"The Day After Tomorrow"....today? (1 Viewer)

[ChrisHeflen]

Thanks Carlo, for being so kind.

I guess I can halt the building of the weather shelter I had going out back.
Wait a minute, I think brimstone is falling outside...!

 

[Carlo_M]

First let me preface by saying I'm a "sort of environmentalist"--I recycle, don't drive an SUV, carpool when I can, turn off unused lights and appliances, etc. I don't protest and hug trees, but neither do I consume as many resources as I can with no regard to the environment.

But one thing I find funny is the "we're destroying the earth" argument.

We're not. The world has survived gigantic asteroid/meteor strikes, ice ages, etc. Remember that earth is on its THIRD atmosphere. This is just the one that we (humans) can use.

We are [probably] destroying the earth's ability to house us. But we aren't destroying the earth. That's real egocentric of us to think we could do so. All we really can do is wipe ourselves out, and something tells me that earth, were she a sentient being, might not be all that sad to see us go.

The earth will be here long after we are gone...

Have a happy weekend everybody!

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

Carlo - You are echoing George Carlin's thoughts. He has a rant on the "Save the Planet" people. He duly notes that the planet will be fine. It's us humans who need saving.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Magnetic Earth went into overdrive about 20 or 30 years ago. It's moving way faster than it has for as long as we've been able to measure it (which is a long time - compasses are not exactly a new technology).

link.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I saw someone on television the other day attempting to "prove" global warming by saying that the summer of 2004 was the hottest in 500 years. That would seem to indicate that the summer 501 years ago was even hotter - and you can hardly blame the weather in 1503 on man's massive production of greenhouse gases. The fact is the planet has gone through long cycles of cooling and heating for millennia - and it is also the case that if we didn't have some greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that the planet would be too cold to sustain life - or rather, the kind of life we happen to be an example of.

In the 1970s many of the same climate "experts" were telling us that we were threatened by global cooling and that an ice age was just around the corner with falling temperatures and sea levels. In a mere thirty years they've managed to turn 180 degrees - without, as far as I can see, apologizing for being so wrong or even trying to explain why they were. They just hope we'll forget. Why do TV shows continue to interview "scientists" who have proven so spectacularly wrong with each and every theory and prediction, not for years, but for decades?

Later,

Joe

 

[Carlo_M]

Hey, speaking of alarmist thinking, I CLEARLY remember being told in elementary school (way back in the early 80's) that we would be out of oil or very close to it by the year 2000...it was a traumatizing thought for a kid whose parents had to drive him to school every day because the bus didn't come by our house. I thought "how the heck am I getting to school in 2000?"

 

[Kirk Gunn]

It's called an agenda. News outlets prefer to "make" news rather than "report" it. In this example, Global Warming is their "call to action", the way the media can show their influence... Hence, every weather phenomenon is linked somehow to Global Warming. The usual conclusion to this "reporting" is that action must be taken (usually government regulation) to prevent it. Keep checking CNN.Com for multiple examples.

As noted in the previous responses, Global Warming is disputed in the scientific community, but publishing ant-Global-Warming viewpoints would not fit their agenda.

Thank gawd for the internet....

 

[Philip Hamm]

global warming is under less dispute evey year as the effects (desertification, glacier recession) become more obvious. Whether we have enough fossil fuels on the Earth to continue the process is the question I have.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Why can't we run out of oil? Is Mother Nature refilling the reserves somewhere?

Glenn

 

[Jay Taylor]

Billions of people in China and other countries see how westerners travel and the homes they live in. It is understandable that they now want to drive cars instead of rickshaws, and have central heat & air conditioning in their homes.

This will cause the demand for oil to greatly increase. In a very short time the price we pay for gas today will be considered how it was in “the good ol’ days”.

 

[Philip Hamm]

No, there is just a lot that is difficult to get to and/or trapped. There will always be some somewhere that we haven't gotten, for example, in old spent fields like East Texas there is still oil even though it's very difficult to extract now.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Problem is there isn't enough oil on Earth to support that many people using it like that. How much resentment will come from China when Ghawar is in decline and there just isn't the oil for them to live their "U.S.-Style" lives they've been striving for? I wouldn't want to be the one who has to tell them "sorry, we used it all up.".

 

[Carlo_M]

Sorry Philip, I didn't mean to imply that we were never going to run out of oil.

My point was that, even as late as the 80s, kids were being taught that alarmist type of thinking that, quite frankly, has not come true.

Of course our natural resources are not inexhaustible, I don't think anyone disputes that.

 

[DaveNel]

Pretty soon you wont know the seasons, But by the leaves on the trees...........

 

[Mary M S]

The point of my thread was to see if it seems to anybody else that the weather is getting more odd. Yes, I think it is, depending upon where you fall within a defined cylindrical range of possible global changes over vast lengths of time, most definitely we can sense (in the very short term) increased periodic activities.

more like a "hey did you hear the thunder last nite?" thread.


“You know the sound of thunder, Mrs. Garret?”
…“Of Course”
“Can you imagine that sound if I asked you to?”
…”Yes I can Mr. Hickok.”
“Your husband and me had this talk, and I told him to head home to avoid a dark result.
But I didn’t say it in thunder. Ma’am, listen to the thunder.”

Hickok & Alma Garret. Deadwood

Volcanic eruptions while remaining a seismic event do indeed affect weather. And with more time we may discover interactions created by earthquakes emmiting into space, excitment waves, which might effect (who knows what?) I personally presume the earths weather is much futher complicated in action/reaction than we currently hold knowlege, regarding. There is concern ongoing by geologists who watch Anak Krakatau, which like the phoenix is growing from the ashes of its Krakatua parent, amongst other 'hot' spots. There is good science tracking the effects of Volcano’s as regards creating solar radiation filters, responsible for cooler summers and warmer winters, and altering wind and weather patterns. Scientists in Hawaii are researching the effects of Kilauea upon island rainfall and weather patterns.

I for one, do find it fascinating that art follows life when a movie like “The Day After Tomorrow” releases within a year or two of thankfully rare major events, as averaged over hundreds of years. In the science I browse there are respected scientists who research both global warming and its opposing doomsday reverse, an earthwide ice age. Myself, I lean towards the mainstream science concerned more with an ice age over taking the earth regardless of the long-term effects of global warming. However….if what contributes to (shorter term, as in millennia) measurable Global warming poisons us all before the ice can get our descendants.. Well …then ..the point is moot.

The more populated the earth grows, the more critical that we consider our resource limitations, and strive to understand what and how severe are the adverse effects of human industry.

There is so much (delightfully) to learn. Who knows what we will grasp about the interactions of process’s if our future allows great lengths of time for extended exploration. For example I remember spotting some post doctoral work in Geophysics produced by a Ms Artru, which was pretty fascinating about acoustical waves which could be measured sent out beyond earth’s stratosphere, very possibly tied to large Tsunami’s and Earthquakes. It boggles what we might find out about earth-space interactions in the future. An immediate application of value when considering using this theory in reverse, would be if there does exist measurable radio interference after seismic events, that could prove extremely handy in measuring subs/and surface activity on planets we cannot reach.

It’s all both fascinating and horrifying to think what connections we will discover in future both of cause and effect.

 

[Philip Hamm]

It's a shame nobody payed attention to that, because by the time the decline starts (as I've written before, many geologists whose opinions I respect think we're plateauing now, and will be in serious decline very soon) it'll be too late to do anything about it. Make no mistake about it, a decline in oil production means nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it.

But unfortunately that's human nature. Deny, sidestep, and ignore the problem and just hope it goes away as long as everything is fine.... Just like again and again in our past.

 

[Jay Taylor]

My sentiments exactly Philip.

It’s unfortunate that most of us will procrastinate on implementing the necessary replacements for oil until it’s too late.

Perhaps we need more inspiration from events like Y2K to motivate us to implement the ideas that could truly lessen our demand for oil. Ideas like solar cell panels on every roof or in every yard, not only powering our homes, but charging the batteries that could power our cars or separating water into hydrogen & oxygen to power the fuel cells that could power our cars.

 

[Karl_Luph]

Looks like this thread has been hijacked into an agenda for evironmentalists.

 

[Jay Taylor]

Are you sure it was hijacked Karl?

This thread started by bringing up weird weather, destructive hurricanes, and the giant iceberg that broke off near the South Pole. It would be a pretty shallow discussion of these events if we didn’t discuss man’s contribution this phenomenon and the possible fix.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Does anyone else think that the human race causing global warming will postpose the next ice age?

Glenn