TIME to start worrying?

[LeadMagnet]

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No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry?a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.?exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast?when the emergency becomes commonplace?something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming.

The image of Earth as organism?famously dubbed Gaia by environmentalist James Lovelock?has probably been overworked, but that's not to say the planet can't behave like a living thing, and these days, it's a living thing fighting a fever. From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us. Scientists have been calling this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global temperatures.

Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would give us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem.

But glaciers, it turns out, can move with surprising speed, and so can nature. What few people reckoned on was that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse. Pump enough CO2 into the sky, and that last part per million of greenhouse gas behaves like the 212th degree Fahrenheit that turns a pot of hot water into a plume of billowing steam. Melt enough Greenland ice, and you reach the point at which you're not simply dripping meltwater into the sea but dumping whole glaciers. By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft. Nature, it seems, has finally got a bellyful of us.

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[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: LeadMagnet
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Article

No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you've heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.

It certainly looked that way last week as the atmospheric bomb that was Cyclone Larry?a Category 5 storm with wind bursts that reached 180 m.p.h.?exploded through northeastern Australia. It certainly looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looks that way as sections of ice the size of small states calve from the disintegrating Arctic and Antarctic. And it certainly looks that way as the sodden wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, while the waters of the Atlantic gather themselves for a new hurricane season just two months away. Disasters have always been with us and surely always will be. But when they hit this hard and come this fast?when the emergency becomes commonplace?something has gone grievously wrong. That something is global warming.

The image of Earth as organism?famously dubbed Gaia by environmentalist James Lovelock?has probably been overworked, but that's not to say the planet can't behave like a living thing, and these days, it's a living thing fighting a fever. From heat waves to storms to floods to fires to massive glacial melts, the global climate seems to be crashing around us. Scientists have been calling this shot for decades. This is precisely what they have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows in from the sun and raising global temperatures.

Environmentalists and lawmakers spent years shouting at one another about whether the grim forecasts were true, but in the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it. If there was any consolation, it was that the glacial pace of nature would give us decades or even centuries to sort out the problem.

But glaciers, it turns out, can move with surprising speed, and so can nature. What few people reckoned on was that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse. Pump enough CO2 into the sky, and that last part per million of greenhouse gas behaves like the 212th degree Fahrenheit that turns a pot of hot water into a plume of billowing steam. Melt enough Greenland ice, and you reach the point at which you're not simply dripping meltwater into the sea but dumping whole glaciers. By one recent measure, several Greenland ice sheets have doubled their rate of slide, and just last week the journal Science published a study suggesting that by the end of the century, the world could be locked in to an eventual rise in sea levels of as much as 20 ft. Nature, it seems, has finally got a bellyful of us.

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We will worry when it effects the next election cycle. If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat. And where's the money in fixing global warming?

 

[eilute]

There might be some hurricanes. Arctic wildlife might die off. Coral reefs might die off. Some islands could wash away, and homes that were already built too close to rivers could get flooded.

Conversely, I suspect that it may not affect humans, as a whole, adversely. Global warming might also mean higher crop production.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle.

If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat.

And where's the money in fixing global warming?

Hey Moonie

I need an Energy Secretary

One of my main platform items as they are calling it is that I will do anything and everything humanly possible to convert the U.S. to Biodiesel and Hydrogen as soon as possible.

I other words instead of saying we need to end our dependence on Oil, actually do it.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle.

If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat.

And where's the money in fixing global warming?

Hey Moonie

I need an Energy Secretary

One of my main platform items as they are calling it is that I will do anything and everything humanly possible to convert the U.S. to Biodiesel and Hydrogen as soon as possible.

I other words instead of saying we need to end our dependence on Oil, actually do it.

You would get quicker results by quickly building nuke plants to replace current power plants.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle.

If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat.

And where's the money in fixing global warming?

Hey Moonie

I need an Energy Secretary

One of my main platform items as they are calling it is that I will do anything and everything humanly possible to convert the U.S. to Biodiesel and Hydrogen as soon as possible.

I other words instead of saying we need to end our dependence on Oil, actually do it.

You would get quicker results by quickly building nuke plants to replace current power plants.

Would the you and the Country go for Government built and controlled Nuke Power plants?

In other words the Government sell the power to the Power Brokers?

This way we would have our Military stationed at the plants themselves.

If you feel you can help, join my growing staff.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle.

If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat.

And where's the money in fixing global warming?

Hey Moonie

I need an Energy Secretary

One of my main platform items as they are calling it is that I will do anything and everything humanly possible to convert the U.S. to Biodiesel and Hydrogen as soon as possible.

I other words instead of saying we need to end our dependence on Oil, actually do it.

You would get quicker results by quickly building nuke plants to replace current power plants.

Would the you and the Country go for Government built and controlled Nuke Power plants?

In other words the Government sell the power to the Power Brokers?

This way we would have our Military stationed at the plants themselves.

If you feel you can help, join my growing staff.

If I send you a $10 donation do I get a title like Pioneer, and a guaranteed government admin job?

As to the op, if global warming is occurring as it seems, some areas will become more temperate (northern US / southern Canada), but I think you will see just as many areas turn to desert.

 

[StormRider]

The Washington Post had a scary article about the changes in the Arctic and the Intuit Indians.

On NPR, they mentioned that ocean levels could rise significantly and that this happened about 120,000 years ago too but due to natural causes. My question is this. They did not mention what the natural causes were in the past. Does anyone know? I keep hoping that maybe this is just a natural cycle the earth goes through and not really caused by us. But maybe just accelerated by our pressence here. In any rate, we should be taking serious action to curb our C02 emissions.

 

[jackschmittusa]

One possible outcome of global warming and climate change that nobody ever nentions is the likelihood of many more wars. When people get hungry, they often look to their neighbors food. As whole countries face radical changes in the amount and usefullness of their arable land, they will move to acquire the products and acreage of others. As sealevels rise, there will be many displaced persons who will demand a place to live. Katrina gave us a small glimpse of what happens when people lose their material posessions and way of making a living. Imagine the problems raised by an order of magnitude. Imagine areas that depend on tourism dollars for most of their income when they can no longer offer an inviting climate and have no industry or such to fall back on. Sprinkle in a few more million people who become despirate due to increased violent weather events. Is it really too far fetched to suggest that climate change will contribute to increased crime, revolt, and international conflict?

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle.

If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat.

And where's the money in fixing global warming?

Hey Moonie

I need an Energy Secretary

One of my main platform items as they are calling it is that I will do anything and everything humanly possible to convert the U.S. to Biodiesel and Hydrogen as soon as possible.

I other words instead of saying we need to end our dependence on Oil, actually do it.

You would get quicker results by quickly building nuke plants to replace current power plants.

Would the you and the Country go for Government built and controlled Nuke Power plants?

In other words the Government sell the power to the Power Brokers?

This way we would have our Military stationed at the plants themselves.

If you feel you can help, join my growing staff.

There is no need for them to goverment own/operated. I am not against regulation that will make/keep them safe.

 

[LeadMagnet]

Originally posted by: eilute
There might be some hurricanes. Arctic wildlife might die off. Coral reefs might die off. Some islands could wash away, and homes that were already built too close to rivers could get flooded.

Conversely, I suspect that it may not affect humans, as a whole, adversely. Global warming might also mean higher crop production.

exactly - only 75% of the earths population lives on the coasts and at sealevel. Just because the oceans rise 50 feet - and a couple hundred thousand sqaure miles of farmland are lost - I know I am unaffected.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: LeadMagnet

Originally posted by: eilute
There might be some hurricanes. Arctic wildlife might die off. Coral reefs might die off. Some islands could wash away, and homes that were already built too close to rivers could get flooded.

Conversely, I suspect that it may not affect humans, as a whole, adversely. Global warming might also mean higher crop production.

exactly - only 75% of the earths population lives on the coasts and at sealevel. Just because the oceans rise 50 feet - and a couple hundred thousand sqaure miles of farmland are lost - I know I am unaffected.

Not sure about 50ft, but rising Sea Levels is a minor thing compared to other effects that will likely be experienced by all.

 

[LeadMagnet]

If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet)

ice covering Greenland, which would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted

North Pole, the ice is not nearly as thick as at the South Pole. The ice floats on the Arctic Ocean. If it melted sea levels would not be affected

Now I am starting to worry - my house is only 240 above sealevel here in Massachusetts - but now I will have ocean front property. BONUS!!!!

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: LeadMagnet
If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet)

ice covering Greenland, which would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted

North Pole, the ice is not nearly as thick as at the South Pole. The ice floats on the Arctic Ocean. If it melted sea levels would not be affected

Ok, even then, the biggest effects will be eslsewhere. Though that would certainly be devastating.

 

[LeadMagnet]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: LeadMagnet
If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet)

ice covering Greenland, which would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted

North Pole, the ice is not nearly as thick as at the South Pole. The ice floats on the Arctic Ocean. If it melted sea levels would not be affected

Ok, even then, the biggest effects will be eslsewhere. Though that would certainly be devastating.

Else where - like dozens to hunders of miles the ocean invades along both US coasts and the gulf coasts of the USA and the entire state of Florida!

 

[stinkz]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
We will worry when it effects the next election cycle. If in the mean time no politician's job is at threat we can safely ignore this threat. And where's the money in fixing global warming?

The money is wasted in creating it, when our tax dollars fund government environmental programs which are great at "discovering" that humans are the sole cause of global warming (the money-making side of the investigation), but have yet to produce a solution except to continually expand their power.

 

[StormRider]

Is there a site somewhere where we can find out what our sea-level is at? I'm wondering if my house will be under water by then.

 

[BrownTown]

I have a play, build 100 nuclear reactors to replaces all coal and oil energy sources, and use nuclear energy to seperate water to crete hydrogen to power cars. There, now we have no more CO2 production ever again at only at 400 billion dollars cost Which isn't all that bad when you consider what the Iraq war is costing. That waty we can just really screw over som cave in the middle of a Nevada desert by filling full of radioactive waste, and spare the rest of the world. Personally that sound like an OK trade to me.

Of course I don't really care about global warming since it doesn't actually exist, so I'm not willing to do anything about it, but If the government wants to buy the nuke plants I'm happy for it.

Also, TVA which is a govenment agency owns several nuclear reactors, so the government does sorta own power reactors, along with many research reactors...

 

[ShadesOfGrey]

Time to start worrying? No. It's time to start panicking! That's what these sorts of pieces are supposed to make people do, right? Didn't Kerry say recently that New York was going to be under water in a decade or two? PANIC!!! PANIC!!!!

People understand there is climate change, but as far as changing them or preventing change no one has a clue so all we get is scare mongering. A more rational approach by the chicken littles would do far more for their cause then the scare mongering.

I conserve energy as much I can, I recycle, I don't drive unnecessarily, etc -but none of those things have to do with the radicals or their agenda. I choose to do these things because of the way I was raised(by Conservative no less) - to not waste and to be respectful of nature. If only half of America's people had the "carbon footprint" I had, pollution and energy wouldn't even be a factor for discussion(although I'm sure the radicals would still be raving away)

 

[piasabird]

So what do you propose anyone do about it if there is a global warming condition?

Sounds like you are just trying to panic people to me.

No one exactly knows for sure what causes global warming. We just do not know enough to determine if anything can be done or not. As far as we know, solar flares or some other things may cause gobal warming. Maybe when the oceans heat up then gases trapped on the ocean floor will be released to the point that we have no choice but to let the weather patterns run their course. There is nowhere near enough data for anyone to know what to do.

Do you have a degree in gobal climatology? Why should we consider most media sources credible that do stories on this subject? If people have some kind of specialized knowledge in this area please speak up.

Maybe we can just call Godzilla or the Power Rangers to save us!

 

[Passions]

More work of the liberal treemonger media trying to scare the public.

Seriously, how many times do we have to go through this. Water crisis of the 80's?? Energy crisis of the 90's. blah blah blah.

 

[ntdz]

In other news, Record low temperatures at Palm Beach, Flordia

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
One possible outcome of global warming and climate change that nobody ever nentions is the likelihood of many more wars. When people get hungry, they often look to their neighbors food. As whole countries face radical changes in the amount and usefullness of their arable land, they will move to acquire the products and acreage of others. As sealevels rise, there will be many displaced persons who will demand a place to live. Katrina gave us a small glimpse of what happens when people lose their material posessions and way of making a living. Imagine the problems raised by an order of magnitude. Imagine areas that depend on tourism dollars for most of their income when they can no longer offer an inviting climate and have no industry or such to fall back on. Sprinkle in a few more million people who become despirate due to increased violent weather events. Is it really too far fetched to suggest that climate change will contribute to increased crime, revolt, and international conflict?

In the meantime...

...the world's population continues to explode.

Eventually, humans will rediscover a now, sadly, little known political economist named Malthus.

 

[ericlp]

Originally posted by: ntdz
In other news, Record low temperatures at Palm Beach, Flordia

Hmmm did you change your tune?

Last I heard you were the one asking about global warming a few months ago...

Anyway, yes we humans are having effect on the weather ... Boosh doesn't want you to know about it nor the white house as the science is there but they are not allowed to post REAL results. Shhhh... Keep everyone quiet and keep the oil flowing and keep pumping out v8's and v10's.

What is boosh going to change is ways on this issue... Let's see... His popularity is at 30-25%... Maybe he ought to start filp flopping to get his votes back up ... He should agree with the majority of the people every now end then don't ya think?

But it's not just the USA it's everyone else on this planet that wants a car and big house... With lots of coal to burn. How much and how fast can we burn coal and gas? If we continue at this rate we will be reaching the tipping point of no return where the eath can not recover. We are not at this point yet but we are getting there quickly. I say within the next five years if we don't change then we will see big problems.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: ericlp

Originally posted by: ntdz
In other news, Record low temperatures at Palm Beach, Flordia

Hmmm did you change your tune?

Last I heard you were the one asking about global warming a few months ago...

Anyway, yes we humans are having effect on the weather ... Boosh doesn't want you to know about it nor the white house as the science is there but they are not allowed to post REAL results. Shhhh... Keep everyone quiet and keep the oil flowing and keep pumping out v8's and v10's.

What is boosh going to change is ways on this issue... Let's see... His popularity is at 30-25%... Maybe he ought to start filp flopping to get his votes back up ... He should agree with the majority of the people every now end then don't ya think?

But it's not just the USA it's everyone else on this planet that wants a car and big house... With lots of coal to burn. How much and how fast can we burn coal and gas? If we continue at this rate we will be reaching the tipping point of no return where the eath can not recover. We are not at this point yet but we are getting there quickly. I say within the next five years if we don't change then we will see big problems.

No I didn't change my tune, I thought it was ironic that in the face of global warming there were record low temps in Palm Beach

(and yes, I know global warming produces both temp highs and lows, just ironic because of the naming of it)