Poll

is global warming a real threat

yes71%71% - 337
no28%28% - 135
Total: 472
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

Cheeky_Ninja06 wrote:

i thought that i would say that maybe one of the reasons the human population has exploded is because of the rise in temperature.

I know i will be told this is mainly due to medical advances etc etc but I dont think that is the sole factor here, if you look at the third world, much of it does not use the latest medical techniques / they arent widely availble. yet the majority of growth is in these third world countries, by this i mean that developed countries e.g. the UK have a pretty steady, low growth rate.

Point being the population has increased most in places where the medical factor isnt especially developed / availble to very many.
There are many reasons the population has risen so quickly and standards in medical care are a major factor.
Charity involvement in the 3rd world saves many lives and the quality of life has risen so much throughout the world in the past century I see little reason that this does not explain the rise in population on it's own.
I can see no reason why increasing temperature would lead to an increase in population, but if you have any evidence that suggests it to be the case I would be interested in seeing it.

Cheeky_Ninja06 wrote:

I dont think anybody here is debating that global warming is happening. as you can observe that it is.

Similarly nobody should be saying things like its never been so hot or so full of co2 etc etc as it has. It may not have been so hot since the last ice age, but previously it has been. This also shouldnt really be up for discussion.

the debate is whether we are the biggest contributers to global warming. i.e. we can control our climate. and whether global warming is actually bad for the environment.
That's not exactly what this debate is about. The title of the thread is: Is Global Warming a Real Threat. I believe it is.  Not to the planet,  nor to all life, nor even to human life - but I do believe it presents a serious socio-economic threat which will lead to a lot of extremes, causing all sorts of horrible problems. When you consider a lot of the problems in Israel/Palestine stem from the need of both sides to have control of the river Jordan for a clean supply of drinking water, imagine what the scenarios where half of the worlds population can't get access to drinking water. People panic and people who believe their survival is at stake do rash things. I think when the effects of global warming are really felt it will be the human response, to what will be ecological disasters, that will present the greatest threat. Think 50x the current numbers of refugees. Wars across the world, economic breakdown.

But then there is the fact that there is a proportional correlation between human carbon emissions and the increase in temperature. The graphs do seem to show that human activity is accelerating the rate global warming. There have been a few scientific reports that claim human activity plays only a minor role - but none that I've read have in any way convinced me, most seemed to leave out key details or seemed to present misleading data.
Goven
/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿
+125|6682|Purdue
I think it's funny that everyone thinks global warming is going to make Earth like uber hot.
jonsimon
Member
+224|6697

Goven wrote:

I think it's funny that everyone thinks global warming is going to make Earth like uber hot.
Well it has been proven that warming from carbon dioxide gasses has caused the Poles to take on climates resembling those in South America. Potentially that could reduce the majority of our land to desert.
Cheeky_Ninja06
Member
+52|6934|Cambridge, England
I know that is the title of the debate but i thought it had moved on a little bit from reading through the debate and yes i have read all of it.

I do not seriously think that global warming has caused the population explosion, it was just something you could deduce from looking at the evidence, our species has been around for thousands of years, and now are population is rapidly increasing. I have no evidence of this what so ever I was just theorising.

anyway back on topic.

correct me if im wrong but we are more likely to have the majority of our land as desert if the earth cools. as all of the rain will instead be in huge ice shelves. The hotter it is, the more water evapourates, thus there is more rain. While it may be true that some areas of the globe could turn to desert, overall as the temperature and co2 levels increase so will the amount of vegetation.

To be honest both sides of the debate are guilty of the same thing. they both leave out a lot of the evidence that doesnt fit with their argument.

You do paint a dire picture. And yes this is one possiblity. However another posibility is that as rainfall increase, the deserts retreat and more of the currently arid land becomes fertile. thus the third world find it much easier to grow their crops, thus can make more money etc etc. The third could become as arrable as europe, it could then prosper etc etc. Im not saying this is the most likely, the truth will probably be somewhere in the middle.
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

This statement from ExxonMobil seems to me very much to be accepting the fact that our "carbon emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change".

ExxonMobil wrote:

Our views on climate change are clearly described in our company publications. We know that carbon emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change - we don't debate or dispute this. We agree with scientific assessments which conclude that climate change poses risks that may prove to be significant for society and ecosystems. Consequently, we should take, and ExxonMobil is taking, steps to reduce and minimize carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations.
Letter to Newsnight, can be found here.
twiistaaa
Member
+87|6870|mexico

Cowbell_Kevin wrote:

Never trust what others may think however because you NEVER know who is paying them to say what they are saying.
even though i agree with you, technically doesnt the oil industry run this place? they can pay for hundreds of scientifc studys that work in their favour.
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

twiistaaa wrote:

Cowbell_Kevin wrote:

Never trust what others may think however because you NEVER know who is paying them to say what they are saying.
even though i agree with you, technically doesnt the oil industry run this place? they can pay for hundreds of scientifc studys that work in their favour.
Why not trust studies by other, more informed individuals? Oil companies have fought for many years to keep global warming as a 'myth', as time progressed the effects of global warming and the contributions of man made carbon emissions have become more and more obvious, now even the oil companies subscribe to these theories, despite their opposing interests. When people support ideas that are totally against their interests, it seems strange to accuse them of making it up. Promoting global warming is in no ones best interests if it isn't real, it will be very expensive to do anything about.
mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6923|Sydney, Australia
The level of mis-information here is sickening.


---Everyone do yourself a favour and go see An Inconvenient Truth---





Mcminty.
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

mcminty wrote:

The level of mis-information here is sickening.


---Everyone do yourself a favour and go see An Inconvenient Truth---





Mcminty.
Good film. Does make a lot of good points, I don't like Al Gores presenting of it though and some of the points are a little misleading. But at least he gets the right message across.
DocZ
Member
+13|6890|Belgium
global warming is over rated, it is a natural occuring phenomenon...  It will eventually lead to a new ice ige, though not so dramatically as the world of tomorrow, but that is the way of things...

And methane gas is a severely worse greenhouse gas than CO2, so you could actually link global warùming due to humanity's flatulence.....

The real threat hanging over our heads is actually underneath us, as the earth's core is actually gradually cooling down for the last few millenia....  if the earth's core goes too cold, it solidifies, and bye bye electro-magnetic field, we'll get nuked by solar radiation....

So you can imagine I am not too worried about "global warming", it's right up there in my over-rated pile together with bird flu and others...

Watch some National Geographic specials people, like "Earth Investigated" and the like, and read up on related topics....
ELITE-UK
Scratching my back
+170|6676|SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND
how ever says global warming isnt a threat should be shot on the spot!!!
SysTray
"Generous mods" < Thats right Systray !
+180|7023|Delaware

jarhedch wrote:

not a threat, a boat load of media hype, look at the temperature records, wqarming and cooling is a NATURAL trend that has ahppened for millions of years, and climate change has yet to be proven in response to global warming. and that "great" institution known as the UN has become less accurate with their figures the more studies they have done. Sound like progress huh?
This is something I can agree to.
DocZ
Member
+13|6890|Belgium

ELITE-UK wrote:

how ever says global warming isnt a threat should be shot on the spot!!!
I say global warming is not a threat!!!!  Are you coming down here to shoot me for having a different opinion than you??????
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

DocZ wrote:

global warming is over rated, it is a natural occuring phenomenon...  It will eventually lead to a new ice ige, though not so dramatically as the world of tomorrow, but that is the way of things...

And methane gas is a severely worse greenhouse gas than CO2, so you could actually link global warùming due to humanity's flatulence.....

The real threat hanging over our heads is actually underneath us, as the earth's core is actually gradually cooling down for the last few millenia....  if the earth's core goes too cold, it solidifies, and bye bye electro-magnetic field, we'll get nuked by solar radiation....

So you can imagine I am not too worried about "global warming", it's right up there in my over-rated pile together with bird flu and others...

Watch some National Geographic specials people, like "Earth Investigated" and the like, and read up on related topics....
If you'd read the whole thread you'd probably see that a lot of people here have done a lot of reading into global warming. It is a real threat, not to the world, but to human civilisation.

You are right, methane is a worse greenhouse gas than CO2, but much less methane is given off than CO2. The biggest source of methane is livestock the second biggest is melting permafrost - which is part of the snowball effect of global warming.
Bertster7
Confused Pothead
+1,101|6783|SE London

SysTray wrote:

jarhedch wrote:

not a threat, a boat load of media hype, look at the temperature records, wqarming and cooling is a NATURAL trend that has ahppened for millions of years, and climate change has yet to be proven in response to global warming. and that "great" institution known as the UN has become less accurate with their figures the more studies they have done. Sound like progress huh?
This is something I can agree to.
Except for the fact that it isn't true. Have you actually looked at the temperature records? There is an upward trend, a big upward trend. There is a natural warming trend, the problem is the rate of change, which is unprecedented. The IPCC (I think that's who you mean when you say the UN) models have become MORE accurate with their studies as time has progressed and all observations have been above predicted rates of change.

Read the thread.
DocZ
Member
+13|6890|Belgium
There is and has always been an upward trend in temp, followed by a downward trend....
No, I am not denying the fact that nowadays this trend is going faster than previous ones.  But we simply say that it is the natural way of things...  Rise in temp followed by fall in temp...  It is a threat to mankind's society as it exists today, but we will survive...  Our ancestors survived global warming and ice ages before, so why can't we..?  The earth's atmosphere will recuperate in time...

I simply meant to say there are far worse and bigger threats to survival than global warming: asteroid impact (four times more likely to occur than getting struck by lightning - TRUE FACT), cooling down of earth's core (which IS happening), Supervolcanoes (like Yellowstone park, which is in fact one large supervolcano), repolarisation of north and south poles (which has occurred in history multiple times before), ...
mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6923|Sydney, Australia

DocZ wrote:

There is and has always been an upward trend in temp, followed by a downward trend....
No, I am not denying the fact that nowadays this trend is going faster than previous ones.  But we simply say that it is the natural way of things...  Rise in temp followed by fall in temp...  It is a threat to mankind's society as it exists today, but we will survive...  Our ancestors survived global warming and ice ages before, so why can't we..?  The earth's atmosphere will recuperate in time...
That is true, but the level of CO2 has been relativly low for the last 650,000 years compared to what it has been in the last 40 years.

We are forcing change on the environment due to the industrialisation of the world.


You state that our 'ancestors' survived an ice age many [10,000] years ago. The difference is that the change was gradual. What is happening in todays' world is a sudden and violent change in the processes of the earths ecosystem.

To put the rate of change in perspective, lets look at the last 650,000 years, the number of years that can have their CO2 and Temperature records read (via arctic core samples).

Say an average generation is 22 years long. Out of the past 29,000 generations, it is only in this last ONE GENERATION that we have so drastically altered the earths environment.

This is a change that evolution cannot overcome, not this time.



The facts are undeniable:

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures of soothing and baffling expenditures, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."


-Winston Churchilll-



mcminty.
DrDemise
Member
+1|6618
Alright... I dont play BF2... I found this forum's topic on google while searching for something to do with global warming, i forget... Anyway, I just figured I would give some incite on this topic

Just to let you know, 2006 from January to August has now been deemed the hottest year on record since 1934 during the Dust Bowl. Look it up. The year to hold that record before this was 2005.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2700.htm
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/recordtemp2005.html

Ok.... first of all, Global Warming is real... and in the recent century it has definitely, at least in a large percentage, been caused by us....

As James Hanson (the leading climate scientist for NASA) has said on the show “60 Minutes”, his research shows that man has just 10 years to begin to reverse greenhouse gas emissions, or global warming will reach a tipping point and will be unstoppable.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml

Here is another link about James Hanson:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?ex=1296190800&en=28e236da0977ee7f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Let us think about this. I will lay down some FACTS:

Global Warming: the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. Global warming started long before the "Industrial Revolution" and the invention of the internal combustion engine. Global warming began 18,000 years ago as the earth started warming its way out of the Pleistocene Ice Age-- a time when much of North America, Europe, and Asia lay buried beneath great sheets of glacial ice.

What Are Greenhouse Gases?
Some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, while others result from human activities. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Certain human activities, however, add to the levels of most of these naturally occurring gases:

Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), and wood and wood products are burned.

Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock.

Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels.

Very powerful greenhouse gases that are not naturally occurring include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which are generated in a variety of industrial processes.

Each greenhouse gas differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. HFCs and PFCs are the most heat-absorbent. Methane traps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs 270 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Often, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are presented in units of millions of metric tons of carbon equivalents (MMTCE), which weights each gas by its GWP value, or Global Warming Potential.

The most Abundant Greenhouse gas would be Water Vapor. The next, Carbon Dioxide.
This information of greenhouse gasses comes from US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Climate Report. http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/Climate.html

OK… Greenhouse Gasses are actually good. Without them, our planet would be about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler (from its average 60 degree Fahrenheit temperature) than it is today. So we do need them.

CO2 and Temperature Records:

Here are 2 links to CO2 and Temperature Records both taken from Wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Co2-temperature-plot.png

Here’s a paragraph from C. Donald Ahrens Meteorology Today Eighth Edition, pg. 6:

“Carbon dioxide is another important greenhouse gas because, like water vapor, it traps a portion of the earth’s outgoing energy.  Consequently, with everything else being equal, as the atmospheric concentration of CO2 increases, so should the average global surface temperature. Mathematical model experiments that predict future atmospheric conditions estimate that increasing levels of CO2 (and other greenhouse gasses) will result in a global warming of surface air between 1.4°C and 5.8°C (about 2.5°F and 10.5°F) by the year 2100. Such warming could result in a variety of consequences, such as increasing precipitation in certain areas and reducing it in others as the global air currents that guide the major storm systems across the earth begin to shift from their “normal” paths.”

In Antarctica, measurements of CO2 concentrations and temperature go back 650,000 years and at no point in the last 650,000 years before the preindustrial era did the CO2 concentration go above 300 parts per million (0.03 percent by volume of the atmosphere). Today’s concentration is at about 380 ppm (0.038 percent by volume of the atmosphere).

Now unless we cut down emissions and start using more renewable sources of energy our co2 level will double in the next 50 years and triple in the next 100 years. This is not a good thing.  That kind of warming is not a good thing. BAD

World Population:

All information on Population is from Wikipedia.com

1900: 1.7 Billion
1950: 2.5 Billion
1970: 3.7 Billion
Early 2006: 6.5 Billion

Here is a link that shows the rising population… just interesting. http://www.netlingo.com/more/poptick.html

OK… Now let’s think… The World’s population has risen roughly 3 billion in the last 30 years. What does that mean for pollution emissions? As far as I can tell, they are going to rise just as they have since the Industrial Revolution, but more likely at a far larger rate… More people driving cars, more people heating and cooling homes, more power plants, larger and more landfills… To me, there doesn’t seem to be much of any change in the way we are powering ourselves… Coal seems to be the predominating source, and a change to more renewable sources that would outweigh our huge amount of coal power sources doesn’t seem too promising in the future, for not only America, but for much of the world. For example…
China is currently in an industrial revolution of their own. That’s a great thing, but they are using old technology such as coal. They plan to build one coal fired power plant every week for the next seven years. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11080450/site/newsweek/ With a population of 1,313,973,713, they are forming cities the size of Manhattan very quickly... I am not sure of the exactly how long their cities are being built.

Ok I’m done… I don’t feel like explaining positive feedbacks from the warming or anything else… I am bored now.

You people who think that this isnt a problem should educate yourselves.


DocZ wrote:

global warming is over rated, it is a natural occuring phenomenon...  It will eventually lead to a new ice ige, though not so dramatically as the world of tomorrow, but that is the way of things...

And methane gas is a severely worse greenhouse gas than CO2, so you could actually link global warùming due to humanity's flatulence.....

The real threat hanging over our heads is actually underneath us, as the earth's core is actually gradually cooling down for the last few millenia....  if the earth's core goes too cold, it solidifies, and bye bye electro-magnetic field, we'll get nuked by solar radiation....

So you can imagine I am not too worried about "global warming", it's right up there in my over-rated pile together with bird flu and others...

Watch some National Geographic specials people, like "Earth Investigated" and the like, and read up on related topics....
First of all Methane is not necessarily a "severely" worse greenhouse gas because of its lack of abundance. HFCs PFCs and nitrous oxide all absorb way more heat than both carbon dioxide and methane. So that is pretty irrelevant.

Secondly, I’m not too sure where you got this information the earth's core... it may be cooling but it is at such a slow rate it really should not be much of any worry for us. Also the earth's electro-magnetic field has died down and reversed many times just in the past million years and there are no links to it's reversals and extinction events... though intensified solar radiation would not be the greatest thing.

Last edited by DrDemise (2006-10-03 14:07:14)

DrDemise
Member
+1|6618

Cheeky_Ninja06 wrote:

yes i know the global warming theory, i was merely commenting on the fact that even tho the hole in the ozone has definitely been shrinking since we stopped cfc contamination, vilhelm was saying that the sun was not the cause of global warming yet it was the UV that is the main factor in global warming, which we know is untrue. / has yet to be proved....

i do agree however that nuclear power is the next alternative, and i also agree it is safe, efficient and the only problems have been over hyped by our helpful media.

however I'm guessing that if every car had a little nuclear reactor inside it, then not only would it be very expensive it would lead to interesting car accidents.

CO2, again this has been said at the beginning of the thread. the atmosphere ATM is CO2 impoverished. we have one of the lowest percentages of CO2 ever. no not since 1850 or even the last 2 thousand years. i mean over the last 6 billion years. ( well as far back as the ice and seabed cores will show us, which is a damned long way, look back to about page four to find the appropriate posts).

also agreed on the research. instead of fecking around reducing carbon emissions we should be developing an alternative / building nuclear. but i disagree that global warming hysteria is helping this research. if the hysteria disappeared we would be looking at the oil reserves and thinking hmmmm we need an alternative instead of trying to predict global temp over the next century....
OK... Simply put.. Your Wrong.

The hole in the ozone layer has NOT been shrinking since we minimized the usage of CFC.

"David Hofmann, director of the NOAA Global Atmospheric Monitoring Program described the status of the ozone layer today as, "the patient hasn't recovered, but it's not getting any sicker. We really have not seen any recovery in Antarctica." NOAA predicts that it could take until 2060 for the ozone layer to heal completely, provided humans stop all release of man-made substances containing chlorine (or bromine)."
http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag210.htm


I am also going to have to disagree with you about nuclear power... It really is NOT safe as it allows countries easier access to making nuclear weapons.  Also the amount of Nuclear Power Plants needed to power the US is enormous putting national security at risk...

Also what u said about CO2 is not at all true and thats basically all that needs to be said.

Thirdly, it is ridiculous to think that the "hysteria" about Global Warming is not helping the research of new sources of power.  Without the concerns of Global Warming there would be much less concern about the future of our planet and a lot less government spending on alternative power sources, not that there seems to be much in the United States as it is definetly run by Oil Companies (Exxon).

Last edited by DrDemise (2006-10-03 14:33:21)

mcminty
Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.
+879|6923|Sydney, Australia

DrDemise wrote:

Cheeky_Ninja06 wrote:

CO2, again this has been said at the beginning of the thread. the atmosphere ATM is CO2 impoverished. we have one of the lowest percentages of CO2 ever. no not since 1850 or even the last 2 thousand years. i mean over the last 6 billion years. ( well as far back as the ice and seabed cores will show us, which is a damned long way, look back to about page four to find the appropriate posts).
OK... Simply put.. Your Wrong... what u said about CO2 is not at all true and thats basically all that needs to be said.
I will add to that point that you are wrong, by using a graph displayed earlier.:

https://img397.imageshack.us/img397/46/globaltempvsco21uu.gif

Over the last 600 million years, forestation of the world, and the absorption of CO2 into the oceans has resulted in the gradual decline in atmosphere levels, but growing storage of carbon in plants and CO2 in the oceans.


Now, over the past generations, we have been rapidly clearing these forests; these carbon stores. The carbon is being released into the atmosphere again. For example in combustion:
C(s) + O2(g) -----> CO2(g)


One thing you learn in science, is "matter can neither be created or destroyed". The atmosphere has had 7000PPM of CO2 in the past, so by destroying all the carbon stores (forests) we will be releasing CO2. There is enough of it to reach that old level.




OK, now I hear that the graph only shows a downwards trend. Am I right?

That graph in invalid for our very recent history. The graph represents a period of 600 million years. It fits this into 517 pixels. That means each pixel represents over 1.1 million years!.

Now put your face right up to the computer screen. Look at that one pixel. Doesn't say much about how we are fucking our planet over blissfully ignorant, does it?


Mcminty.
UON
Junglist Massive
+223|6855
That netlingo pop clock pissed me off by not working in Firefox.  I hate it when people exploit IE quirks to get their Javascript running then blame firefox when it doesn't work.  Here's a stripped down fixed version which will run in Firefox and IE.  If you want a working version, save this as popclock.html or something.
Code:<html><head</head><body onload="maind()"> <script language="JavaScript"> var now1, now2, growthpercent, growthpersecond, startpop, totalpop var startdate = new Date() var popdatadate = new Date (96,1,1) function maind() { now1 = 5700000000.0 now2 = 5790000000.0 growthpercent = (now2 - now1) / now1 *100 growthpersecond = (now1 * (growthpercent/100))/365.0/24.0/60.0/60.0 startpop= (new Date().getTime() - popdatadate.getTime())/1000*growthpersecond + now1 now(startdate) } function ChangeValue(number,pv) { numberstring =""; var j=0 while (number > 1) { numberstring=(Math.round(number-0.5)%10)+numberstring number/=10.0 j=j++%3 if (j==3)numberstring = "," + numberstring } numberstring= " " + numberstring+".00" if (pv==1) { document.popclock.popclock.value = numberstring } if (pv==2) { document.popclock.newpop.value = numberstring } } function now(date) { startdate= new Date(date) startdate.setTime(startdate.getTime()+2000) var totalpop= (new Date().getTime() - popdatadate.getTime())/1000*growthpersecond + now1 ChangeValue(totalpop,1); ChangeValue(totalpop-startpop,2); timerID = setTimeout("now(new Date())",200) } </script> <form name="popclock">Current Population on Earth:<br/><input name="popclock" size="25" value="" type="text"> <br>Number of People Born since page refresh:<br/><input name="newpop" size="25" value="" type="text"> </form><body></html>
So as not to be completely offtopic: The massive rate of population increase does seem to be relevant to this debate.  The constantly increasing population is at risk of causing the 'bacteria in a bottle' scenario, and those figures quoted show that if humanity continues to grow at this rate, we will eventually convert all the energy stored in the earth (mainly oil, soil, plantlife and uranium) into forms useless to us, and essentially be stuck with a mixture of barren desert and polar ice (i forsee a big melt raising water level, thus reflecting more heat, followed by a big freeze engulfing most of the new waterworld), with perhaps two small bands of habitable land where the two main terrain types meet.  And the exponential part of the recent human growth equation means that it will be very tricky to predict when this will occur.  Actually, I suppose we'll get a plenty of solar energy, even if we only live to 20 from being fried by the UV radiation...

Last edited by UnOriginalNuttah (2006-10-03 16:02:11)

Fadediesel
Member
+15|6618|Emmaus, Pennsylvania

Goven wrote:

I think it's funny that everyone thinks global warming is going to make Earth like uber hot.
Ask Al Gore, he'll tell ya since he's being known as Mr. Global Warming nowadays.

Last edited by Fadediesel (2006-10-03 16:05:49)

Twist
Too old to be doing this sh*t
+103|6725|Little blue planet, milky way

mcminty wrote:

DrDemise wrote:

Cheeky_Ninja06 wrote:

CO2, again this has been said at the beginning of the thread. the atmosphere ATM is CO2 impoverished. we have one of the lowest percentages of CO2 ever. no not since 1850 or even the last 2 thousand years. i mean over the last 6 billion years. ( well as far back as the ice and seabed cores will show us, which is a damned long way, look back to about page four to find the appropriate posts).
OK... Simply put.. Your Wrong... what u said about CO2 is not at all true and thats basically all that needs to be said.
I will add to that point that you are wrong, by using a graph displayed earlier.:

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/46/g … co21uu.gif

Over the last 600 million years, forestation of the world, and the absorption of CO2 into the oceans has resulted in the gradual decline in atmosphere levels, but growing storage of carbon in plants and CO2 in the oceans.


Now, over the past generations, we have been rapidly clearing these forests; these carbon stores. The carbon is being released into the atmosphere again. For example in combustion:
C(s) + O2(g) -----> CO2(g)


One thing you learn in science, is "matter can neither be created or destroyed". The atmosphere has had 7000PPM of CO2 in the past, so by destroying all the carbon stores (forests) we will be releasing CO2. There is enough of it to reach that old level.




OK, now I hear that the graph only shows a downwards trend. Am I right?

That graph in invalid for our very recent history. The graph represents a period of 600 million years. It fits this into 517 pixels. That means each pixel represents over 1.1 million years!.

Now put your face right up to the computer screen. Look at that one pixel. Doesn't say much about how we are fucking our planet over blissfully ignorant, does it?


Mcminty.
I really love the way that the "extremists" are shouting at this chart and saying the "it's not valid for our recent history"... That same way you do.... You see, the thing is, that you CANT really produce a decent chart of our "recent history" that can be of much use, because:
1) We have not been collecting meteorological data long enough
2) We are unable to identify "recent history" from core samples of the arctic ice (though with global warming on the rise, who knows, we may have melted that evidence by now, huh ?)
3) Through out "recent" (the last 2-3000 years) history we KNOW that temperatures have fluctuated WILDLY creating desserts on on area, and fertile farming land in others OVER TIME. But relying on such "nonsense" as written recods of farming outputs of verious tribes, wars, etc which are not meteorological data is just not done.
4) There are OTHER factors that influence "global warming", like, solar reflection, stellar radiation, core tempearature, vulcanic activity. And NOONE can tell me that they have accounted for it all

That being said, I do not disagree that global warming ISN'T a threat.... Because I do believe that it is, I just dont believe that it's irreversible, and I CERTAINLY dont believe that the industrial revolution is "the sole sinner" in all of this.

Now if we simply ignore all the industry.. just for the fun of it.... We KNOW that methane gasses account for almost 10 times as much "global warming" as co2. And we KNOW exactly how much a cow farts each day (not as much as a termite, but definately a LOT). And we KNOW that LOADS of forrests (which stores carbon) are being cleared so that we can eat beef. Wouldn't MACDONALDS then be the huge sinner ?

And I dont even blame the americans, or even the chineese. They're people too, and they need to live aswell. Personally, I blame governments for NOT banning reckless use of fossil fuels, for NOT subsidising alternate power production, for NOT regulating industrial waste, for allowing the use of non recyclable plastics, for generally protecting the intrests of big businesses, and NOT the intrests of the PEOPLE whom they are supposed to SERVE !

Now THAT being said, I'm NOT a freaking commie treehugging liberal asshat who hates everything about big businesses. I just hate the ones that put on a happy face and pollute like a flatulent baby with no diaper on, making up "ethic awarenes" and "environmental respponsibility" programs without actually following through. I see too many companies who say crap like the Exxon, shell, ford etc. quotes given in this thread, And most of the companies that have these "strategies" dont ACT on them. And why should they ? Most consumers dont really CARE that they pollute, so there's really not that much business in selling solar powered cars, or hydrogen based powersupplys. But the STOCKHOLDERS certainly care that it costs money to develop and market these "gimmicks", so THAT'S gotta be stopped in the name of the almighty dollar. God forbid we actually started spending money on something worthwhile, when we can pay out huge dividends to our shareholders so they can buy a new gas-guzzler.

Now I'm happy that I'll be getting myself a nice house with enough solar panels to suit my heating and electrical needs throughout the year, and I'll be adding a water recycling unit at some point in time also. Not because I'm some survivalist, or because I save a lot of dough, because I dont. That stuff is FREAKING expensive, I'm spending my annual salary to save so small an amount of money that any economist would call me crazy. I'm not doing it for the money, I'm doing it because it's RIGHT. And what do I get for my trouble ? The FREGGIN government is charging me 10c pr kW of power I produce, for CO2 emissions... On my freaking SOLAR panels !!!!!!!!
DrDemise
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lol
.:XDR:.PureFodder
Member
+105|7031

Twist wrote:

Now if we simply ignore all the industry.. just for the fun of it.... We KNOW that methane gasses account for almost 10 times as much "global warming" as co2. And we KNOW exactly how much a cow farts each day (not as much as a termite, but definately a LOT). And we KNOW that LOADS of forrests (which stores carbon) are being cleared so that we can eat beef. Wouldn't MACDONALDS then be the huge sinner ?
Ok, that's actually wrong.

The greenhouse effect from a single methane molecule is ten times stronger than that of a single CO2 molecule.

There are two further factors that cointribute to the global warming effect.
a) How much is it produced?
b) How fast is it removed from the atmosphere?

We simply produce far more CO2 than methane and methane breaks down faster, hence CO2 has a far greater impact on global warming than methane.

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