Quote from ssternlight:
I might be more inclined to agree with you if you could pull up some links to support your contention about global cooling.
Having said that, Lindzen's primary argument is that the evidence isn't conclusive that human activities are causing the warming not that the earth isn't warming or C02 accumulating. Basically, he argues that the earth goes through cycles and that this is just another one.
Other scientists say that the amount of warming exceeds any cyclical component. Someone's right and someone's wrong. If Lindzen is wrong then the world has wasted time while it has a serious issue to deal with. If the scientific consenus is wrong then all we end up with is a cleaner environment. What's the downside to prudence? It's not like you can't pass through the costs of compliance to consumers after all.
Some links discussing the cycles of global cooling and warming:
From the Center for Global Food Issues:
http://www.cgfi.org/materials/articles/2004/jan_12_04.htm
Frontier Center for Public Policy (Tim Ball actually says we are still cooling down):
http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=864
In another thread, the same argument was made with regards to it not hurting to be prudent, but there are costs and it affects the lowest income levels the most. I'm sure you understand this considering your acknowledgement that the cost could be passed on to the consumer.
I am all for alternative energy sources, but they have to be able to sustain the level of efficiency that fossil fuels provide us at this point. Nuclear energy is clearly the best solution we have at this time. If anything, we should be working toward converting our electric companies at this point while development of electric cars is fine tuned.
I don't know if you have seen this video clip before, but this looks like it could be the next big thing in alternative energy sources:
http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/2602.html