Thread: Fate of Earth
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Old 29-August-2004, 06:59 AM
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Tom2Mars Tom2Mars is offline
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Kneeknocker, re-
Quote:
The damage is done, it is up to our children and there children to sort this mess out.... if it isnt to late
If we can't fix it, the "children" won't be able to. Are they going to get any smarter than us? Or, just so desparate for a solution that they actually DO something about it.

I think we arrived at this point by just stumbling along without a plan. Having a solution and a plan and doing something proactive can accomplish positive benefits faster than it took to create the problem.

And StarLab, I've seen your train of thought expressed by lots of other people. It usually goes:

1) I don't believe "climate change/greenhouse effect" is happening
2) Well, maybe some of the evidence is compelling
3) Well, maybe climate change is happening, but maybe it won't be a bad thing.

The biggest phrase I've heard in the vein of #3 is, "maybe the extra CO2 will stimulate plant growth.

Well, if that was true, the plants would grow, and the CO2 would be taken up...right? So, how come the CO2 levels aren't dropping?

The absolutely consistent thing about the attitude of the nay-sayers, is that they don't want to do anything about it. Watching the news, debating it endlessly, conjecturing whether it is a good thing or a bad thing...takes no effort, requires no action and, accomplishes nothing.

Just as a mental exercise, accept the premise as true, that we humans can affect things on a planetary scale, and ask yourself if you can do something to reduce the production of greenhouse gases. And try something, anything.

Because let's face it, if you don't think that 6 billion plus people can affect the environment of a whole planet, then you might as well forget about a handful of people Terraforming Mars, or anywhere else.

We are intelligent powerful creatures, or, we are impotent. Pick one.
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Pre-Quote: 'To survive one has to experiment. When the environment changes, the traditional way of doing things doesn't work.'

Quote:
"It's the outriders, the organisms that seem to be maladjusted before the change, which are the only ones that survive these changes...in that way a species continues."

Carl Sagan
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