Global Warming

[Tinman]

Agreed.... Diablo is right on the money

Blind faith has been a crutch for too long, for those not wanting to confront the troubles around them, thinking there is a greater power to remove them from the burden of action.

[winddude]

Diablo, awesome thinking man. Where I live here in the states if you propose a theory that conflicts with blind faith you are regarded as an evil satanistic person who needs to be "saved". These people rely on their religion to provide all the answers in their lives instead of actively thinking and participating in their own destinies. Religion is a framework to base you're life and morality....to guide you. It says nothing about global warming so that means it really isn't happening. Look at evidence, make your own decision. Don't think a book is going to tell you the truth.

[KiteGlider]

supposedly there's a geology study of 10,000 year old strata in California that indicates evidence of a 100 year drought.

if we had even a 10 year drought now a days, some people would have kiniptions, say it was the end of the world, global warming, what ever and use public hysteria and ignorance to the maximum of political exploitation.

My idea to help the environment is that everyone should drive the biggest shit spewing behemoth they can get thier hands on.

Use up the oil as quickly as possible to force development of personal fusion energy generators.

Do not use 4wheel-drive vehicles and trucks for their intended purpose of business like agriculture, and construction, instead, put shinny rims and low profile tires on 'em, and use them to drive between the house and office. Oh and dont get any dust on that beautiful wax job.

Why stop there? Try to find other types of farm vehicles and construction equipment to use as street transportation.

How about a combine harvester for the street with nice shinny rims, that would raise fuel consumption to prestigeous levels. And why not, we're special and important and deserve to spew as much as possible all the time.

Hey, a Road Roller would be cool. The lack of acceleration will cause even more annoyance than the too low gearing of trucks and fancy FWD that hold up traffic when the light turns green.

Have competitions with exterior fuel gauges for eveyone to see, so that they can be impressed by how quickly you use up fuel, the first one to bottom out the fuel gauge at the slowest speed wins!

The rules are that the street vehicle has to actually move away from the starting line at a steady rate, but the trick is have the lowest gearing possible to maintain the highest engine RPM, but result in wheel rotations as slow as the hour hand on an analogue clock.

In fact, to properly judge such an event, time-lapse photography is used to prove that the wheels were actually rotating. The winner will be the one to use up the most fuel and to move forward the least distance.

some ideas for bumper stickers:

I love to spew! don't you?

Oil is Evil, Use it up as fast as you can!

[Another Toby]

Kiteglider,
What can I say, great minds think alike. Now I consider myself a bit of an environmentalist, but lately I figured the only thing that will change our ways is catastrophe, so the sooner the sh!t hits the fan the better. Bring it on!
The world has been through lots of extreme changes in climate, the only events that have brought change as fast as what is currently occuring have been massive volcanic activity or asteroid impacts. Once again, the history of the earth climatic change and the current situation are well explained in http://www.theweathermakers.com/ by Tim Flannery. Here's an extract- http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/civili ... 30888.html

"George Bush has recently recognised - at the G8 Gleneagles meeting - that climate change is caused by humans and is a problem which needs to be addressed."

If even Dubya has accepted climate change is due to human activity, surely you kiters can? Still not sure? Get educated, and I don't mean by watching CNN.

And diablo,

[Mattdog]

You can't do much to Mother Nature without consequences. Apparently She has her checks and balances.

Climate Change and the decrease in fossil fuel supply should kill off a few billion of us sooner or later (human pop increases by 73 million people a year. One USA every 3.4 years !!)

Oil is getting scarcer - so horde your old kites instead of selling them for almost nothing

We'll all have more time to kite when the depression hits - look at the upsides

And Fo, when global dimming eases (due to less fossil fuel burning) the extra sun heat penetrating to earth boosts the greenhouse effect - more bad

Diablo's right about Climate Change. The gulf stream has already slowed 33% (look it up) and when is stops, the UK will probably be a lot colder. The UK is at the same latitude as central Canada. It only relies on the gulf stream for a moderate temperature. But on average, temperatures are warming.

[consumer]

Check out the Nova episode: "Dimming Sun".

dude, i saw that one, it was an amazing eye opener. My take on it was "to balance global warming with global dimming, we should remove catalytic converters in all cars and burn diesel fuel", haha.

man i love nova, i catch them all.

[Toby]

a university build a mega computer who was able to forecast the weather in the year 2100...a bit scary, since the north of Germany will be like the south of Spain, the center will be dry like spain, the SW will be like a rain forrest etc.

Tough if you ask me...but are humans creating it or the world itself? We don't know enough of the history of the earth to answer this question...

[skyseer]

An important understanding of the scientific process is the ability to reexamine and reevaluate the evidence.

Well said, but James Lovelock is not really a good example for good science...

There are two issues here:
a) is global warming happening or not
b) if yes, what are the causes

I guess some 80% of the scientific community agrees that global warming IS happening.
Science is all about probabilities, and not absolute certainties. Take it or leave it.
On the other side, climate is an extreme complex system, and any long term prediction doesn't make much sense.

It is not sure yet if the human factor is the main cause, but that' the only part where we can do something, so we'd better do it.
A better energy policy is a must anyway, even if we don't consider global warming.

[Larpy]

You know there are good points on both sides but two many points to me stand out.
1. Too many people
2. We are polluting the earth

Is it a bad thing to cut back on either of these things?

[skyseer]

No.

Larpy, did you notice the guy in your avatar has already left Gaia ?
The new one is not as photogenic though... (in Italy he's known as "the German Sheperd").