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#1
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Global Warming
I have quite a simple question really - do you believe that this is a Real Thing, and that we have to get off of our fat asses and do something about it Right Now; or do you believe that it is just so much scaremongering by scientists and that so called global warming is nothing more than a naturally occuring process that would be happening if we were here or not?
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Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images. Sergeant: You can? That's amazing! Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'. - Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!) "Everybody loves pie!" - Spongebob Squarepants |
#2
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Real Thing. In any case, it can't be a bad idea to do something...
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O to be wafted away From this black aceldama of sorrow; Where the dust of an earthy today Is the earth of a dusty tomorrow! |
#3
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Indeed. Even ignoring every other reason and making it a purely economic argument, the cost of global warming even in the relatively short term (the next few decades, say) vastly vastly outweighs the cost of taking steps to retard its progress.
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Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images. Sergeant: You can? That's amazing! Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'. - Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!) "Everybody loves pie!" - Spongebob Squarepants |
#4
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Indeedo-wap.
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O to be wafted away From this black aceldama of sorrow; Where the dust of an earthy today Is the earth of a dusty tomorrow! |
#5
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And how do you "retard its progress," exactly? I can't figure out how. Even if you could somehow stop all fossil fuel consumption right now, it'd still take decades for the atmosphere to recover, right?
I'm still a little annoyed that the vast majority of alternative fuel sources and more efficient car designs have been shot in the cradle by the oil industry and their squadrons of lobbyists and lawyers. Oil makes them rich NOW, so they want to keep making money NOW, because the consequences will happen LATER. It's absolutely insane. On a side note, am I misinformed by my impression that nuclear power has gotten a lot safer lately, but the politicians still won't embrace it as much as Europe does because they're afraid of public opinion. All we need them to say is, "Nuclear power is so safe that if we were to convert over and only use gas for cars, the price would drop to a buck a gallon and our energy bills would be cut in half," and we'd have the masses swarming every state capital BEGGING for nuclear power, right?
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mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate. Zeke: It comes nateurally to him. mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea. Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity. Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own! Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further. |
#6
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I think it's must be something real. I can't believe all the stuff we do to the Earth won't have some bad effects. I think it might be a little overstated. I mean, I've read about the 'mini iceage' in the 17th-18th century, when the river Thames froze over for a number of years each winter. I guess sometimes things can be weird on their own. Evertime we have a hot summer in England some people says it's because of 'Global Warming' - couldn't it just be a hot summer?
But on the other hand there is all the evidence about the ice in Greenland melting much quicker...So something must be up!
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Fate: Protects fools, little children and ships named Enterprise... Fate: Also beats the merry hell out of the Battlestar Galactica. -------------------------------------------------- House Quote of the Day! "I was curious. But since I'm not a cat, that's not dangerous to me." Dr House MD I don't think that metaphor was actually designed to warn cats. Dr Wilson MD (Just) ------------------------------------------------- |
#7
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Quote:
You're absolutely right about the oil business. Our global civilisation is based on the consumption of crude oil products. The oil companies know this, and even though some of them are now making small moves in the direction of renewables, the sort of serious persuit that's really needed right now just isn't happening. The oil business won't do anything, so governments must, and fortunately some are (notably Germany and China). Nuclear is a tricky option at best - France is probably the only country in the EU to actively embrace it - but despite public opinion being mostly firmly against it, it is unforunately something that we're going to have to rely more on anyway. The kicker is and always has been waste. It's got to go somewhere, but nobody wants it next to them. It's the lesser of two evils though, and that's only ever the logical choice to make. Quote:
Greenland is worrying though. I read in New Scientist not so long ago that it's only in the last five or six years that the rate at which the ice sheet is melting has started to surpass its ability to reform - the critial point at which it becomes an unstoppable process could be as little as a century from now. Scary stuff, really.
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Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images. Sergeant: You can? That's amazing! Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'. - Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!) "Everybody loves pie!" - Spongebob Squarepants |
#8
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Quote:
On the other hand, there are very good reasons to think that measures like the Kyoto Accord are both unrealistic and unlikely to make a difference. That makes it hard to justify the economic cost. It isn't a black-and-white issue. And I don't like the scare tactics -- no matter who's right about this, and no matter what's done, we're not all going to drown the day after tomorrow.
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FiveMinute.net: because stuff is long and life is short [03:17] FiveMinZeke: Galactica clearly needs the advanced technology of scissors, which get around the whole "yanking on your follicles" problem. [03:17] IJD: cylons can hack any blades working in conjunction |
#9
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Quote:
Here's another question for everyone - when you think of global warming, what specifically does that make you think of? I'm interested to know how much of the issue people really see.
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Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images. Sergeant: You can? That's amazing! Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'. - Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!) "Everybody loves pie!" - Spongebob Squarepants |
#10
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It used to be that I thought of the ice caps melting, but a few weeks ago that changed. Now, I live in Minnesota and we're known for extreme temperature variations, but over ninety (during the day) for an entire week? That hasn't happened before.
As a subphenomenon of that, we're also known for blizzards in "Minesodah" (p.s. I don't really talk like that) and we really haven't had those these last few years. We've had snow, but not entire weeks of it staying multiple feet deep. This whole global warming bit is a subphenomenon of why I love Minnesota and will never move to Arizona or Florida, like all of those trecherous snowbirds who used to be my compatriots. Barring a major power outage or fuel shortage, you can always get warmer. Getting cooler is a harder proposition.
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mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate. Zeke: It comes nateurally to him. mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea. Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity. Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own! Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further. |
#11
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Myself as a red puddle in the middle of a desert, with the occasional piece of rubble poking out of the endless sands.
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O to be wafted away From this black aceldama of sorrow; Where the dust of an earthy today Is the earth of a dusty tomorrow! |
#12
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I think of the climate change currently sweeping BC, Canada.
For those of you who don't know, BC is currently infested with mountain pine beetles. Now, when I say BC, I mean... most of the province. Several hundred thousand square kilometers (it's like a square mile, but smaller). In some areas, there are so many beetles that if you stand very, very still in the woods, and listen, you can: a) actually hear the sounds of chewing, because 10,000 beetles chewing actually makes some noise, and b) watch sawdust fall like snow. I have experienced both of these things. Now, people around here are saying "ECOLOGICAL DOOM! END OF THE WORLD!!!!" Forestry is a HEEE-YUUUGE part of the economy here, and beetle-kill trees can't be harvested, really. However, if you talk to anybody from the Ministry of Forests who has a degree, know what they'll say? "Yup, we know. It's a climate shift, we've known since the 80's. Soon this will all be grasslands. It happens every few thousand years." They've known. They've known for a LONG time, and it's a natural occurrence. However, that same ministry (now people with marketing and business degrees) are blaming global warming for the eventual death of BC industry, and raising as much panic as they can. So you know what global warming makes me think of? The greatest scapegoat of all time.
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