Scientist: Planet going back to dinosaur era

[alfredo]

They have been saying for years that we are in the midst of a mass extinction.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/09/07/climate.change.reut/index.html

NORWICH, England (Reuters) -- Global warming over the coming century could mean a return of temperatures last seen in the age of the dinosaur and lead to the extinction of up to half of all species, a scientist said on Thursday.

Not only will carbon dioxide levels be at the highest levels for 24 million years, but global average temperatures will be higher than for up to 10 million years, said Chris Thomas of the University of York.

Between 10 and 99 percent of species will be faced with atmospheric conditions that last existed before they evolved, and as a result from 10-50 percent of them could disappear.

"We may very well already be on the breaking edge of a wave of mass extinctions," Thomas told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

[AX10]

1. K & R!

[havocmom]

2. Seems like we have more bugs lately

And the frogs are disapperaing.

Not good for the home team.

[alfredo]

4. I feel really sorry for the young people who will

have to deal with the crap to come. What will the world be like in 20 years?

[mom cat]

21. This is no time to be having children. It would condemn them to a life

of pure hell and the agony of watching life on earth suffocate. If you love children, quit having them.

[Subdivisions]

7. Go have a look at how BIG bugs were in the days of dinosaurs...YIKES!

[havocmom]

9. Don't have to see no stinking pictures

I have lived in Arizona! :D

[alfredo]

10. That was the state legislature.

[havocmom]

11. Oh, you've been there

:rofl:

[alfredo]

12. My wife spent some time there.

She got to see the best and the worst of Arizona: Moe Udall and Joseph Banano.

[alfredo]

13. In the Permian was when the bugs were big.

Here's a model of a Dragonfly

[pitohui]

14. the permian wasn't days of the dinosaurs but...

i think i already have some of those dragonflies in my yard, they're bigger than the damn hummingbirds

[AlienGirl]

15. They were so big because there was more oxygen in the air then

Insect size is limited by the oxygen level, so as much as I'd like the six-foot millipedes to come back, it's not likely anytime soon!

Tucker

[alfredo]

17. Our problem is the lack of oxygen.

They are saying poison ivy will become much larger as CO2 increases.

[RebelOne]

22. I think we have less bugs.

Every spring and summer, I am plagued by ants and roaches. This year, I have not seen one ant in my house and only a few roaches and they have been dead.

[Hun Joro]

24. Some kinds of bugs...

around here, the fireflies are gone. And I am seeing far fewer butterflies than just a few years ago.

[geomon666]

3. Yay!

The rapture is coming! Science has proven it!

[Gloria]

5. Any chance there will be a mass extinction of Rethugs??

[skids]

19. Yes, in fact.

There was a study of a group of chimps or something a while back where all the alpha males had beaten the beta males away from a pile of food and eaten it, gotten food poisoning, and died. The study followed the resulting changes (for the better) in their social structure and standard of living once the beta males took over.

So if it happens that the assholes can be gotten to fight over something they deem desireable but is actually lethal, this could occur.

[ThomCat]

20. Exactly the opposite

The republicans will make sure that the resources that are necessary for survival are concentrated in a few wealthy hands. Those wealthy republicans would likely survive and maintain their power because of their concentration of resources.

Then they would get to rewrite history so it wasn't their fault.

[bobbolink]

6. not to mention the extinction of poor people the globe over....

[alfredo]

8. Most of the earth's population lives by the oceans. They will have

to move to higher ground. Higher sea levels will sour inland aquifers.

The shit will hit the fan.

[Selatius]

16. Releasing dinosaur era CO2 --> dinosaur era temperatures.

Untold billions of tons of carbon dioxide remain sequestered in the earth's crust, and using fossil fuels is putting that carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. We are essentially returning the atmosphere back to an earlier time as far as CO2 concentration goes.

[Nikki Stone 1]

18. kick

:kick:

[Neshanic]

23. Delayatix Cacaconsumius..small insignificant parasitical...

dinosaur of miniscule proportions. Habitat of undergrowth of tree ferns, and large herding dinosaurs. Main diet of consuming other dinosaurs droppings, and occasionally own excrement. Is group dinosaur that lives in extended families of traditional makeup where male rolls food item into clearing, and females prepare by garnishing with twigs. Occassionaly canabalistic under stress.

[alfredo]

25. I step on them when I see them. Disgusting creatures.

[Buzz Clik]

26. Jurassic/Triassic Temps and CO2 levels? Well, not in the next 100 yrs

In the figure below are the carbon dioxide levels and temperatures. We are a long, long way from 2000 ppm CO2, and a ten degree increase in temperature is well outside the projections.



This is the kind of silly crap that has the knuckledraggers laughing at us. Hows about we tone down the hysteria a tad?