Short-Sighted Enough To Always Go Too Far There is a good metaphor that applies to many things that has to do with pendulums. Whether talking about the seasons of the year, the volatility of a stock market, or the crying of a baby, it comes and goes, just like the pendulum swings.
"Global Warming" - the shocking part is that it is espoused by people of supposedly great learning that should frankly know better. The evidence does indicate that things are getting warmer, but that is just part of a pendulum swing. We should anticipate that the climate will cool again at some point in the future. "Climate Change" has become the new bogeyman that should be about as frightening as waking up in the morning. It is manufactured hysteria that is surely enriching some group or another, which group can be found trumpeting the alarm all the more loudly while raking in more money.
Yes, human activity probably does affect the climate, much as a tap on a swinging pendulum can make for an odd oscillation until the swing rights itself. It is the bombastic arrogance of mankind that feeds the hysteria of "climate change". Our effect on the massive forces that drive this planet are as a fly to an elephant: a mild irritation at worst. At any point, the elephant of natural forces can crush the fly of humanity and go on its merry way. We are not destroying the earth and we have no capacity to do so, even at twice the population we have now and with a collective effort at destruction that we fortunately cannot muster. It is much more likely that our actions will cause a minor disturbance in the flow of things, shifting the pendulum's oscillation in such a way that mankind (along with other fragile species) will be swept away, and the earth will simply continue on without us. Don't fret the earth - fret yourself and the potential reactions that will be the consequence to your doings. When the wacko chi-hustlers say that prayer should be the response to global warming, that is actually a excellent idea - better to get on the something's good side.
I wrote an essay a while back about GUS and its proclivity for stupidity coupled with over-reaction to events. If we could see ourselves from a distance, we would likely say "what a bunch of boobs". Einstein, in the grand scheme of things, was a dim bulb and, to the extent that he came to realize this, he was actually a little smarter than the average person. Democratic-ish governments suffer all the problems of rounding up all this stupidity into a squelching collective - far more assinine and potentially damaging than a world of aimless hicks wandering the planet on independent agendas. God destroyed the Tower of Babel and confused language for this very reason: to keep independent idiocy from collecting into giant cesspools of acidic stupidity.
I am a great believer in natural consequences. It think many, many things that happen are simply natural reactions that are part of the well-designed system. Our greatest conceit is that mankind thinks that it can somehow control or overcome these natural consequences on a significant scale. Heck, I can't stop grass from coming up in the cracks in my front porch! How do I possibly think mankind can warm or cool the global temperature for any significant time or to any significant degree? To fight natural forces is to invite your own easy death. It could make for some very funny television, to watch some skinny little twerp boast of how he can win a wresting match with the likes of Andre the Giant!
Respect things that are way out of your control, like, say, God and nature and frankly t-bills and the Chinese economy. Be a good steward over things you do exercise some control, like goldfish in a bowl in your room and the length of your fingernails. Live and let live.