Quote Originally Posted by ThisYouWillDo View Post
Sea Hunter, rather than asking "whose fault is it?" we have now moved on to "can we be bothered to try to put things right, or is it a waste of time?"
Before asking about trying to "put things right", you would have to define "right". Are you going to try to impose a completely unnatural stasis, somehow negating every force of nature and ending cycles which have existed for millennia? Cancel out the known effects of humans, trying to restore your extrapolation of the previous cycles?

Right now, we know the planet's a little bit warmer than it was a few decades ago. We also know CO2 levels are up. There's a theory that the two are connected to some extent, since increased CO2 levels tend to follow increased temperatures quite closely in historical data. The only thing we know for sure, however, is that increased CO2 levels are not entirely to blame (since other, entirely natural, factors are known to have made some contribution there, both on the Earth and on Mars, a planet not yet noted for heavy industry).

There are some sensible steps we could and should take, like phasing out fossil fuel electricity generation and trying to reduce road congestion - but blowing trillions on quick-fix political "solutions" without properly considering reality or defining a sensible goal is counterproductive at best. If you're using sea levels to justify this expenditure, just tell me: how many trillion dollars are you prepared to pay per inch of sea level? How much do you think installing an extra inch of sea wall where necessary, given almost an entire century in which to do so, would cost? Now compare those two figures, and think about the implications.