st_gulik: Name me one person who is NOT motived by money

*I'm* not motivated by money. I can prove it: Send me a whole bunch of money and was as I remain unmotivated.

The CraneMeister: was as I remain unmotivated

See? I'm so unmotivated I can't even be bothered to type the word "watch."

st_gulik: But if we dealt with the Tsunami, the Tornados or the Earthquakes in the same way we're dealing with GW/GCC we'd be still building with Old Building Code in the Midwest, Building without Earthquake Shock Absorbers in Buildings in Cali., or without warning systems in the Pacific.

Bad analogy. Earthquake proof buildings don't stop earthquakes; they simply protect the building from its effects.

A better analogy, IMHO, would be to point out that a lot of regulation and work in reducing emissions has been done in the last 20 years. I think the environment will take care of itself just fine; our job is to avoid polluting things and quit pretending we are wise or powerful enough to manipulate the whole planet in some way.

pontechango: Here's a little analogy on localized cooling:

A man has a 104 degree fever and the doctor tells him that he is in danger because of his temperature. In response, the man complains that he doesn't have a fever because his feet are freezing.

Here's another analogy:

A man goes to the doctor with a rash on his hand.

"Doctor, this rash is spreading all over my body and it's going to kill me! Do something!" he shrieks.

The doctor says, "Calm down a second. Let's just see what's happening in this one trouble spot before we jump to conclusions."

So the patient stomps out, accuses the doctor of being a pharmaceutical corporate shill, and sues the AMA to force them to replace a patient's skin from head to toe if they complain of any localized skin problems.

The AMA protests that there's no evidence acne, psoriasis or eczema requires such drastic treatment, that plenty of fruitful research is already underway if he'd just be a little patient, and besides--no technology for replacing skin exists anyway.

In short, the proposed treatment doesn't exist, is so expensive it would ruin the nation's economy and is likely to make small, local problems much worse.

But the guy with the rash on his hand won't listen or wait for more comprehensive research. Instead, he lobbies Congress to pass draconian regulations that not only won't help, but will thwart the progress that IS being made on other fronts.

So there's a lot of screaming but no action--meanwhile, no one does anything about the rash on the guy's hand.