Mon 1 Oct 2007
From the Draft Gore Campaign:
We are entering the final stretch of this campaign, energized by a wave of enthusiasm and the hope that a Gore candidacy may be just weeks away. No, we cannot promise you that. But our candidate has left the door wide open and now it’s up to us to try to persuade him to walk through it. Events over the next few weeks could affect this decision – and with it, the course of history. Some of them are out of our hands, such as the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on October 12. But what we can do is make our voices heard to let Al Gore know that our call to service is backed by our willingness to fight for him.
The war is more or less my number one issue, however, the environment really trumps it. Regardless of the death toll in Iraq, the death toll from global warming could be exponentially greater. Not just for humans, but for other species as well. The war definitely sucks, there is no arguing it. But if the Great Conveyor stops, we are hosed on a scale that cannot be imagined.
Somehow, I doubt Hillary Clinton has the environment at the forefront of her thoughts.
Maybe she just hasn’t been able to figure out how to triangulate it yet?
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9 Responses to “ HRC – Planetary Saviour? ”
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October 1st, 2007 at 11:55 amHRC – Planetary Saviour?
click to enlarge From the Draft Gore Campaign: We are entering the final stretch of this campaign, energized by a wave of enthusiasm and the hope that a Gore candidacy may be just weeks away. No, we cannot promise you that. But our candidate has left …
October 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm
You know…the enviroment is an issue for me, but not as much of an issue as other, more immediate things.
Before people start getting really angry and such, hear me out here frist.
The massive (realitivly speaking) ball of dirt that we call Earth has been spinning around on its axis, doing its thing for the past 4.5 billion years. Life on this earth began, in theory somewhere between 4.4 and 2.7 billion years ago. Of course this was very simple life that was single-celled at best. However, fish came around something like 530 MYA, followed by land-dwelling arthropods around 450 MYA. Give some more time, more work and eventually you got more complex critters, we got mammals, reptiles and birds as early as 310 MYA.
This is all WELL before dionosaurs (as we know them) which did not come around until about 230 MYA and died out about about 65 MYA. during all of this, there were several Massive Extinction Events occured. Some more severe than others (the worst wiping out about 95% of all life).
Where I am going with this, is that we, as humans, cannot destroy this planet. No matter how hard we try…we cannot stop it. Also, we, as humans, cannot save it either. There are going to be certain events that are both cyclic and inevitable that will happen.
Scientists of all sorts have pulled information that records plenty of evidence that details that Ice Ages have come and gone every so often. Extenction events happen to a varying degree about every 60 some-odd million years or so and other such patterns.
Life endured.
The damage that man wreaks by his own hand will not, by any means, eliminate all life on earth. I mean, we have some bad-ass nukes and other weapons, but so far we can’t make it bigger than what mother-nature dropped on us 65 MYA to create the Chicxulub Crater (it has been approximatly scaled to be a 10 km diameter meteor and released an explosion 2 million times more powerful than the most powerful bomb ever detonated).
Yeah, global warming sucks. But it was a LOT hotter 100 MYA than it is now. Humanity can survive this…it will not be as poplulated or comfortable, but life will endure.
In short, the way I figure it, George Carlin has presented his theory and thoughts about Humanity screwing with the Earth the best through some of his skits. What he pretty much said is that should Mother Nature decide to be rid of us, for whatever reason, she will shrug us off like we are absolutly nothing at all…and she will succeed.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
The argument is not whether we can turn the Earth into a new asteroid belt, but can we ruin the biosphere enough to make it unlivable for us and the plants and animals that live here.
Remember, the difference between 1800 and the last ice age was 5 degrees C. So far, since then we have added 3 degress to that.
Yes “life” will endure, that is the life that hasn’t become extinct at our hand.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 am
Perhaps I am looking at things from too large of a perspective here and am thus apathetic in general. I say this because 90% of ALL of the creatures that have lived are already extinct.
Life on this world will continue on, humanity will do so as well – unless we wipe ourselves out completely or something bigger and meaner than we are comes along. We are too adaptable to simply let the average temprature of a location ruin us. It will ruin civilization, and the population will be devastated.
Please do not consider me one of those Neo-Con freaks that claim there is no problem. My view and opinion is the following:
- This is cyclic; The overall heating and cooling of the world is something that happens over a long period of time (far longer than mankind has existed in any degree). Therefore we, as a race and civilization, must adapt to this or die.
- We are too far gone down the road to do anything about it. The Industrial Revolution that happened in Europe and the United States has been a factor, and that is what is killing us today now. In the late 1700s and all through the 1800s, we just did not know any better. We can’t rewind time and fix our mistakes(as awesome as that would actually be). The best we can do is slow things down, but we can not stop it.
- The United States, Europe and many other countries of the world can go ahead and do something about this situation. Unfortunatly, what we do in the US will not necessarily change wht is done in developing countries such as China and India (whose populations AND resource consumption outpace our own – if not now, then they will do so soon).
The way I figure it, we are all screwd in the nest 50-150 years anyway due to all of this. Our options are limited in scope in what we (as the United States) can do slow this down and how we can react to it and reduce the impact on our civilization and the world in general.
The upshot to Global Warming: Every period of natural global warming recorded is followed by an Ice Age. So after things heat up, they will cool down again eventually.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 am
No, I do not think you are one of the denial freaks.
Yes, the Earth ebbs and flows between hot times and cooler times, but what we are in now is unprecedented in Earth’s geologic past – at least for the past 600,000 years.
Typically these cycles take many 10s of thousands of years to develop but what we are doing – the amount of carbon in the air has collapsed that cycle down to centuries.
Have we past the point of no return? No one knows. Does that mean we shouldn’t try? No. We must do whatever we can to stave this off.
Like I said, if the Great Conveyor stalls, we are hosed in ways we cannot even fathom.
So much for being the caretakers of Eden.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:09 am
I agree. Geologically, things have not been this warm for quite some time, well before the most recent Ice Age (not the “Little Ice Age” that happened the Middle Ages)
Geologically, I think that we are about due for an overal Global Warming cycle that will bring an Ice Age within the next 50,000 years or so.
Of course, going hand-in-hand with this, is that what humans are doing as far as global warming is we are shoving Mother Nature along a lot than what she intended to go…which could have unknown reprucussions to say the least.
As far as stalling the Great Conveyor, that was going to happen anyway (as it’s lack of movement also causes an Ice Age in the future), it was just a matter of when. Ideally, it should not happen for several thousand years…
but with the way things are going now, it will happen sooner…and I believe that the resulting Ice Age will be as nasty and long as the Global Warming cycle that we are in was.
To be honest, we, as a race and civilization are hosed with the Great Convayor stalls out as long as we maintain our current mentality and way of doing business. The mentality of most people (espeically those in power and corporate entities) are unwilling to change or take the necessary action. In short, we are hosed because the “Ruling Class” doesn’t give a shit.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Whatever happens, you can bet cockroaches will ride it out without noticing a damn thing.
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Damn skippy!
Maybe cockroaches will be the critters that take over the world next. I mean, you had Fish, then Reptiles/Amphibians and then Mammles. Maybe the next step is bugs?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I don’t want to alarm the alarmists, but I learned waaay back in science class that the sun – which is essentially a star – will burn out at some point.
I’m scared. What can I do to save us?