Should we take action to mitigate the man-made causes of global warming?

It's a hot topic, debated on every news channel and internet forum. Is global warming (or its new moniker "climate change") really happening?* If so, are we causing it?

Those are the wrong questions. The questions we need to ask are:

1. What will happen if we don't do something and man-made global warming is really happening?
2. What will happen if we don't do something and global warming is real, but not man-made?
3. What will happen if we don't do something and global warming isn't real?
4. What will happen if we do something and global warming isn't real?
5. What will happen if we do something and global warming is real, but not man-made?
6. What will happen if we do something and man-made global warming is real?

I have taken the time to answer those questions in this handy little chart. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, so feel free to copy and share the image however you like.



* Scientific evidence from many different disciplines show that the Earth has been getting warmer every decade. The first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record, and this decade looks like it will be even warmer.