K bug fixed itself.

Couldn't possibly be because politicians actually listened to experts and funded projects to address the problem. That would be crazy.