9 replies to this topic

[Sara_the_Brown]

Climate change could greatly affect the Maldives, which has an average elevation of 7 ft above sea level. Government officials just had a meeting underwater to emphasize their plight.

Maldives Gov't Underwater Meeting

[captsteve]

Climate change could greatly affect the Maldives, which has an average elevation of 7 ft above sea level. Government officials just had a meeting underwater to emphasize their plight.

Maldives Gov't Underwater Meeting

I saw that. Funny thing about global warming is that it has been happening forever. The arrogant human quality of assuming our superiority and influence is both positive and negative. The question is; Have we actually accelerated it and if so, then by how much?

[shadragon]

The question is; Have we actually accelerated it

Yes.

and if so, then by how much?

Too much.

[peterbj7]

The question is; Have we actually accelerated it

Yes.

and if so, then by how much?

Too much.

Many people, myself included, dispute that statement as utterly unfounded. It isn't even clear that there is "global warming". Change perhaps, but actual measurements don't indicate "warming". There is a very strong political movement pushing this idea, but many scientists are highly sceptical.

[captsteve]

I myself am not qualified to say either way. I see enough evidence to support both sides of the argument but the last thing I want to do is jump on the pc bandwagon. I would rather say "It doesnt hurt to do the right things to prevent it.", but Once upon a time the world was flat and there were sea monsters that would get you if you ventured too far from land. It was once even common belief that the bends was a curse from mermaids and the sea.
I only make this statment to be thought provoking.

[Hipshot]

I'm a global warming skeptic. The warming we experienced during the last decade could be attributed to anything from solar activity to El Ninos. Furthermore, during the Medieval Warming Period, olives were growing in Germany, and the wine grapes that grow in France today were growing in northern Great Britain, so this warming isn't as unique as global warming believers would have us believe.

That said, however, I believe that we should try to reduce combustion emissions and conserve fossil fuels. The idea has enough merit on its own, without the paranoia. To paraphrase an old song by Barry Maguire, I don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Rick



Just because you can read, write and do a little math, doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to conquer the universe.
–Kurt Vonnegut

[peterbj7]

It doesnt hurt to do the right things to prevent it

If only that were true! The reality is that many of these "renewable energy" initiatives are costing a vast fortune and are diverting attention and funds from building a proper infrastructure for the future. There is also a tremendous amount of dishonesty by the "warmists". As well as being incredibly unsightly, the vast acres of wind turbines we now have all over Britain and Europe cost a great deal more to manufacture and install than has ever been released to the public, their maintenance costs and short whole-life are far worse than has been released, and their actual output is a small fraction of what is publicly trumpeted. Only now, several years too late, is it dawning on officialdom in Britain that we are going to run out of energy in a few years. No, I don't view this charade with equanimity.

[Capn Jack]

Not to spin this too far off topic - but another "Unexpected consequence" came to my attention today.

Coal Burning powerplants in the US were dumping large quantities of toxins into the atmosphere - then the law was passed requiring "scrubbing" - which - and I don't know much about it really - involves injecting water into the smoke stream - putting most of the bad stuff into suspension in the water. You guessed - now we're seeing a large increase in water pollution because states are not controlling the dumping of the water....

sigh

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

It's a living, breathing planet, and climate and atmosphere has ebbed and flowed back & forth for how many billions of years??

Heck, when we had mega-sized plant-eating dinosaurs on the planet, there was probably too much methane in the air!

[shadragon]

I was not being flip with my two word response above. Every experienced diver here has seen bleached, dying or dead coral. Declining fish populations, shark finning, pollution, oil leaks, garbage in the water, blah, blah, blah... These things are not having positive results on the planet.

Human beings are growing in number and not taking responsibility for their actions. Arable land and forests are disappearing under concrete and asphalt. We are slashing the Amazon rain forest for grazing land to make hamburgers and fried chicken.

There are only X amount of resources available and we are consuming to that number as a species. That cannot stand in the long term and even after tossing out all of the global warming doom and gloom debate, the above observations still remain.