Discussion: Global Warming and Other Environmental Issues

[DorkyFresh]

We don't know. This big ol' planet has taken a pounding from us for centuries and keeps on ticking. World Wars, famines, pollution, Nuclear testing........

centuries? i think not...more like ONE century. humans haven't been able to have a big impact on the environment until the industrial revolution came along. what did we have before that? a handful of canons and axes...all of the sudden 1900 roles around and we get cars, machines that can cut whole rain forests down, and the nuclear bomb...WITHIN ONE CENTURY. not centuries...ONE century.

yes, i realize we didn't have the technology to take photographs back in the 1600's....but the biggest glacier in the world didn't have a huge crack right down the middle like it does now either!

 

[lazur]

Global warming is happening because the sun is hot, the lastest reports say.

In all seriousness. They say that due to the hole in our ozone, heat from the sun is better able to heat the Earth, in the most basic terms.

 

[DorkyFresh]

i have no doubt that hole in our ozone layer is contributing to global warming but that's not the only source of heat that's affecting the Earth. global warming isn't caused by JUST one thing...it's due to many things. humans might not be the CAUSE of global warming...but the majority of the world's leading scientists agree that we're, at LEAST, heavily speeding up the process.

the signs are everywhere. people will say that Hurricane Katrina was only one hurricane but Hurricane Katrina was covered so much because it was on American ground. American catastrophe's get more coverage simply because it's in America...supposedly the untouchable nation...

...but what a lot of people don't realize is that disasters like Hurrican Katrina are becoming more common. in my parents' homeland of the Philippines, they've had a HORRIBLE year.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2006/2006-12-01-05.asp
"Undersecretary Graciano Yumul of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said that for the first time in history the country had been hit by four successive super typhoons in one year."

now i'm not a betting man, but if i were...i'd bet we'll see more and more and more records broken, as far as natural disasters are concerned, as each year progresses. this is Earth telling us "you're making me sick, so i'm cleansing myself." the more we dirty the Earth....the more it will need to rid itself of the problem.

 

[lazur]

i have no doubt that hole in our ozone layer is contributing to global warming but that's not the only source of heat that's affecting the Earth. global warming isn't caused by JUST one thing...it's due to many things. humans might not be the CAUSE of global warming...but the majority of the world's leading scientists agree that we're, at LEAST, heavily speeding up the process.

the signs are everywhere. people will say that Hurricane Katrina was only one hurricane but Hurricane Katrina was covered so much because it was on American ground. American catastrophe's get more coverage simply because it's in America...supposedly the untouchable nation...

...but what a lot of people don't realize is that disasters like Hurrican Katrina are becoming more common. in my parents' homeland of the Philippines, they've had a HORRIBLE year.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2006/2006-12-01-05.asp
"Undersecretary Graciano Yumul of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said that for the first time in history the country had been hit by four successive super typhoons in one year."

now i'm not a betting man, but if i were...i'd bet we'll see more and more and more records broken, as far as natural disasters are concerned, as each year progresses. this is Earth telling us "you're making me sick, so i'm cleansing myself." the more we dirty the Earth....the more it will need to rid itself of the problem.

Yes, but you're talking about the symptoms of global warming, or the "signs" that something's happening.

I'm talking about the cause. The latest reports state that the ozone layer, or the holes in it, are allowing more of the sun's radiation to enter the atmosphere and *that* (not driving cars) is what's causing global warming.

So, essentially, we're saying the same thing a different way. Man is ultimately responsible for the current conditions of "global warming", it's just that there are differing views on the ways in which man is responsible.

 

[DorkyFresh]

in my opinion, global warming is going to happen wether or not we're here. global warming and cooling has happened before we had the power to influence the environment and even before we existed. i won't go so far as to say the sun's heat breaching the ozone layer is what is CAUSING the current stage of global warming but i'll agree that it certainly is contributing.

the problem is that humans are also contributing and in way that most people don't realize. for thousands of years the average temperature for the Earth has been stable but all of the sudden the industrial revolution comes about and the average temperature started climbing and now we're seeing record breaking summers and winters. this directly reflects the amount of carbon in the air for the thousand or so years. it stayed at an average, stable amount...then all of the sudden the industrial revolution came along and tipped that scale off balance.

yes, the sun has it's role in global warming...but we need to stop denying that we don't play a main role in the drastic increase of it.

 

[lazur]

in my opinion, global warming is going to happen wether or not we're here. global warming and cooling has happened before we had the power to influence the environment and even before we existed. i won't go so far as to say the sun's heat breaching the ozone layer is what is CAUSING the current stage of global warming but i'll agree that it certainly is contributing.

the problem is that humans are also contributing and in way that most people don't realize. for thousands of years the average temperature for the Earth has been stable but all of the sudden the industrial revolution comes about and the average temperature started climbing and now we're seeing record breaking summers and winters. this directly reflects the amount of carbon in the air for the thousand or so years. it stayed at an average, stable amount...then all of the sudden the industrial revolution came along and tipped that scale off balance.

yes, the sun has it's role in global warming...but we need to stop denying that we don't play a main role in the drastic increase of it.

I'm not claiming we don't play a direct role. I believe we do. It's all interconnected. Carbon, for example, also plays a role in deteriorating the ozone layer.

 

[OverMyHead]

Global warming is happening because the sun is hot, the lastest reports say.

In all seriousness. They say that due to the hole in our ozone, heat from the sun is better able to heat the Earth, in the most basic terms.

Wow... that is not global warming.

A man who does not know what global warming is, lol, sheesh...

Well, no need ridicule; I was just like you.

 

[comicgirl]

I live in Canada...its December 13..... *looks out the window and sees the snow melting in spring like conditions* Yeah...its real.

I live in central PA......its 62 degrees....IT'S REAL!! This not normal.

 

[Electrix]

Its happening. Scientist say its happening. Governments just don't want to do anything because it will cost money.

I find it funny that they are unwilling to pay money now when damages from natural disasters will probably end up cost billions more.

 

[Electrix]

- Double post -

 

[OverMyHead]

So what are you going to do about it? Just what are YOU going to do about it, HUH??

Nothing; we can do nothing, just as it was fortold in the prophecies.

 

[mightiest_mortal]

Global Warming is caused by the decrease in numbers of Pirates since the 1800s.

Theres a statistacally significant connection between the decline in pirate numbers and the increase in the temperature of the world..

 

[Mr Sparkle]

 

[OverMyHead]

lol

 

[Shuley]

I live in central PA......its 62 degrees....IT'S REAL!! This not normal.

It's still Fall..Winter doesn't start till Dec 22nd

 

[Shuley]

None of us will be here when the polar ice cap melts,so i'm not worried about it.

 

[DV8]

I'm 25 years old and I remember being in middle school, and everyone talking about how bad global warming was at THAT point, and how bad it would get if we continued to do nothing about it . . . .

well, it's 10 years later, and the shyt KEEPS getting worse . . . I'm only 25 goddam years old, and the weather has NOTICABLY been continuing to go awry . . . . this is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the earth's history to say the least, and something has to be done . . .

every @$$hole who's too lazy to TRY and at least learn about this w/ an open mind can go fk themselves if they're just gonna say "the earth will end long after I'm gone, so why worry" . . . because even though they are probably too ignorant to admit they will have children, it is THEIR children, and our children's children who will have to reap the more dire consequences . . .

 

[The Spawn]

The answer is Mars.

 

[Gotendbz-2]

Of course global warming is real. We're all going to die. Whether its tomorrow or 50 years from now.

 

[DorkyFresh]

every @$$hole who's too lazy to TRY and at least learn about this w/ an open mind can go fk themselves if they're just gonna say "the earth will end long after I'm gone, so why worry" . . . because even though they are probably too ignorant to admit they will have children, it is THEIR children, and our children's children who will have to reap the more dire consequences . . .

very well said and i whole heartedly agree...the people denying or ignoring this problem are comfortable not having a conscience when it comes to the future of mankind. we, as humans, are reactive...not proactive. we have to wait until something bad happens before we do something about it rather than preparing for when that bad thing happens.

the big problem is that even though bad things happen to us (Hurrican Katrina, etc) we still don't do anything. the rest of us are so comfortable that we don't want to inconvenience ourselves. so we forgot and move on so easily...

 

[Mike_D202]

We'll all be safe INSIDE the earth.

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

 

[Kritish]

Global warming is very real and very dangerouse, we need to invest as much money as we can afford for government funded research to find practical non oil power for our vehicles.
What isn't mention is that when the glaciers to melt somewhat they will fall into the trans-atlantic current (the one that keeps the U.K. from almost never snowing) will cool it down and trigger anouther ice age.

 

[OverMyHead]

What are the solutions?

I think the only one solution is the tax everyone who use excess electricity, water, gas (pump up the oil prices even higher--10.00 dollars a gallon), force them to conform and change, because they only care about one thing:

money

 

[Locs]

*Little chuckle* Why yes son, global warming is indeed real and can be very dangerous to life on Earth. Now run along.

 

[DorkyFresh]

taxing people isn't going to make them care for the world.

about the biggest change we need to make, right now, is the switch from gas cars to electric or hydrogen cars...but as long as there's corruption in big oil businesses and government that will never happen.

we need to stop thinking of ourselves as individuals because that's what got us into this mess in the first place. we need to stop thinking "i'm just one person, there's nothing i can do" because it's not just one person that thinks that way...it's a whole group of people.



right now, i seriously don't know if there's anything we can do. we came across technology and started using it before we knew the dangers of it and now that same technology is in the hands of billions of people who will never understand that we're destroying our Earth...because those billions of people each think individually instead of collectively...