New Weather and Surf Forecasting Forum

[Sniffer]

Well this thread was an epic fail. Over 4 pages of deuche wanna be scientists talking about a theory popularized by a half retarded vp. Who cares about global warming and what you have to say about it... Let's see some real discussion about surfing related material.

You complained about a thread that had no surf related topic and then discussed nothing about surfing....hmmmm...way to go smart guy.

[brewengineer]

I'm always surprised when skeptics of global warming/climate change mention the idea that global warming is an argument made by researchers and regulators who want to capitalize off global warming and global warming related research and regs.

Seems to me that there is far more of a profit motive to argue AGAINST global warming. The way i see it, the oil companies, auto industry, electric utilities, manufacting sector, agribusiness, and countless others would immediately see their profits and stock prices skyrocket if unlimited CO2 emissions suddenly became perfectly acceptable due to global warming being shown to be a falsehood.

So if you really believe research is biased by profit motive, i'm pretty sure there's more profit to be made DIS-proving global warming than proving it.

Bullsh1t. I work in the petroleum business. We make money no matter how strict the gov regulates CO2. As long as there is no viable alternative to fossil fuels, we will be burning them. BTW, the oil industry is one of the major investors in alternative energy. It is just as profitable as traditional fossil fuel based energy.

[mitchell]

Bullsh1t. I work in the petroleum business. We make money no matter how strict the gov regulates CO2. As long as there is no viable alternative to fossil fuels, we will be burning them. BTW, the oil industry is one of the major investors in alternative energy. It is just as profitable as traditional fossil fuel based energy.

OK...not being argumentative but i dont understand this part:
If as you say there is no viable alternative to fossil fuels, how can alternative energy be as profitable. Being "profitable" but at the same time "not viable" is a rather hard concept. What am i missing?

[GnarActually]

Remember Y2k? Yeah, well how many people made millions on that, such as "Y2k proof your business" It was a billion dollar business. "Global Warming or climate CHange" is no different. "Climate Change terrorist" use fear such as the world is going to end yada yada yada, but for their own personal financial gain. Al gore is the biggest bozo this side of western hemi. guaranteed if you say your product in anything you sell says "green" or "organic" you can easily charge more money with no actually truth into the labeling. Its a multi billion dollar business, and many companies are getting huge gov't subsidies because of their so-called "green products". That said, I think we have made some sort of an impact to the earth, but to think we can collapse the entire structure of earth in such an extraordinary short period of time in earths history is nothing short of naive. I'm all for more efficient...everything, but this won't happen until it's economical. We are all hypocrites. We say well buy more efficient products, but in the end we buy what ever product is cheapest- i sure as hell do, I don't have a lot of money, I need to stretch it for all it's worth!

[GoodVibes]

By no means am I an Al Gore groupie, but the dude does make some valid points.

[schweez]

what about civilization breaking down when the earth runs out of oil?

[cresto4]

Bullsh1t. I work in the petroleum business.

They still have full serve down there? Ya do the squeegie thing too?

[brewengineer]

OK...not being argumentative but i dont understand this part:
If as you say there is no viable alternative to fossil fuels, how can alternative energy be as profitable. Being "profitable" but at the same time "not viable" is a rather hard concept. What am i missing?

Viability required supply to meet energy needs, as well as efficiency in creating energy. Alternative energy isn't capable of meeting our energy needs with the current supplies and forms of harnessing the energy. However, it is a very profitable business. Look at the number of ethanol manufacturing facilities being constructed. As we find more advanced alternative energy sources, profitability will increase to a point where it matches oil (assuming we don't find some magical source of oil).

[brewengineer]

They still have full serve down there? Ya do the squeegie thing too?

Yeah, of course. That's what we we do in Engineering. Just a bunch of mechanical engineers pumping gas and washing windows.

[brewengineer]

what about civilization breaking down when the earth runs out of oil?

Best point in this thread. If we run out of oil right now, at our current energy usage, the global economies would crash. You would see plenty of war and famine. That is a real problem that we should consider. Now, everything I have read shows us having oil for the next 75-100 years. However, our energy demand is increasing rapidly. I doubt we will make it 100 years. If you ask me, I think we need to stop wasting time researching and subsidizing ethanol fuel energy and start pouring more money into nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind power.