As I am enduring a heatwave now let's talk about the topic a bit forgotten - the global warming. Here are some quotes to get the discussion rolling:
"Global warming is too serious for the world any longer to ignore its danger or split into opposing factions on it".
Tony Blair
"… those who are absolutely certain that the rise in temperatures is due solely to carbon dioxide have no scientific justification. It's pure guesswork."
Henrik Svensmark
"As best as can be determined, the world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last two millennia, and, if current trends continue, by the end of the century it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years."
Elizabeth Kolbert
"On average, global warming is not going to harm the developing world."
Bjorn Lomborg
Image via Wikipedia- Are you sure that the unstable weather we've been experiencing for some time is caused by humans and their activities?
- Is the global warming, according to you, a real threat or just another bugaboo invented by politicians and supported by corrupt scientists?
- What could be done to prevent a future disaster, if it is really approaching?
- Why, in your opinion, some people, scientists and laymen alike , oppose the notion of global warming if it is so noticeable and obvious?
I know, it's too hot to discuss anything...
ReplyDeleteYou're opening up a can of worms with this one, my dear! One issue which really does tend to make people hot-tempered. I've flip-flopped on this one a couple of times - I tried sitting on the fence for a while, but fences are bloody uncomfortable places to sit, even though you get a good view.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell from my blog, I'm in the 'climate change, unfortunately, seems to be real' camp. For about a year I read up on the whole subject, both sides, and the evidence (ice core samples, global temperature trends, those much maligned computer models...) points in that direction.
Of course, what we do about it is very much political, and that's where the real debate should be. Renewables? Nuclear? Carbon Capture and Storage? Geo-Engineering? Stick our heads in the sand and hope it goes away? Somebody Else's Problem?
It is definitely being caused by humans. Anyone who has been in an airplane at various times over the last few decades can see the changes in the upper atmosphere. The only scientists who say it isn't so get their paychecks from the oil companies.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is simple, the lifestyle we lead is unsustainable in the long run but people don't want to cut back so we are doomed, doomed I tell you. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Plant a tree if you have land to plant trees on. Make it a native tree. Go with the 100 mile diet. Don't get a new cell phone every year. LED lights are the wave of the future. We are a very throw away society. I throw socks away because they have a hole in them and I don't know how to mend them and it costs more to have them mended than to buy a new bag with a dozen socks. Eat less meat!!! That's a big one and walk more. It's hot here too.
I tried sitting on the fence for a while, but fences are bloody uncomfortable places to sit, even though you get a good view. Lol! Loved that one, Tracy! I decided to try to sit on the fence for a moment.
ReplyDeleteCan of worms usually means that different people want their particular interests involved in the process of solving the issue. I am still in two minds about the global warming. True, we the people inhabiting the Earth, behave in a scandalous way. We don't use our recources wisely, we drop rubbish in the sea and everywhere else if nobody is looking, we pollute and consume conspicuously, not thinking about other sentient beings living next to us. We are horribly selfish. If we lived here under the terms of a normal renting agreement, the landlord would have shown us the door long ago and he/she would be completely right.
But...I think sometimes we underappreciate the reviving power of the nature. We also can't see the wider picture - namely the changes of the climate which had happened long time ago. The truth is the climante changes constantly and we are not completely sure why.
Of course it is a good moment to change our bad habits, so well described by the Red Witch - darning socks, oh...I can do it no problem! LED lights - I love them and I have already changed some glow tubes into them in my parents' appartment. I don't eat meat. Is it really helpful, though? Does it make a difference? Somehow I don't think so, especially when I find another illegal landfill site in my favourite forest or when I see more and more cars on Polish roads. Call me distopian.
Forest are often cut down in South America to create more grazing land for cattle. Raising beef is a very energy intensive process and produces methane gas. I think eating less meat is a very good step in the right direction as well as the 100 mile diet. Might cancel out some of the increase in cars on the road. Better for your health too. Other rain forests are cut down to grow crops for the supermarkets in the north. We need to stop eating fresh grapes in January. Stuff like that. It is doable. Oh yeah, we need to get rid of drive through fast food. People sit there idling for as much as fifteen minutes for a cup of coffee. Bad for the car, bad for the backsides, bad for the environment. I could go on. :-D
ReplyDeleteA link about Greenland iceberg threatening Canada provided by the Red Witch can be found here.
ReplyDeleteI think eating less meat is a very good step in the right direction as well as the 100 mile diet. (...)We need to stop eating fresh grapes in January.
What or who exactly is supposed to make people stop this? As far as I know nobody gives a damn.
True. I was taking a course on the environment where the professor was lecturing about the rain forest being cut down for farmland in South America. The layer of soil is very thin in the rain forest, so that once the trees are cut down, it erodes very quickly requiring that more forest be cut down to make new fields. The people in my class were asking who they could write letters to or where to send donations. What to do, they asked. Well I stood up and said they could stop buying fresh fruit out of season. Without a market for these products, it would stop. Well then everyone started moaning that now they can't even buy whatever they want. When the people who claim to care, won't give anything up to save the situation, then we are lost indeed.
ReplyDeleteWhen the people who claim to care, won't give anything up to save the situation, then we are lost indeed.
ReplyDeleteExactly my point. Nobody in his or her right mind would say we should continue like that but when it comes to making a personal sacrifice - selling your beloved car, not buying fresh fruit out of season and so on - they simply refuse to change. It's easy to write a letter or donate money but I don't think it will change anything. Not in the long term anyway. We are doomed.