Global Warming

[Jonezee]

Ask the dianosaurs about global warming.....of course the big astroid theory may have caused their demise....but what about global cooling? IMO this is a cycle, been there, got a T-Shirt and it's gonna start all over again in another couple of thousand years. Of course if Gore can invent the Internet, he most likely can fix this global warming thing....I know! Lets lets Tax Global Warming...that way, we can suffer and it'll pay all of the politicians wages. Brillantt !!!

[nighthawk]

Some of these people remind me of Chicken Little running about crying that "The sky is falling!' when all it's doing is raining! Which one of these all seeing, all knowing people decided that the earth is supposed to be a cool or cold planet? Yes, we have an impact on the environment, but it is as a grain of sand on the beach when compared to what nature does to the planet every day.

Consume less, conserve more, keep it clean and quit crying wolf. Let nature take it's course.

[DShock]

I'm happy for Al that GW helped him be a movie star.
I am jealous that Al gets to be on all the news shows and talk shows!
Also I still don't understand how Al can burn thousands of gallons of private jet fuel and at the same time tell us to conserve and be enviro friendly.
If Al bankrolls the GW effort then the more power to him!

[Gigmaster]

The human race is a naturally occuring species and unless I missed something someplace everything we use comes to us from the earth. I have not seen anything "imported" from outer space. It is my contention that even if global warming is caused by humans it is a natural occurance caused by using natrual products drived from the earth naturally. And who is to say this all isn't a part of the grand plan anyway.

People throw the 'natural' label around too much. Just because something is 'natural' doesn't mean it's beneficial for any specific purpose. Poison Ivy is 'natural'. Snake venom is natural, but if you take it internally, it can kill you, as will petroleum, another 'natural' product. Most illegal drugs like opium, cocaine, peyote, etc... are natural products. Just because something is naturally occuring is no guarantee that it is necesarily a good thing. Ebola, Marburg, Plague, smallpox and HIV are also natural.

Global Warming is a serious issue and needs to be studied a lot more, without the hype and politics. If it is going to be a problem, we need to know about it in enough time to take action.

Let's say we plan for a worst case scenario, and Global Warmng is a real threat. So we develop clean Hydrogen based technology. Now, we find out that Global Warming isn't as bad as we thought, and it is self-limiting. So what's the worst that happened? ......We've ended our dependence on petroleum products, and the air is much cleaner. But what if the doom sayers are right, and we don't do anything......?

It's a simple exercise in logic. Act now, just in case, and we win no matter what. Don't act now, and run the risk of extinction later, just so some businesses and people can line thier pockets with your money now.

Semper Fly!

[MOturkE]

Something to think about... Burning hydrogen results in water-based exhaust. Water freezes on the roads here in the winter (and anywhere else the temps get into the low 30's). Not a problem for you? How about this one... Many cities are not set up to adequately handle the excess runoff from a summer rain storm, let alone the constant exhaust of thousands of cars. What about the water from Interstate highway traffic? Look at the traffic into and out of L.A. Think the drainage is adequate there?

I'm not ridiculing the hydrogen idea, I'm ridiculing the tendency we have for "knee-jerk" reactions when there's a problem. We need to consider travel without burning anything at all. Why is this so difficult to do? Because there's no realistic incentive to do it. Nobody who really matters (oil barons, auto mfg. tycoons, politicians, etc.) stands to gain from the invention of clean, fuel-free transportation, so nobody even looks for it.

As for global warming... We're basing that load of rubbish on little more than 100 years of weather tracking. If the globe warms up then we'll finally get to play in the snow during the summer when it's warm outside. That's just what we always wished for, right? To be honest, the effect mankind has on the earth is miniscule compared to the earth's own effect on itself. Volcanoes spew more garbage into the atmosphere than mankind ever will. And, what about all the cows and other creatures? Methane gas is in such an abundant supply today I'm surprised any of us can still breathe.

What we need to do as human beings is to forget about treating the earth like a god and start treating each other with so much respect. I'd say this rotting and dying planet is the least of our worries, it's the inhabitants that need our concern. The planet will only be here as long as it's supposed to be and we cannot change that. That is a promise from the Creator. Don't worry about tomorrow, tommorow will worry about its own things.

Remember this, too... The money we pay for gas buys the bullets that kill our troops. Let's worry about that for a change!

.

[Gigmaster]

A 'fuel free' type of transportation is scientifically impossible, for the same reason that a perpetual motion machine will ever exist. You can't get something for nothing. Even if you ride a horse or mule, the animal will need food (fuel) and water. If you ride a bicycle, you will need food (fuel) and water. Same thing if you walk.

It doesn't necesarily have to be hydrogen. I am not current with alternate fuel technology, But there are people who can work on several types. My point was that if there is any chance at all, however slight, that Global Warming might be a problem in the future, then we should quit arguing and address the problem now, while we have time. If it proves to be nothing, then we've lost nothing, and possibly gained some new technology. If it is a problem, then we've got time to fix it. Everybody, including the planet, wins.

Saying the planet will last as long as it is supposed to and that it is up to God, is a cop-out. It is simply not accepting responsibility. Since I am a minister, I am qualified to address this issue. God did not give us the intellect, curiousity and ingenuity we have so we could just sit back and say "the heck with it"! We have these gifts specifically to address issues with the planet and each other. To not use them is an insult to the Creator. Yes, God did give us the planet, but it's up to us to take care of it. He has provided us with everything we need to accomplish this, if we will use it.

Semper Fly!

[Tracy]

Appearantly a strong majority of scientific organizations around the world agree that human activities are contributing to global warming in ways that cannot be attributed to nature.

There is at least one scientific organization that disagrees - The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

The evidence that we are making global warming worse is strong. Strong enough for me to stop ignoring the problem and ask how to start fixing it.

[Shaky Wadr]

Do I believe in global warming? Yes.

Last week I fished Dry Falls Lake in central Washington. This lake is the plunge pool remaing from what was probably the largest water fall the world has ever seen. Now dry. About 13,000 years ago, most of northeast Washington was either under several hundred feet of ice or water. As the climate warmed, a glacial ice dam near Sandpoint Idaho gave way and let loose about 400 cubic miles of water to flow down the Spokane and Columbia river drainages, creating the scablands of eastern Washington.

The climate has been gradually warming ever since. There were no SUV's or coal fired powerplants involved. What we need here is perspective and a sense of the pace of geological changes. I don't know if we are contributing to the current surge or not. I just know that our current knowledge based on a couple of hundred years of data is suspect. In any case, we should live as efficiently and cleanly as we possibly can regardless.

[EdD]

I can't help but wonder how much of the global warming we add since the I hear that the polar ice caps on Mars are shrinking at about the same rate as the ones on Earth. That makes it sound more like our star than ourselves. We had a really good laugh at work the other day. I work in an IT department. Somebody was talking about computer models of the climate predicting the future. Most of us here have done some computer modelling and we have considerable contempt for the concept that computer modelling is an accurate predictor of the future. Computers can only do what we tell them to. If we start with fatal flaws, then the result of running the sims will be fatal flaws. Remember the old line from computing "Garbage In, Garbage Out".

Ed

[GRN]

This site has some very interesting data on Northern Hemisphere polar ice recovery this winter... and some historical data that suggests the pattern we are concerned with is largely cyclical in nature. Not to say I don't believe there are problems with how we currently interact with nature that need attention in regard to concerns for global warming/GHG's etc... but I believe many of the answers are still much larger than we have yet to come to measure.

I know the snow pack here this year should lead to one of the best seasons we've had in a decade or more. A few more like this one and we'll see some recovery of the wild populations in rivers that have been largely supported by truck trout for several years now.

TL's~