Coral reefs. Too hot water, corals die.
Polar bears. No ice flakes to climb up on when swimming in the sea, hunting. Polar bear drowns mid-sea after several hours of looking for something solid to grab on to.
Tons, I repeat, tons and tons of plancton, the very basis of the food chain. Too warm water, plancton get heat stroke, die by the trillions. Next step up is smaller fish, then bigger fish... the seas are dying.
Some animals naturally thriving in a mild climate creep further north as the winters get shorter. Take the Iberia snails, for example. Usually, they will freeze to death in a Norwegian winter. However, as the winters get milder, the snails survive. And lay up to 400 eggs each. They are becoming a major problem up here now, and their only natural enemy, a dry climate, is nowhere to be seen.
Forest fires rage in Australia. Koala bears are fried. Eucalyptus trees are fried. A tree has to be more than 20 years old for providing sufficent food for a koala without taking damage from it. For each fire that rages, a huge patch of trees are uninhabitable for twenty years.
Drought. Have a look at Ethiopia. People are dying by the thousands there, because the summers bring a lot less rain than usual.
Glaciers going bye-bye. India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan... where do you think their inner regions are getting their water from? What happens when precipitation falls as rain, that runs away, instead of snow that stays on the glacier?
Global warming is killing things. And the rate is growing. Wait until the humanitarian crisis are escalating to the point that people start to emigrate. Not by the thousands, like today, but by the hundreds of millions. Diseases run like wildfire in slum areas, growing because lack of rain makes running a farm impossible, and people move to the cities.
Then you have the permafrost melting. Entire cities in Russia are built over huge networks of mines and tunnels. Permafrost melts, tunnels cave in... and on the surface, entire blocks are swallowed by holes in the ground.
Close your eyes, if you so wish. It won't be as bad where most CF-ers live. The weather will actually get better here. Thus, you can already adapt to foreign immigrants. As entire countries are getting uninhabitable, we can expect tons more of them in the future. And as stated above, the seas will yield less food in the years to come.
Last, if the trend continues at today's rate, we'll see WW3 in this century. It will be about fresh water.
Polar bears. No ice flakes to climb up on when swimming in the sea, hunting. Polar bear drowns mid-sea after several hours of looking for something solid to grab on to.
Tons, I repeat, tons and tons of plancton, the very basis of the food chain. Too warm water, plancton get heat stroke, die by the trillions. Next step up is smaller fish, then bigger fish... the seas are dying.
Some animals naturally thriving in a mild climate creep further north as the winters get shorter. Take the Iberia snails, for example. Usually, they will freeze to death in a Norwegian winter. However, as the winters get milder, the snails survive. And lay up to 400 eggs each. They are becoming a major problem up here now, and their only natural enemy, a dry climate, is nowhere to be seen.
Forest fires rage in Australia. Koala bears are fried. Eucalyptus trees are fried. A tree has to be more than 20 years old for providing sufficent food for a koala without taking damage from it. For each fire that rages, a huge patch of trees are uninhabitable for twenty years.
Drought. Have a look at Ethiopia. People are dying by the thousands there, because the summers bring a lot less rain than usual.
Glaciers going bye-bye. India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan... where do you think their inner regions are getting their water from? What happens when precipitation falls as rain, that runs away, instead of snow that stays on the glacier?
Global warming is killing things. And the rate is growing. Wait until the humanitarian crisis are escalating to the point that people start to emigrate. Not by the thousands, like today, but by the hundreds of millions. Diseases run like wildfire in slum areas, growing because lack of rain makes running a farm impossible, and people move to the cities.
Then you have the permafrost melting. Entire cities in Russia are built over huge networks of mines and tunnels. Permafrost melts, tunnels cave in... and on the surface, entire blocks are swallowed by holes in the ground.
Close your eyes, if you so wish. It won't be as bad where most CF-ers live. The weather will actually get better here. Thus, you can already adapt to foreign immigrants. As entire countries are getting uninhabitable, we can expect tons more of them in the future. And as stated above, the seas will yield less food in the years to come.
Last, if the trend continues at today's rate, we'll see WW3 in this century. It will be about fresh water.
Gazza
Giga Poster
Wether or not humans have caused global warming, I think the situation is probably too far gone for it to be reversed. In some ways, I wonder if we'd be better off directing our funds towards simply adapting to a warmer climate and higher sea levels, I mean if the Netherlands have been able to keep the sea out all these years....
That said, I sustainability in general is the real, and important issue people should be focusing on, since there are issues arising from unsustainable practices that are measurable, and I guess more definite.
That said, I sustainability in general is the real, and important issue people should be focusing on, since there are issues arising from unsustainable practices that are measurable, and I guess more definite.
bob_3_
Giga Poster
There's always alot of ignorance and wild facts flying round when this subject is brought up!
I personally am on a stand that we should be doing all we can to prepare and slow it down, but this is purely on what my dad tells me as he spends his life working on alternative energy!
So I myself don't feel I should argue any cases, as I'm not really fully informed. But alot of views I see are very "head in the sand".
I personally am on a stand that we should be doing all we can to prepare and slow it down, but this is purely on what my dad tells me as he spends his life working on alternative energy!
So I myself don't feel I should argue any cases, as I'm not really fully informed. But alot of views I see are very "head in the sand".
Ploddish
Hyper Poster
Leading on from the last video, on the topic of a previous claim that an ice age was on the way:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU_AtHkB4Ms[/youtube]
I think the problem some people have is the ability to critically think about information they're given and decide from then on, rather than just immediately join one side and be unable to question their own beliefs. I'm only linking to the video as a counterpoint to previous opinions.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU_AtHkB4Ms[/youtube]
I think the problem some people have is the ability to critically think about information they're given and decide from then on, rather than just immediately join one side and be unable to question their own beliefs. I'm only linking to the video as a counterpoint to previous opinions.
To take it back to the original post, scientists will, more often than not, find "evidence" to support the views of whichever company is funding their research. The money has to come from somewhere, and that's often from an organistion with a vested interest in the results of the scientific evidence. They don't get the results they want, the labs lose their funding.
Anyway, I tend to fall on the "it's all bollocks" side of the fence. As has been mentioned before, yes, the earth has been warming up recently, and looking at graphs etc. of the last few decades it looks quite alarming. Look at the same data over a longer time though, and there's a very clear pattern:
Anyway, I tend to fall on the "it's all bollocks" side of the fence. As has been mentioned before, yes, the earth has been warming up recently, and looking at graphs etc. of the last few decades it looks quite alarming. Look at the same data over a longer time though, and there's a very clear pattern:
Natural global warming has been accelerated by human activity though. It wouldn't be a problem if so many people didn't live by the coast.
I see no problem in the world trying to stop emissions global warming or not. Surely people can see that burning Fossil Fuels causes huge pollution?
Cover half of Australia in solar panels and we'd be sorted!
I see no problem in the world trying to stop emissions global warming or not. Surely people can see that burning Fossil Fuels causes huge pollution?
Cover half of Australia in solar panels and we'd be sorted!
Red graph is CO2, blue graph is temperature. The arrow points at today's CO2 level.
See my last post for effects of global warming.
Years. 0 is today, old times are on the far left. It's explained on the chart.
It's explained on the chart if you know what Ar (0= 1 Dag) means 
So, the chart says that we're currently about right for an increase in CO2, and an increase in temperature - about the same as what happened roughly 120,000years ago... Which matches Gavin's graph.
Which essentially point to it not being 100% down to human beings, but rather a typical kind of cycle (though one we may be accelerating slightly, but due to the complex nature of these things, something which is extremely difficult to prove or model).
So, the chart says that we're currently about right for an increase in CO2, and an increase in temperature - about the same as what happened roughly 120,000years ago... Which matches Gavin's graph.
Which essentially point to it not being 100% down to human beings, but rather a typical kind of cycle (though one we may be accelerating slightly, but due to the complex nature of these things, something which is extremely difficult to prove or model).
^År (0 = I dag) means Year (0 = today)
The thing is, we see this has happened before. Probably will happen again too. But this time, the peak of the CO2 graph is twice as high as ever before (or at least, has a value of 150 more than the previous peak). If we're in for a similar temperature increase... this can get nasty.
The thing is, we see this has happened before. Probably will happen again too. But this time, the peak of the CO2 graph is twice as high as ever before (or at least, has a value of 150 more than the previous peak). If we're in for a similar temperature increase... this can get nasty.