OT: I know how to solve global warming

[Suicide Junkie]

Cutting forests dosen't help, but the billions of tons of hydrocarbons we dig and pump out of the ground to burn is the big thing.

[NullAshton]

Possible that there is no global warming? One theory is that it's just a regular up-down cycle of the earth, and that the warming is normal.

[Renegade 13]

NullAshton said:
Possible that there is no global warming? One theory is that it's just a regular up-down cycle of the earth, and that the warming is normal.

That's the thing, we just don't have enough data to know whether or not it's natural or if it's caused by humanity.

From what I recall reading somewhere, there's two possible ways the future will go. One, we keep heating up and heating up until we have massive and radical climatic shifts. Two, we heat up until we reach a certain point, at which a sudden and sharp reversal begins. I think there's some geological evidence supporting both sides. Personally, I tend to favor number two. The Earth has a very delicately balanced set of climate parameters. If one of these parameters messes up too badly, the others often compensate. I bet the Earth has some mechanism for cooling down the Earth when it gets too hot (ie: another ice age if we get too hot) and a mechanism for heating up if we get too cold.

From what I can remember, summer's have been hotter, and winters haven't had as much snow in recent times where I live. However, two years ago, we had the coldest day I've ever seen and I think it was the coldest day my parents had ever seen as well. It was -49°C when I got up one morning. Previously, the coldest I'd experienced was about -44°C a few years before that.

Who really knows what's happening? It's all just speculation based upon unprovable initial assumptions.

As for deforestation, well there's some other factors as well. Where I live, in Central BC, almost all the pine trees have been killed by a massive infestation of the Mountain Pine Beetle, a bug that eats the layer of a tree just beneath the bark, killing it. We have hundreds of thousands of acres of dead, lifeless, red trees. In essence, it isn't just mankind who causes deforestation; nature does it once in a while as well.

[Wade]

Well if we advance technologically far enough then we can move the planet away from the sun like the Pupputeer civilization did in the Ringworld series by Larry Niven.

[Atrocities]

Suicide Junkie said:
Cutting forests dosen't help, but the billions of tons of hydrocarbons we dig and pump out of the ground to burn is the big thing.

I don't recall where I read or even heard this, but it was speculated that we are causing the planets core and mantel to heat up by drilling and removing such things as natural gas, oil, and methane. ????? I don't see how this would matter, but thought I would post the info any ways in hopes that someone may have more info.

[Starhawk]

I do admit I get a kick out of people saying mankind will be long extinct as if it will happen some time in the next few years or something.

No offense people but Mankind has been believing it will go extinct within the next few years or few decades or yadda yadda. Yeah for the first time in our history that we KNOW of mankind is capable of making it's self go extinct on a massive scale but for the most part MOST humans are to smart to do anything to completely exterminate ourselves....except for the Iranians who seem to want to bring an end to the world but if they even TRY it iran will be the only glowing crater in this world.

Now if we can get our collective heads together and start working on a space program for the entire civilized world (mideast/africa are not likely to get anywhere) we can easily set up colonies on Mars, Luna, and several of Titan's moons from what I've read not to mention Io.

Yeah they'd be harsh places to live for a while but so was every colony man has ever established even on Earth.


Then again if you listen to some very interesting theories that I've heard Mankind did not originate on Earth at all but are likely the survivors of a colony from God knows where.

Heck I've even heard people use this as an explanation FOR evolution (i.e the reason there is no missing link is because our ancestors had nothing to do with the previous "species" of man but instead were transplanted here.)

[Phoenix-D]

Starhawk said:
I do admit I get a kick out of people saying mankind will be long extinct as if it will happen some time in the next few years or something.

I think I'm the only person that's made that reference, and it was refering to the time when the earth's geological activity stops.

In order for us to be around at that point we'd have to survive longer than ANY species in the history of the entire planet. I don't see that as likely.

[Wade]

Our desendants will be around then but just not in our current form. Maybe if these "Grays" are real (probably not) then they are us traveling back in time to study their primitive ancestors; the same as biologists today travel and study our way. Maybe the Earth in their time is not the same or even none existant.

[Renegade 13]

I'd say you're looking at the past like most do, with nostaligia. I highly doubt today's generation is a whole lot worse than the previous generation. After all, I'm somewhat familiar with today's generation of young people (being one of them), and I'd say that it's pretty much the same as my parent's generation. Then again, I don't really know, since I wasn't around 30 or 40 years ago.

Alarikf, there is doubt about the cause of global warming. Though human-activity is the popular belief at the moment, it is also postulated that it is part of a natural cycle that has been accelerated somewhat by mankind's activities. The problem with measuring climate changes is the fact that there are no detailed and accurate ways of measuring temperatures beyond a couple hundred years ago. As you no doubt know, a couple hundred years is merely a blink in geological timescales. Note that I'm not denying that global warming exists, nor am I stating absolutely that it isn't caused by mankind. I'm merely saying that it isn't the only theory out there with scientific support.

Things that should be done to help halt global warming should be done even if global warming was non-existant. Think of the health aspects of burning coal to create electricity. That alone should encourage coal burning to be phased out. The incidence of asthma among younger people has absolutely skyrocketed, most likely due to poorer air quality. Whether or not global warming exists, the steps that would be required to reverse global warming should be done anyways, simply from a health aspect.

[Hunpecked]

Renegade, it's difficult to correlate the rising prevalence of asthma in the US with rising pollution because air pollution has in fact been decreasing for some 30-odd years:

http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/highlights.html

While its pathophysiology is extremely complicated, at least part of the increase in asthma may, surprisingly, be due to improved hygiene:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis