Agreeing to Disagree

Over break I had the opportunity to speak with my father about global warming. This is a topic that we have always disagreed about.  My father feels that it is mainly a natural phenomenon and that we don't know enough about the earth patterns to know the real effect of what we are having. He also feels that since it is economically impractical to change at this time that we should hold off until we know more, since it would be such a huge investment.  While I agree that we don't know much about the earth's cyclical patterns I feel that we know enough to realize that we are having some impact and that as our population and global economy get bigger and more fossil fuels dependent it will be more difficult to change in the future.  As many counties are just beginning heavy energy usage it would be better if they skipped the heavily polluting stage and began using alternative energy, except for the huge dam projects which have negative ecological and social impacts.  This is something that we have never agreed upon, and has been the source of many debates between us.  He does not dispute that the earth is warming, just that the earth's system is too complex to know the real causes.  There is a little bit of truth, but I feel that it is best to be safe than sorry, since by the time the problems really hit us it will be to late to change and its not fair to inflict the effects of our mistakes onto future generations.