Global Warming and CO2 levels

You've missed the point. The "Green" policies of the Gov. are about TAX.
Brian

And about making it difficult for the 3rd world to compete.
Regards, Tony

We are the third world.
. -- Regards,
John Stevenson Nottingham, England.
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A sad story! Really sad that this completely off-topic crap is popping up here too. :-((
Would be much more interesting if you would answer the questions about your toolpost-grinder.
Nick

What point? The reliability or otherwise of the science is not dictated by government policy.

I didn't realise this was a 4 x 4 newsgroup (not that I mind) ! I don't see the number of driving wheels having a big influence on the planet - compared to (for example) one power station a week being commissioned in China (and why not, they want electric lights, TVs, and fridges too).
I hope all the technical committees and specialist academics studying this around the world watched the same TV program as you. I didn't see it, so can't comment, but basically we would need a massive and universal acceptance of the global warming argument if we are going to really change our ways. The politicians won't move otherwise. But for now we are going to continue down the same path and have to wait until the evidence proves it one way or the other (tweaking at the edge being discounted for sake of argument).
Just in case the academics are right, my advice is to make sure you don't live in a flood plain and get a thermally efficient house that will take strong winds (just to be on the safe side!). The cost of heating will go up as the North Sea gas runs out - that has already started. Crude oil has rocketed in the last year (from $30 to $60 a barrel) and is not coming down which hardly hurts the motorist as most of what he pays is tax, but it hurts heating fuel, and farmers, and fishermen.
Even if global warming is a false alarm, we have a faster growing demand for fuel than we have had in ages, and supply is a getting tight. The times are a changing, and thankfully this actually means that big companies are looking for engineers again, and due to the fact so many people have been studying law, philosophy, marine biology, drama and dance, and home economics, the supply isn't meeting demand.
Engineering is on the up.
Steve

Doesn't follow : CO2 is released by elevated temperatures by a variety of mechanisms. There is no way to discriminate between causes and effects in the timescales that pertain to man-made global warming. If you want to understand the effects of oil consumption then you only need to consider how long it took to lay down the oil compare to how long it took to burn it.
Answer me a question : why would you prefer it to be true that global warming is not man-made ?

Hi Steve,
Your remark reminds me of what someone replied to me when I said that as far as the media were concerned there were a shortage of Engineers. He said "we don't need a shortage, we need some demand". If you compare the hourly rate that a plmber or sparks can earn c.f. e.g. a jobbing SW engineer (let alone an accountant or lawyer) you will see that engineering is not on the up. Engineering has pissed off overseas and it won't be coming back.
Jmo,

It's probably made in China like everything else.................... -- Regards,
John Stevenson Nottingham, England.
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I am appalled at the way the big companies act. In Europe it has been as plain as the nose on your face that the engineering workforce in critical area such as oil and gas had been ageing (and probably the railways too). Oil and gas started coming ashore in the 1970s and now a lot of people are 30 years older and thinking about well-earned retirement. The age -distribution of the workforce was obvious to those that run the company - and yet at the same time they have been happy to see courses closed all over the country. Industry should be sponsoring students and courses, but they haven't been (and I blame both industry and the goverment here).
I am thinking of England in particular, as the title "engineer" still has deserved respect in Germany, though I understand that the lack of people studying the discipline stretches across Europe.
Now that the crunch has come the global companies are busy setting up technical centres in India where engineers are abundant and cheap. But they are but apprentices to the time-served hands in Europe - and the experience they lack is of critical importance.
If you look at the top car racing teams you might be surprised how many are based in England, even BMW, even US champ cars. We still are the very best, if money is no object ! When they are all built in India, then I will really worry !
Steve

However atmosphere anything balance. meeting No, you've missed the point. They are not saying that the planet isn't warming up, in fact they are confirming that it is. What they are strongly disputing is the CO2 relationship.
AWEM

variety of effects in the atmosphere anything balance. global warming It's not a case of preferring. If the world pours billions into CO2 reduction programs and tries to discourage developing countries to use their fossil fuel resources with the same aim, then that is not only a wasted effort as the CO2 is an indicator of the inrease in temperature, not a cause of it, but is also denying underdeveloped countries the creature comforts that you take for granted.
AWEM

Who is they?
Tom

& who's paying them?
Cheers Tim

So the fact that world coal consumption per day is in excess of 16 million tonnes is irrelevant? That the world consumes more than 8 million tonnes of oil based fossil fuels a day is irrelevant also?
An anonymous "they" are professing that man made pollution has a negligible impact? Yeah, right.
Methinks Channel 4 is indulging certain vested interests in exchange for literally quids pro quo, perhaps many of such.
Tom
Tom

On the other hand, the up side is that, given the limited lifespan of fossil fuels, something that scares us into getting alternative energy sources lined up rather earlier in the game seems like a good plan. So throw away the CO2 reduction programmes & concentrate on the alternative energy programmes seems like the right way forward here.
Regards, Tony

Just a drop in the ocean
Regards, Tony

Down here, we're sitting on hundreds of years of coal reserves that are waiting for viable advances in combustion technology before they would ever be considered for mining. The Germans seem to putting the most effort into zero CO2 emissions with coal fuels, although they reckon on being decades away from a solution.
Tom

Don't start your teutonic whingeing here! Go pester the yanks.
Tom