BD,
I sure would like to quote scripture here but I can't. There are many biological signs that lead to the conclusion that the earth is in a warming cycle. there are plants and animals that are moving both north and south out of the ranges that they have lived for a long time. It takes a long time for the environment to change enough for plants to adjust their growth. I'm plenty skeptical too so when I heard this the first few times I thought that maybe it was just a case of people looking in new places for something that confirms their beliefs. After reading the same thing from a lot of different sources from around the world, I do believe that the earth's climate is warming. There is too much evidence to not see that.
Do some searches on the glaciers on Kilimanjaro. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps have been closed to some climbing and skiing because of unstable conditions. The Arctic Ocean is wetter than ever before. The Polar ice cap is thinner too. Large chunks of the Antarctic ice cap are shedding. Possums are moving north into Minnesota. Yikes! Watch out! Kidding aside, they have never been observed in MN. That goes for aboriginal records too.
Like Alex says, It's all about dosage. A little methane leaking out a cows butt isn't that big a deal. That same volume, let loose inside an elevator is all of a sudden pollution. How much change can humans inject into our planet and hope that it will be buffered? If you were restoring a wooden runabout like an old Chris Craft, would you tolerate dust in the varnish? Probably not one speck. If the elevator or the Chris Craft are the world you live in, you would treat them with more care and caution. But then again, maybe not...
The whole line about ice displacing water, or not, doesn't work. Ice cubes have much more air in them than glacier ice. If you don't think that glaciers have an effect on sea level, go back and study geology. Look at the sea levels during times of glaciation. The last time MN was scraped flat, the ocean levels were lower. That can't be argued. After they receded, we were left with 10,000, well, actually, over 15,000, Lakes and potholes.
Bio diesel seems to work for some people. Great!
If we were to base the value of energy on its true costs we'd need to change accounting systems. Nuclear power has been subsidized heavily for years. Same goes for the cleanup and decommisioning of the old plants. Who pays for that? Generally not the share holders, it comes out of the publics pocket. How much should be billed to oil for the protection it gets from our military?
Tom