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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?"
Is it time to set off a few nukes and see if nuclear winter can cool things down?"
Uh-uh. Last time I tried that on Sim Earth, my planet was overtaken by sentient robots. Of course, the robots eventually get taken out by carnivirous plants, but is that really much of an improvement?
Marked increase in SMUG. Damn you, George Clooney!
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
...dihydrogen monoxide before it is too late. Call your representative now!
Is it time to set off a few nukes and see if nuclear winter can cool things down?
I nominate Idaho for Nuclear Whipping Boy
Yes the world is overpopulated.
Ohhh! Pay Dirt! A pair of half-eaten choco-pants!
My 10 gallon fishtank has about 500 goldfish in it right now. There's still room left for a few hundred more. I don't understand why people think the tank is overpopulated.
This guy's the limit!
oh! oh! Can I suggest a name?! Can we call this new innovation an "atmosphere"?
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
That said, I'd rather see something a little more organized like, say, a large solar shade positioned between the sun and the earth.
I keep trying to get "Launch Solar Shade" passed, but I can't get the votes - I have the energy market cornered and Lal, Santiago and Zakharov have decided that they don't want to trade with me.
I am going to nerve staple those bastards if I ever get my hands on them.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
And then my cities were surrounded by mind worm boils! They were everywhere! Where did they come from? Did they not like me replacing their fungus with my pretty tree farms? I don't know, but they were pissed off. So I convened a meeting with the planetary council and got the vote to um raise sea levels and uh... Um, sorry what were we talking about?
Why don't you just voluntarily self-terminate so that there's more for me?
I'm confused...
"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."
Is your second sentence some kind of sarcasatic counterexample of how you can't draw a conclusion about the abilities of others to be self aware, or do you not realize that you're contradicting yourself? If you can't draw a conclusion about the abilities of others to be self-aware, how do you know your GF's dog is? That's at least as crazy as the poster saying that humans are the only self-aware species.
For my part, I think there's some chance dolphins are self-aware, which is why we need to watch them very, very, carefully to see if they're doing anything sneaky. I think Gorillas and co. can be brought into the fold as extremely dumb humans if we give them a chance, but dolphins are different. I just don't trust them.
Increase in temperature = More water evaporating
Vapourous water = Clouds
More clouds = Less sunlight getting through
Less sunlight = lower temperature
The point being that there is a sense of balance in place. Yes, we're messing things up, but there are some checks and balances that lessen the impact. That's not to say we should keep on polluting, but that the situation IS reversible if given time.
This argument has little value. Look:
The point is, only a global analysis of the situation says can say whether the first approximation (falling to the ground) can be mitigated or not, and is serious or not. The "global analysis" in the falling case is checking whether or not you have a parachute on your back (=enough drag?), or you are a cat or not (=really serious?)
In the global warming debate this "global analysis" uses scientific tools and knowledge, which, unsurprisingly, are best mastered by scientists working in that field.