"There is an ecological timebomb ticking away,"

[donsu]

I'm posting this here as this is as political as it gets)


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975


Countdown to global catastrophe


-snip-

The report says this point will be two degrees centigrade above the average world temperature prevailing in 1750 before the industrial revolution, when human activities - mainly the production of waste gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which retain the sun's heat in the atmosphere - first started to affect the climate. But it points out that global average temperature has already risen by 0.8 degrees since then, with more rises already in the pipeline - so the world has little more than a single degree of temperature latitude before the crucial point is reached.

More ominously still, it assesses the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere after which the two-degree rise will become inevitable, and says it will be 400 parts per million by volume (ppm) of CO2.

The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than 2ppm annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold will be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although the two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come into effect).

"There is an ecological timebomb ticking away," said Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary, who co-chaired the task force that produced the report with the US Republican senator Olympia Snowe. It was assembled by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Centre for American Progress in the US, and The Australia Institute.The group's chief scientific adviser is Dr Rakendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

-snip-

The report starkly spells out the likely consequences of exceeding the threshold. "Beyond the 2 degrees C level, the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow significantly," it says.
-snip-
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they already know the earth's air is so dirty that less sunlight is coming through.

[The Doctor.]

1. History will call the ** administration the worst thing to happen to

Humanity.

[Kolesar]

2. The permafrost will thaw and emit carbon into the atmosphere

This will be the point of no return.

"the transformation of the planet's forests and soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."

I think I am going to take up skydiving as a hobby, smoke cigarettes, and drive like a maniac. I don't want to see this.

[McKenzie]

3. difficulty is, ecological and climate damage is largely invisible

to lay people. That's why bastards such as Esso are able to attack theories about global warming. There is an ever increasing body of evidence, to support growing concerns, that we are up shit creek sans paddle as regards the damage we have caused to the climate and to ecosystems. As I said though, it's largely invisible to the untrained eye, hence the lack of action to do something about it. And that sucks...bigtime...massively.

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite invisible to the laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor that who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."

Aldo Leopold

Same "invisibility" applies to climate change unless one is trained in the field.

edit: changed whole emphasis of my reply...duoooh! Slinks off in embarrassment.

[The Doctor.]

4. Humans, by and large, are indeed short-sighted.

They tend to think they can fix anything once they see the problem.

Problem is, by the time even the morons can see this happening, it will be too late to fix.

This is some serious shit.

It's funny - when we get unseasonably high wind or precipitation and someone comments on it, I say, "Well, it's Global Warming at work."

They usually laugh, especially if it's snowing. Then I have to explain to them that I'm serious, heat is energy, and that energy has a number of effects on the climate. Those little degree increases we see every year don't sound like much because it's just a small fraction of the overall ENERGY we keep putting into our biosphere.
We have more wind, rain, and snow because of ENERGY.

They usually pretend to understand and change the subject.

Sad, really.

[McKenzie]

6. we could discuss gaia theory

but that's best done in another thread to avoid hijacking this one.

And you are soooo correct....people are short sighted. Everyone want cheaper petrol...so they can spew even more gases into the atmosphere. If a candidate stood for election on a ticket of 10 cent a gallon petrol he/she would probably win. Sad, isn't it.

regards

[maxsolomon]

5. its too late to turn the ship now

the iceberg is dead ahead & the captain is passed out drunk on oil.

so live it up, amurka! get out there & use your lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, & gas powered scooters. drive your hummers out into the woods for some dirt biking & snowmobiling. drive your suburban to wal-mart for petroleum-based plastic chinese crap shipped across the ocean using fossil fuel & distributed to east jesus in a diesel-burning 18 wheeler. use jet fuel to fly across the country for a stupid football game. drive your motor home 1000 miles round trip to a NASCAR race. haul your powerboats & jetskis down to the boat launch for a loud as hell fossil-burning good time.

use it up as fast as possible; let's get this over with.