Comments on: I have a bone to pick with Global Warming

By: Hoeppner

Hoeppner — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:50:41 +0000

By the time we already notice a “change” it’s probably too late to “change”.

Everytime we double something like our population, our energy usage, or anything similar. Human nature ensures that we will not see the problem. In simplest terms the moment before the next doubling you will see that your population is using ‘only’ half of it’s available resources. Which is not a very frightening prospect, especially if you’re living in an ‘insanely sheltered’ first world country.

In the case of human population this is only around 55 years, in the case of energy consumption this is between 15 to 30 years. These are frighteningly short periods of time(short enough to actually affect us), but frighteningly long enough that very few people will run the prospects that far into the future.

Right now we are noticing “shortages” of energy via demand push. And we’re growing as such a speed that we’re instinctively blind to what will eventually hit us.

captcha: the thing, didn’t have to spend 5 hours to get a super hero name

By: Philip

Philip — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:20:09 +0000

So, suppose global warming is not our fault?

http://www.reddit.com/r/scienc.....our_fault/

Interesting philosophical discussion.

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:24:11 +0000

One small (or perhaps not so small?) effect of global warming is the bark beetle infestation destroying our western forests because the winter temperatures no longer drop low enough to control the beetles. In the short term, we have to deal with the resultant forest fires and deforestation, even though in the long run another ice age may be coming along.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:57:55 +0000

I agreed with ander’s point about how the time line do matter… you can argue about alaska’s new land mass, but it was an unexpected gain, one must weigh the pro versus the cons. does this land gain outweigh the land that we will lose? most of the waterfronts are occupied by ppl, and when the water level rises at other places than alaska, would more ppl be displaced? I think there will be.

“…far more selfish to believe that the perfect temperature for human beings is the perfect temperature for the entire Earth for all time…” well, actually the current temperature is not perfect for humans, it depends on where one lives temperature can vary greatly. ppl are more resilient than the other living beings thanks to our technology. the first ones to be affected by climate change are the animals/ plants. it will eventually hurt us, but not after the ecosystem has already been severely damaged.

and the speed of climate change does matter as Ander mentioned. living species do not have enough time to adapt to man-made climate change, whereas in the past the changes are more gradual and evolution can take place. as slow as the naturally occurring climate changes were in the past, they already caused mass extinctions… “if your fist connect with someone’s chin slowly it will just be a push, if it connects fast, it will be a punch.” the principle is the same. if a “push” can wipe out thousands of species, imagine what a “punch” will do.

By: Philip

Philip — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:51:56 +0000

I think it’s far more selfish to believe that the perfect temperature for human beings is the perfect temperature for the entire Earth for all time. Helping the Earth to get out of the current ice age faster at the expense of ourselves would be a tremendous benefit for the Earth and most other species, and that’s the exact opposite of selfish.

Being selfish is a GOOD thing. It keeps us alive. Don’t try to pretend that people are concerned about global warming because it might harm some other species, we are only concerned because it might harm US. Ironically, out of all the species on Earth we are in the best position to handle any kind of climate change thanks to our technology.

Here’s something I find hilarious: I was reading in the New York Times that because the glaciers have melted so much Alaska is now lighter (literally) and has started rising out of the ocean creating hundreds of miles of new land. Seaside golf courses are adding dozens of new holes to their courses because they have so much new land. We were worried so much about the glaciers melting and the ocean rising and the continent sinking and cities going underwater, and it’s exactly the opposite!

If history has taught us anything, it’s that nobody can predict the future. Nobody really knows if global warming will be bad or not, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that nothing we humans do will hold a candle to what nature does. If we screw up the Earth for 100 years nature won’t even bat an eye.

By: Anders

Anders — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:30:09 +0000

No one doubts the fact that the earth has been alot warmer. The problem is that these natural changes of climate takes thousands of years to happen and at present the climate is changing alot faster.

Global warming is not something that is made up by the newspapers, no other scientific field has as many scientists working in it, and it is clear that we do affect the climate.

You say that most species are extinct so what does it matter if a few more are driven to extinction by humans. This is exactly how I imagine the minds of americans. Selfish. What right do we have to affect the planet to the degree that entire species become extinct. The quick changes in climate we are causing are entirely different from those taking millions of years.

America claims to be a super-power but somehow it never managed to sign the kyoto-protocol. The rest of the world has, even Russia did, in 2004.
“The United States was, as of at least 2005, the largest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels” according to http://web.archive.org/web/200...../Full.html