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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 2:05 am Post subject: Are you afraid for your children? |
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Do you ever find yourself wondering whether your child/children (for those of you who have or want any) will inherit a totally altered planet (or even not live to inherit it at all)?
Sigh. I wish I could say climate change was a load of crap...and truly believe it.
| David Attenborough wrote: |
I was sceptical about climate change. I was cautious about crying wolf. I am always cautious about crying wolf. I think conservationists have to be careful in saying things are catastrophic when, in fact, they are less than catastrophic.
.....
But I'm no longer sceptical. Now I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. I have waited until the proof was conclusive that it was humanity changing the climate. The thing that really convinced me was the graphs connecting the increase of carbon dioxide in the environment and the rise in temperature, with the growth of human population and industrialisation. The coincidence of the curves made it perfectly clear we have left the period of natural climatic oscillation behind and have begun on a steep curve, in terms of temperature rise, beyond anything in terms of increases that we have seen over many thousands of years. |
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article570935.ece |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| How do we stop global warming? |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 5:26 am Post subject: ... |
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| Stop torching rain forests. |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 7:44 am Post subject: |
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Said it before, will say it again: I feel for you that have kids. I really do. I'd love to have them, but... man...
The perfect storm cometh. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 7:47 am Post subject: |
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I certainly do worry for the kids.
Regardless of the causes, climate change is a fact and its consequences will have to be dealt with. |
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Yo!Chingo
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: Seoul Korea
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| Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 1:56 am Post subject: |
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I think about the future all the time and frankly it terrifies me. I see the terrorists along with the abuse and rape of mother Earth and it makes me think twice about having children.
The problem is that if all the people who are socially conscious and intelligent feel this way, the only people who are having children are the ignorant and uneducated. I've always felt that the people who should be having children are the ones that aren't, and it makes me very sad.  Our ancestors worked and dreamed too hard to leave the world to the scum of the Earth! |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:36 am Post subject: |
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Can't really say that I worry for the kiddies, I think they'll deal with the challenges of their generation in the same way that every generation preceding has.
Fumble through, make mistakes and generally work it out.
Isn't the oil running out anyway?? In 30 something years we won't have it to burn. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| There's still quite a bit of good news, but it's always on a smaller level so it's harder to pay attention to. Wind power in Europe for example has gone up about 120% over the past 4 years, and Europe will meet their wind power target for 2010 sometime this or next year, which is nice. In the States too though smaller per capita, wind power has recently shot up exponentially so hopefully that will continue. |
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Zulu
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| Yes. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 6:50 am Post subject: |
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Luke 21:11 And Great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
22: For these be days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled.
23. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
25:And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
First the tsunami, then a volcano. Now 3,000 die in Java earthquake
By Sebastien Berger in Jakarta and Colin Freeman
28/05/2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/28/wquake28.xml |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Terror or error: is humanity on the eve of destruction?
� Head of Royal Society sees global defining moment
� Humankind 'holds planet's future in its hand'
Humanity has reached a "defining moment" in our dominion over the planet and our ability to destroy it, according to the head of the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific institution. "The 21st century is the first in the Earth's history where one species has our planet's future in its hands and could jeopardise life's immense potential," Lord Rees told an audience at the Hay festival yesterday. |
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1785175,00.html
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 12:32 am Post subject: |
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More doom and gloom....
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The iceberg cometh
Ministers may have wet feet before they confront the imminent dangers of climate change
There is a bizarre hiatus here. On the one hand, our political masters suddenly take a very long view. If you're 18 today - as you read this - then you know how your pension will be configured half a century hence. And if you're worried about the security of the energy supply, whatever your age, that's high on Whitehall's agenda, too. Tony Blair will begin commissioning more nuclear power stations at the double: the rest of the 21st century is safe in his hands. Nobody is turning out the lights.
But here, with the ominous crack of icebergs collapsing, comes the other hand. "Something almost unprecedented in the entire history of the human species" is happening, says one American expert. David Attenborough, patron saint of species everywhere, agrees. This is a "planetary emergency". The polar icecaps are melting. Indeed, the Arctic will be ice free this summer.
Perhaps global average temperatures will be rising by three degrees over this century. Perhaps that means sea levels going up by as much as 0.88 of a metre. But perhaps - because such estimatess oscillate and usually accelerate - that's five degrees, maybe even seven degrees. Perhaps the Antarctic icecap is thawing at a rate of knots - and, as it does, the oceans will be five metres higher. Perhaps too, the year 2100 is much too relaxed a date with destiny. Try tipping points 25 years from now, or sooner still. I can quote from an avalanche of experts, all of them eager to underwrite forecasts of alarm, predictions that (among other unpleasant things) see low-lying coastlines submerged around the globe. And, of course, the government's own scientific adviser stands tall amongst them. Take the crisis as real, then. Take the steps needed to counter it as urgent, here, now. But also compare and contrast.
Where will the next generation of nuclear power stations be built, pray? It's a small problem with a neat political escape route: on the sites of the older, decommissioned plants. No change: no problem. Yet stand on Suffolk's shores and look across at Sizewell B, to name but one. What happens there when the North Sea level rises? It's not a debate, it's a calculation: great swaths of eastern Britain, including this one, will lie beneath the waves - a fate threatening cities, towns, villages, farms.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1785120,00.html
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 12:36 am Post subject: |
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Can we use this thread to stir up some more anti-Americanism? I do hope so! After all, we wouldn't want to disappoint our little Gopher would we!  |
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flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| Every parent is concerned for their kids' futures. Honestly, I am far more concerned that my kid will get killed by a car or a delivery guy on a moped than anything environmental. Every generation had their reasons to worry about their kids. People used to worry that an all-out nuclear war would take place soon. There used to be a much higher infant mortality rate and those who made it past infancy were faced with a bundle of possible childhood diseases like polio, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and so on. I know my father had to repeat the 4th grade because he missed most of it the first time through with one of those ailments. Infant mortality rates are much lower these days and people are living longer. Interestingly, the people of yore often took a different approach when faced with bleak times. When times looked tough ahead and survival was tricky, they had more kids to ensure that at least one or two would live a full life. |
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EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't think it's an issue of whether generations will survive or not, or deal with what they are served. I think it's an issue of, say, are we headed for a recession, a depression or the Dark Ages? If the last, it means your kids did not find a way to deal. Survive, yes. But in what way, and what will the world look like in a hundred years or two? |
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