TOPIC:

Maybe we can progress the topic without getting political.
Sometimes I amaze myself with what I don't know until I do some research and become more aware. Global warming- How long have we been studying it? Well, I'll be damned.

1. In 1824,Joseph Fournier calculated that an Earth-sized planet, at our distance from the Sun, ought to be much colder. He suggested something in the atmosphere must be acting like an insulating blanket. In 1856, Eunice Foote discovered that blanket, showing that carbon dioxide and water vapor in Earth's atmosphere trap escaping infrared (heat) radiation.
   
   In the 1860s, physicist John Tyndall recognized Earth's natural greenhouse effect and suggested that slight changes in the atmospheric composition could bring about climatic variations. In 1896, a seminal paper by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius first predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could substantially alter the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect.
   
   In 1938, Guy Callendar connected carbon dioxide increases in Earth’s atmosphere to global warming. In 1941, Milutin Milankovic linked ice ages to Earth’s orbital characteristics. Gilbert Plass formulated the Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change in 1956.
   
   Really?? I don't think I became aware of this until the late 1970's.  Not was that because of maturity since that would make me 24 years old?? Maybe. We certainly weren't taught any of this in school.
   The world population back in 1820 was about 1.1 billion and we are already considering the effect of some sort of insulating gas keeping the earth warm. By 1941 when we have linked the Ice Ages  to orbital characteristics the global population is now 2.3 billion and by 1956 when I was born when the theory of Carbon Dioxide Climate Change was produced the global population is now 2.8 billion.
   We've witnessed a lot of progress in carbon dioxide reduction by advancements in technology but was it driven by a concern regarding Carbon Dioxide production?? Not at all. The oil crisis back in the mid 1970's drove gas prices almost out of reach and that brought us advancements in combustion engine technology. in the early 1970's the average automobile got between 10-14 MPG and then we saw the introduction of the sub compact cars out of Japan plus the Volkswagen Beetle that got 20-25 MPG. The reason we welcomed these new vehicles was out of necessity. The "Cost of Living" was exceeding the increases in wages so we had to adapt.
   So maybe we can recognize the advancements in technology and thank economics for driving us to become more efficient.
   Automobiles have gone from 10 MPG to an average of 20 MPG?
   Home heating- From oil burning furnaces and baseboard electric heating to Ground source heat pumps, condensing furnaces, solar water heating,
   Electrical consumption- reducing by more than 50% by changing incandescent lighting to LED lighting, plus advancements in direct drive electric motors in all things like cloths dryers, washing machines, furnaces.
   Home insulation- Back in the 1970's building code required R12 in the walls and R20 in the attic and nothing below grade. Now at least in Ontario Canada, we are required to have a minimum of R20 in the walls, R50 in the attic and R13 below grade. Also we are now required to not exceed exterior window square footage to exterior wall square footage of something like 20% ?? since window R values hover around R5 and wall are at R20.
   So why all the noise about Global Warming. Current world population of 8 billion are now effecting the atmosphere and the scientific information is suggesting that the earth cannot sustain this overwhelming greenhouse gas generation and if we don't do something sooner than later, we will be in serious trouble. Look at the last 10 years. With all the wildfires running out of control for months on end, flooding , tornadoes, cyclones are costing us bigtime in insurance costs that comes out of every bodies pocket. Can we sustain this or are we willing to sustain this? God, I hope not.
   Why can't we as a human race accept the facts that the scientific community have been presenting and agree as a global population that collectively we need to change our ways and get smarter at living in harmony with the Earth. We spent billions of dollars paying athletes to play games and entertain us but we won't spent a nickel in promoting advancements in technology to save the planet?? Pathetic !! 
   That's all I have for now.
   KB

Glad you are able stay with it. We might both learn something.
To begin , this a very complicated and difficult , at least for some, divisive topic.
When I was growing up, and even my parents generation, there was a far more harmonious " village town square " type of atmosphere at Sunday lunch discussion. The newspaper and radio were well respected, and for the most part, believed. There was the odd tiff between a Catholic and Protestant, the odd Scotchman vs the Irishman joke- but nothing even close to the toxic anger , about almost everything , as we see today.
Starting in the late 1990's -- Political Correctness became the buzz- shopping malls stopped playing Christmas carols, I remember a good friend trying to correct my speech when I wished her a merry Christmas over the phone- " Oh, I don't think you should be saying that anymore-just think of those people who don't believe in it."         " You can't use the word wife or husband or spouse, you've got say partner so it's more inclusive".
And so, piece by piece, a bit here, a bit there , our whole social structure was being pulled apart. And so the anger and rage - where a group of people can't sit around the kitchen table and have a discussion about anything, because public discourse has become politicized- say one thing about racism, colonialism that contradicts the prevailing narrative -your career is over - your life potentially ruined.
So is it any wonder, that the topic of climate change/ global warming has become a one sided , politically correct narrative , and if I step outside it's very narrow boundaries , and say so, I get a label around my neck- something like "climate change denier "   or "a follower of Donald Trump "  --kind of lumped in with the racists and white supremacists.
So with that out of the way---
                                      The first thing I don't understand is  --- once upon a time the earth was covered in ice , and then some how -for some reason it began to melt- there were no animals , no humans and no coal fired power stations. How come ?
Answer :
New University of Melbourne research has revealed that ice ages over the last million years ended when the tilt angle of the Earth's axis was approaching higher values.Since the mid 1800s, scientists have long suspected that changes in the geometry of Earth’s orbit are responsible for the coming and going of ice ages – the uncertainty has been over which orbital property is most important.Petra Bajo’s paper,  Persistent influence of obliquity on ice age terminations since the Middle Pleistocene transition , published today in Science, moves closer to resolving some of the mystery of why ice ages end by establishing when they end.
 

The first thing I do when I get a vehicle is cut the catalytic converter off.  Anything to extend my riding season.