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Originally Posted by Sticky
First, just to get this out of the way, we can still treat the symptoms of the problem even though we may not be positive about the origin. Not that I have any ideas how, but maybe for the time being, while we continue to research the causes, we focus on trying to work on that problems that global warming may be causing.
I agree, it is important to know what the causes are in order to be able to find solutions, however, I don't think the determining factor of whether or not there is anything we can do is directly (or only) related to whether or not global warming is anthropogenic.
I believe that there are things we can do if we know the cause even if global warming is not anthropogenic.
The actual cause will be the determining factor of whether or not there is anything we can do.
For example, IF the (only) cause is the sun and we know it, can't we work on ways to protect the earth from the effects of ths sun?
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This is precisely what I'm saying, though. At this point, we don't actually have any evidence that there
is a problem.
Look, nobody's saying global warming isn't happening. Temperatures have gone up in the last century or so; the exact amount and the causes are open to discussion, but that it's happening isn't. How do we know that this is a bad thing, though?
I mean, sure, species are going extinct. Go talk to the dinosaurs, they'll tell you that's been happening for hundreds of millions of years. Ecological systems are changing; that happens too.
Your last statement actually highlights a lot of the misunderstanding, I think. The sun isn't the sole cause here, because there is no one single cause. There's myriad small causes and factors and circumstances that, when taken together, seem to indicate that there may be a problem. Or maybe not. We don't really know because, as Ustwo pointed out, the whole thing is far too complicated for us to be able to really effectively isolate any one individual case of cause and effect.
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Originally Posted by Augi
Gravity is not a real force but is the effect of inertial motion through the curvature of space-time.
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You're right, this pretty much discredits Newton's Principia (or at least the part of it pertaining to gravitational theory). The Principia is obsolete, though. Modern gravitational theory is a component of general relativity (which pretty much says what you said, only in more scientific terms).
You can try to disprove the whole heliocentric solar system thing, though. Y'know, if you want to.