I'm sorry, but I can't help but laugh at this thread.
People have an opinion on either one side or the other, and seem to be able to try and preach about their side until they are blue in the face. It's funny.
But it comes down to the individual and what they feel they have to do, or not do, about it in the end.
You can walk to work/school, never catch a plane again, plant 100 trees, recycle, compost and "reduce your carbon footprint"... you do it for you... not because the end of the world is nigh, or some politician tells you to. You do it because you feel you want to make a difference to yourself.
Some of the emerging countries are big polluters... they are really only coming to the front with their industrial economy now... not unlike other countries did in the 40's, 50's and 60's... probably with as much (and possibly more) pollution back then. And trust me.. when the wind blows a certain direction, Hong Kong gets smothered in the pollutant smog from Shenzen in China... soooo.... I see it pretty regularly (but it's not contributing to global warming yet... just Hong Kong warming
).
However, if you believe humans are the reason for global warming, then you shouldn't be pointing the finger at countries who are polluting at the moment. Perhaps you need to look back at what occurred 40 years ago... global warming is a gradual process.
The earth has been cycling through global warming and ice ages for a long time. I wish I had brought some of my climatology
books with me.. they do make for interesting reading... and as to 'how do they know what historic climate was like'... arctic and antarctic ice core samples are full of an invaluable wealth of historical climatological information. The earth leaves little signs everywhere to let you know what's happened to it... but I digress.. sorry... that's the geographer in me.
The debate of climate change is not dis-similar to the evolution vs creation stuff... people get so passionate...
Believe what you want to believe, listen (or don't listen) to what you want to. That's the beauty of the world we live in today. There is a freedom for choice, opinion and voice.
