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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:34 am Post subject: The earth will be irreparably damaged within a decade. |
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Brace yourselves for unfolding disaster within your lifetimes: soon all your plans will become immaterial to the fact that we may be the last generation to know civilised life on Earth. You may not even get to use your pension scheme.
The scientist who first raised the alarm about global warming has said if greenhouse gases continue to be produced at current levels, the planet will be irreparably damaged within a decade.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1207/climate.html
Earth feels effects of global warming
December 7, 2005
This year is likely to go down as the hottest, stormiest and driest ever on Planet Earth in recorded history, making a strong case for the urgent need to combat global warming, said a report released yesterday at the UN Climate Change Conference.
http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=55&fArticleId=3026021
2005 the hottest and stormiest on record
http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/Full_Story/did-sglJycc4FGmKwsgdL11Zs5FWAE.asp
2005 Worst For Extreme Weather
http://wcco.com/topstories/topstories_story_341232359.html
Thousands Dying from Global Warming
More people than earlier are dying from heat strokes, cold, various virus infections, hay fevers, floods and other unusual causes in Europe as well as in poor countries.
http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=51620
2005 Costliest Year for Extreme Weather
WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (IPS) - The world has suffered more than 200 billion dollars in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters over the past year, making 2005 the costliest year on record.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31316 |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:38 am Post subject: |
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| Now I feel really bad for sledgehammering all those old refrigerators and air-conditioners... |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| Pligganease wrote: |
| Now I feel really bad for sledgehammering all those old refrigerators and air-conditioners... |
Thats the spirit pligganease. personally I'll be smiling and laughing right up to the point my 10th floor appartment goes underwater. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:14 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The world has suffered more than 200 billion dollars in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters over the past year, making 2005 the costliest year on record. |
you KNOW that those numbers only go up when rich places get slammed. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| khyber wrote: |
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| The world has suffered more than 200 billion dollars in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters over the past year, making 2005 the costliest year on record. |
you KNOW that those numbers only go up when rich places get slammed. |
Absolutely. But that still doesn't change the fact 2005 has been the worst on record for extreme weather. Or that the Arctic ice has suddenly started to vanish at an unprecedented rate over the past 20 years.
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:40 am Post subject: heavilly |
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| ...heavily |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:37 am Post subject: Re: The earth will be irreparably damaged within a decade. |
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| rapier wrote: |
| Brace yourselves for unfolding disaster within your lifetimes: soon all your plans will become immaterial to the fact that we may be the last generation to know civilised life on Earth. You may not even get to use your pension scheme. |
I'm not sure what to make of the "pension scheme" remark. Are you suggesting that any of us would get to use our pension scheme if there wasn't a global disaster? Or do you really have that deep a capacity for irony? |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Or that the Arctic ice has suddenly started to vanish at an unprecedented rate over the past 20 years. |
there's a LOT of ice...don't worry...we're alright for a while. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the people who live there are worried...
http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2005/12/08/ap2377508.html
Regardless of what you believe the causes of climate change to be (man-made pollution, natural Earth cycle, or some combination of the two), the fact is we have to be prepared to deal with the effects of climate change. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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And that folks, is the closest that Bulsajo and Rapier will ever come to agreeing on anything.  |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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| What I wanna know is, why are all the Canadians opposed to global warming? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| What I wanna know is, why are all the Canadians opposed to global warming? |
Canada will have to deal with sovereingty issues soon.
Melting Arctic Ice Risks Canada US Territorial Dispute
Montreal (AFP) Dec 01, 2005
Global warming is melting the Arctic ice so fast that a new sea route is opening up between the Atlantic and the Pacific -- and with it the risk of a territorial dispute.
http://www.terradaily.com/news/iceage-05s.html
Denmark 'Goes Viking' in Canada's Arctic Islands —
Strategic Resources of the High Arctic entice the Danes
http://www.sfu.ca/casr/id-arcticviking1.htm
Qoute Khyber:
| Quote: |
| there's a LOT of ice...don't worry...we're alright for a while. |
A third of it has gone in 25 years! And the rate is increasing. As more land is uncovered, more ground thaws, moe carbon released, the whole process speeds up out of control.
All the scientists models for climate change so far have had to be revised in the face of a quickening effect that they didn't foresee.
First they were saying the Arctic will be ice free by 2100. Now they're saying 2050..
My own idea is that Earths climate is like a spoon balanced on a pin. You keep adding grains of salt to it, and at a certain point it collapses. that is what we're seeing now.
The earths climate hasn't been this warm for half a million years.
"But don't worry..its all going to be OK."
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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My worst possible assessment is this- a combination of factors that jump off the scale, within the next 15-20 years:
*World population (now 6 billion already) outstrips dwindling resources- worsened by increasing aridification of formerly productive agricultural belts. (Africa/ Midwest USA).
*Environmental degradation surges to meet the demand of growing economies in India and China (we're talking no more rainforest within a decade or so): polluted rivers and oceans due to accelerted industrialisation through Asia. (We're already seeing this- including massive red tides and coastal die-offs).
*Increasing outbreaks of disease and famine that go hand in hand with overcrowded human conditions and environmental damage. Diseases usually contained within ecosystems are released to humans).
* escalating conflict over failing resources- serious warfare involving nuclear weaponry. Terrorism and the escalating Islamic war is just a symptom of this: rich vs poor.
* Shut down of ocean currents, due to melting of polar ice. this causes an ice age across the northern hemisphere, and desertification at the tropics.
All of these can trigger eachother relatively quickly, and we're on the brink. all the signs are happening already. The orgy of consumption by the US and the world other richest nations cannot last, and it will end in disaster that brings the world back into the stone age. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:30 am Post subject: |
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From your own article..to clarify:
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| Climate scientists have long suspected that warming the oceans around a very cold continent is likely to dramatically increase snowfall. |
The oceans are warming. Increased evaporation =more snowfall on Antarctica. Its not warm enough to come down as rain there yet.
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| Recent climate changes have led to a fairly large warming trend in the region around the Antarctic Peninsula—the spit of land the stretches from the Antarctic mainland towards the southern tip of South America. In this region, comprising about 2% of the entirety of Antarctica, significant changes associated with rising temperatures are being observed—floating ice shelves are breaking up, glaciers are shrinking, seal species are moving in, grasses, tiny shrubs and mosses are thriving, etc |
This is because the surrounding oceans have warmed, bringing warmer air. It is localised. But in the vast interior of antarctica, it has brought more snow, as explained earlier. All this will go when the protective ice sheets melt.
He goes on to (lamely) suggest:
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| By most accounts, transitioning from a relatively barren, frozen landscape to a warmer, less frozen one would seem to be a positive development, as this change presents a growing opportunity for increased species richness and diversity |
Where'd you find this guy? Just cause one area gets warmer, doesn't mean its good news.
It means that all the species adapted to thrive in that particular climate over millenia, will vanish as climate change alters their environment. Yes, a host of other species will move in. But they belong in their own niche, somewhere else. We're talking about less global diversity, not more.
New species can't suddenly evolve and come into being in the few decades to replace what is suddenly being lost en masse now. |
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