If it wasn’t for global warming, Chicago would still be under a mile of ice.
What I like to pose to climate change people is: what caused the last ice age and what caused its end?
It is supposed to be under a mile of ice now, according to scientists in the 1970s, during the “Coming Ice Age” scare.
Chicago could be under a mile of ice...
That is true, courtesy of Milankovitch cycles.
The absolutely rock-solid science of global warming is that extra CO2 in the atmosphere - which is largely from human activity - is causing some global warming. The crux of the matter is, "how much?". There is a huge difference between 3C by 2100, and 0.5C. It definitely seems to me that panic is not justified at this time. It is also mainstream scientific thought that the next Ice Age is now not going to happen, which would be a huge win for humanity and life as a whole.
I think market forces are going to drastically impact how much fossil fuel is burned going forward. In the meantime, I believe a push towards replacing coal-fired electric generation worldwide with nuclear generation is simple commonsense. Coal power has major downsides beyond producing CO2, namely pollution (particulates, mercury etc.), ash waste, and the environmental impact of coal mining.
The various companies working on small modular reactors (SMRs) have designs that are extremely safe, can be mass-produced, and in many cases don't require water cooling. They will provide electricity for less than ten cents per KWH, perhaps as cheap as three to five cents.
Each kilogram of nuclear fuel (uranium or thorium) provides as much energy as one million kilograms (one thousand tons) of coal. It is beyond foolish to not take advantage of such a cheap, plentiful source of clean, reliable power.
For unbiased information on global warming, I recommend Dr. Roy Spencer's site (http://drroyspencer.com). He is a non-alarmist atmospheric physicist, who's been labeled a "denier" by the alarmists - despite his agreement with the basic (undisputed) science of greenhouse gasses.
“If it wasn’t for global warming, Chicago would still be under a mile of ice.”
As a conservative down stater I don’t have a problem with that.