Copenhagen
In the 18th century the people of Easter Island worked hard
creating the statues that their information showed
were absolutely necessary for their future.
In the 19th century Easter Islanders realised
that statues were a useless waste of effort
and put all their energy into the obvious need
to worship the birdman.
In he 20th century the stupidity of the Easter Islanders
was obvious when everybody knew
from the examination of history
that the earth was about to enter a new ice age
and there was a need for humans
to create enough warmth for them to survive.
In the 21st century everybody worried about Kyoto and went to Copenhagen
to work out how to stop humans from making the world too hot.
With their understanding of history
world leaders failed to agree.
They bit each other vigorously,
expostulated vehemently
and expressed some warm air.
In the 22nd century the world continued.
Malpoet
Sat 19th Dec 2009 10:02
Global warming does exist and human beings have certainly contributed to a small change in the atmosphere by the production of methane, CFC's, CO2 and other gases.
Climate scientists have a very limited understanding of the drivers of climate change and their models do not include the many thousands of cyclical influences on the earth or the random effects of volcanoes and other natural events on the atmosphere.
At the moment the earth is in an inter-glacial warm period. Earth temperature has been relatively stable for the last 8,000 years or so. Earth climate and temperature usually changes a great deal over that period of time and there are some scientists who believe that are present climate was influenced by the human transition from hunting and gathering to settled farming.
That is no more likely than that our present activities are having much effect.
In short, I think that our present leaders and advisors have about as much understanding of what needs to be done to protect our future as the the Easter Islanders had.