Roots

Let's see:

Global warming -- too much consumerism!
So that's the root, eh?

I think the root cause of global warming is an overly active Sun.

Couple of reasons why:

At no point over hundreds of millions of years has CO2 ever driven climate change! Take a look at this chart showing CO2 levels vs temps and you'll see what I mean.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toptechwriter/112747981/in/set-72157594504592593/

Notice that in the distant past CO2 levels were 17 times as high as now, wonder what prevented us from becoming like Venus?

Next point, take a look at this NASA site for weather station data. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/station_data/
Click on a high northern latitude place like Alaska and you'll see the stations that are in that region. Click on the ones with really long term data and you'll see we're not even as warm as it was back in the 1930-40s.

Next point, take a look at this description as to how NASA calculates surface temperatures that get used to create the scary graphics showing the world about to burn up:

"This can only be done with the help of computer models, the same models that are used to create the daily weather forecasts. We may start out the model with the few observed data that are available and fill in the rest with guesses (also called extrapolations) and then let the model run long enough so that the initial guesses no longer matter, but not too long in order to avoid that the inaccuracies of the model become relevant. This may be done starting from conditions from many years, so that the average (called a 'climatology') hopefully represents a typical map for the particular month or day of the year."

In a nutshell: First we start with a guess, then we add more guesses, then we stop when we guess it's about to become inaccurate! And they call that "science".

Last point, we're just coming out of a Little Ice Age that occurred some 400 years ago, it's completely reasonable for temps to be rising!

Maybe consumerism is a bad thing (I don't agree) but it's certainly not causing global warming.

By the way, maybe you think it's a bad thing for people to live where they want, but it's called "freedom". Try to keep in mind that telling other people how you think they should pursue happiness is the height of arrogance.

Bit o' constructive criticism: you come across well in close-up, but please drop the condescending "peeps" and "people" and the like--it really doesn't seem genuine (unless you're one of those who uses hearts and smilie faces to dot your "i"s when you write--in which case, never mind).