For the moment, let’s agree that the changes in climate, that scientists are expounding on, is normal, as many a conservative asserts. That over the eons, climate naturally ebbs and tides.
Then the question is not if humans are a cause. The question is not if humans are the cause. The questions should be;
How much more drastic can the climate change before the human race can not continue living the lifestyle they are currently accustomed to?
and,
Is it even possible today to change the course of climate change such that the human race is not threaten with extinction?
In this debate, the question moves from the validity of anthropogenic climate change to what needs to be done to continue the human species! The former seeks blame, the latter survival.
If, as we agreed earlier, that climate change is natural, then we must also agree that the possibility of climate changes so drastic as to threaten human life. We only have to look back in history to see that there were times when the Earth looked very different, climate wise, than it does today. Anywhere from completely thawed, tropical poles to glacial expansion covering the Earth nearly to the equator!
So, during either of those two extremes, how would humans fair?
One can presume that in the condition where the poles are tropical, as they have been in the past, life is manageable. Human movement further away from the equator might be needed but that is not a major problem. The extinction level probability is that condition where climate changes result in glaciers cover the majority of the Earth, as it has in the past. With global ice coverage, human existence possibly can come dangerously close to extinction! Think about the “migration” of humans that occurs even today as winter approaches. It moves south from the north, towards more tolerable (warm) locales. With global glacial coverage, there will be few, if any, places for “snow birds” to escape to.
So, we agreed at the start that the conservative mantra about climate change being natural is true. We still need to determine, regardless of the cause, how our children, grandchildren and our progeny further into the future will survive on a day-to-day basis.
It is time to stop the blame/denial game and start accepting the fact that life, as we know it, will change. If not for us, most certainly our offspring!