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Cleaner Air Adds To Global Warming
shmlco writes "In the "You Can't Win For Losing" department, an article on the BBC web site is reporting that reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appears to be adding to man-made global warming. Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth's surface.
Burn fossil fuels, you make things worse. Clean up your act, and you make things worse. Is it time to set off a few nukes and see if nuclear winter can cool things down?"
I think I speak for most of humanity when I say, ahem, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?"
This message brought to you by the Upright, Sensible People Department.
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
Look - while the Bush Administration may think Global Warming isn't happening, it's pretty obvious it is. BUT, the scientific debate about what's causing it, and how much of that causation is manmade still goes on. The Earth has cycles of its own, and we seem to be caught at a time when it would be warming up, anyway (and also getting drier in certain parts, unfortunately for those of us who depend on hydropower for cheap electricity).
The important part of the debate -- for me -- isn't so much global warming - I doubt we can do anything about it - but is more about a CLEAN environment. Less toxins = shiny happy goodness. If we emit fewer greenhouse gases at the same time, hey, bueno, but I'm far more concerned about toxins in the environment at this point.
Besides, I've got my eye on some land in Nevada that would be _great_ beachfront property. Yeah...kickin' it Lex Luthor style!
Also, melted polar caps will be fantastic for the mapmaking business. Won't anyone think of the mapmakers?
Don't worry about ANYTHING ANYMORE! Not the environment, not the government, and not the virii.
Trust me, you will live a happier, longer life.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
wow i had no idea how stupid most of the people on slashdot were when it comes to global warming.. just reading over some of the retarded responces from people scares me into realizing just how few people realize what a serious problem global warming is
2 degrees ON AVERAGE is a huge problem its much warmer in some areas, (and cooler in some)
the polls are melting, that ice reflects light back out into space, with it melting leaving a big dark ocean to absorb more light/heat it heats things up even quicker
also all that melting ice raises water levels
also if coral reefs which produce TONS of oxegen get a couple degrees hotter they die, they provide most of the oxygen for all of us
also cars and especially burning coal and oil at power plants contributes way more greenhouse gases and polution consistently than nature ever has (volcanos are similuar but there are thousands of them burning around the clock)
Of course two degrees doesn't sound scary, by itself. When you think of all the energy represented by raising the temperature of the entire planet by two degrees, and then think about how that extra energy will affect weather systems, perhaps you should start to be a little more scared.
I'm reminded of scene from a movie, that one featuring Tommy Lee Jones versus a volcano that pops up under LA. Not a very good movie, but nevertheless... There's a scene where the love interest/geologist is explaining in worried tones to Tommy Lee Jones that the water temperature of some pond had risen by a few degrees in some short period of time. Mr. Jones, like yourself is non-plussed. She then goes on to explain just how much energy it would take to raise the temperature of such a body of water by the seemingly small amount, e.g. "a geological event". Cue lava spewing out of the streets of LA as science flees for the hills, never to be seen again...
What I'm saying is that just because a number sounds small and non-scary doesn't mean it is. A few degrees represents an enormous impact on our environment, the kind anti-global-warming types claim humans could never have. Yet the fact is that CO2 levels are vastly higher than they've been in hundreds of thousands of years. We have outstripped volcanoes and any other natural method of increasing CO2 levels beyond the normal seasonal plant uptake/release. CO2 is almost certainly part of a strong feedback cycle with global temperature. We are having an impact, and a few degrees is both huge and just the tip of the iceberg if we don't change things.
The enemies of Democracy are
Yesterday's wrong answers do not discount today's correct ones, and painting "scientists" in such an overly-broad manner serves no one but the gods of rhetoric.
Global warming is a fact. It is dangerous. It is happening right now. Your ego-protection measures may allow you to sit in your chair and chuckle, patting yourself on the bag in smug superiority, but unfortunately that serves precious little good for the longer term safety of your physical form.
We humans are the only species on this planet that are self-aware. - now, see kids, this is how you make fools of yourselves. Just because you are self-aware, you cannot draw a conclusion of abilities of others to be self-aware. My GF's dog is self aware, and so are her cats.
As such it is in our interest to do all we can to survive. Destroying our environment, promoting disease and famine, are not in our best interest as a species. We shouldn't change because we can, but because we know we should. - I disagree. I think our natural progression towards more knowledge must go through stages, and these stages must involve some of this destruction and disease. We cannot learn anything if we do not go through these stages. Either we are self-aware and intelligent enough to fix the problems somehow or we are not, and thus we are just not intelligent enough. Note that intelligence is not a prerequisite for survival. Plenty unintelligent things survive, just look at the current US president.
You can't handle the truth.
Of course, this means that President Bush keeping us out of Kyoto might have saved us all from certain doom.
Your point about immigration would be more compelling if you could spell it.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
then yes, by setting off nuclear warheads inside of active volcanoes you could create global cooling.
Of course, if that happens, most of humanity will probably die within the 4-5 year global cloud cover, and the ones that don't will probably have nightmares for the rest of their lives.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
What you say is true about the rabble, but these days most professionals and liberals are underproducing offspring. It's just poor people and conservatives that breed enough to keep the US from drowning.