[JasonC]

Actually, it is quite simple at the practical level. None of it will ever change enough to matter, for anything, in the lifetime of anyone here. All the talk about it is utterly futile. By all means, investigate the details for the sake of pure knowledge, for its own sake. But pretending anything practical turns on it is utter horsefeathers from start to finish.

[Gondring]

Actually, it is quite simple at the practical level. None of it will ever change enough to matter, for anything, in the lifetime of anyone here.

Actually, that's not true. The climate change we've seen to date has been significant. However, the question of whether it's man-made or not is not going to be confirmed anytime soon.

All the talk about it is utterly futile. By all means, investigate the details for the sake of pure knowledge, for its own sake. But pretending anything practical turns on it is utter horsefeathers from start to finish.

Again, not really. If the climate change we've observed is purely natural, then it will mean that the rational managed response to it will be different from if it's not natural. And even if we can't quantify it, we might be able to get qualitative answers that can tell us whether cutting emissions is most efficient--or whether there are other answers, such as counter-revolving sunscreens, or perhaps not doing anything at all.