The Earth is warming, it's hard to deny it. Icecaps and glaciers are melting, some are gone already. You can never "prove" man-made global warming. To do so, you'd need another, um, Earth to use as your control.
Whether it is because of pollution, the sun getting hotter, or some unknown reason, there is cause for concern. What happens when water sources dry up? When it gets too hot to grow food? If the sea levels rise will we have Californians and Florideans looking for new homes? Venice will become unihabitable in 50 years, unless they build their flood control gates, what will happen elsewhere you can't build gates?
The pollution man is dumping into the environment is increasing every day. Asthma, Cancer, and other worse "diseases" that will probably see in our future, are likely results of this. How does the human body respond to having increased levels of poisons in the air we breathe, the food we eat? What are the limits? Noone really knows. On the other hand, someone finally has figured out what the appendix does 2000 years after it was known it exists.
BTW, jet contrails may in fact be preventing global warming. When the skies were shut down after 9-11, and the contrails all dispersed, there was a noticeable increase in the high temps across the entire country. But, again, since it cannot be repeated unless everyone wants to shut down the skies again, you could chock it up as a fluke or a hot day.
I'm not saying everyone should go live in trees, but if we can make cars more fuel efficient or find alternate fuels (voluntary 30 mpg plus initiative, ethanol/hydrogen research), if we can create energy more efficiently (billions and billions are being spent on fusion research), if we can reduce pollution, if we can build effective mass-transit systems (Please note, I'm referring to NY and Chicago mass-transit, not the joke that is Phoenix), these are steps in the right direction. If the US could buy its energy from itself, instead of areas of the world which are less stable, there are economic and political benefits as well. Luckily, you've got the king of Saudie that doesn't care how the money is spent, and a pacified kuwait, for now, but things tend change over decades.
But people never think ahead, and noone thinks of what will happen a generation ahead, until it is too late to matter.
It will start with small changes, requiring more efficient lightbulbs (mini fluorescent) and computer power supplies (80-plus initiative), all electronic devices sold in the future will have to become power-factor compliant (PFC); your car has to pass ever stricter emissions controls, car makers will be required to increase mpg or support alternate (ethanol) fuels. Nuclear power will slowly make a come back. New Appliances that are sold will be required to be more efficient (energy-star). Energy costs will increase to discourage overuse. Water restrictions will increase (bye, bye phoenix lawns). Trash can no longer be incinerated. More money will be spent on mass-transit systems, or carpooling may be required. More forests will become protected and the US government will buy back forest land. (0.08% last year in the US). Most of these you can see already happening around the world, but what everyone is wondering is if these small changes are enough to turn the tide, or if the tide can even be controlled by anything we do.
