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Venus May Have Been Habitable, Says NASA (sciencedaily.com)
EzInKy writes: Science Daily has an article speculating that Venus may have been habitable which is suggested by NASA climate modeling, which proposes that Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to two billion years of its early history. Talk about global climate change run amok. Venus may represent a near Earth example of what is in store for the future of our world if we don't make it a number one priority to address. Science Daily reports: "Venus today is a hellish world. It has a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere 90 times as thick as Earth's. There is almost no water vapor. Temperatures reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) at its surface. Scientists have long theorized that Venus formed out of ingredients similar to Earth's, but followed a different evolutionary path. Measurements by NASA's Pioneer mission to Venus in the 1980s first suggested Venus originally may have had an ocean. However, Venus is closer to the sun than Earth and receives far more sunlight. As a result, the planet's early ocean evaporated, water-vapor molecules were broken apart by ultraviolet radiation, and hydrogen escaped to space. With no water left on the surface, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere, leading to a so-called runaway greenhouse effect that created present conditions."
Nowhere in the article does it suggest that Earth could suffer a Venus-like runaway greenhouse effect. And indeed the vast majority of climate scientists do not believe that is possible on earth, even if we burn everything. We can make the planet unable to support a large human population, but we probably can't trigger a thermal runaway.
I'm sorry but Venus is not tidally locked to the Earth. Or the sun. More info. The orbit is "normal" (it has to be or it would fall into the sun, or leave the solar system) but the rotation is both very slow, and in the opposite direction to all the other planets in the solar system.
On the other hand climate change likely had a large part in the biggest mass extinction's in earth's history. Do you really think we should be playing Russian Roulette with the Earth's climate? Not to mention a) causing millions of deaths from pollution every year, b) funnelling money in to unstable middle eastern regimes and c) using up a resource at an increasing rate that we know is finite and will run out in the future.
Thing is... There is no one left who can pay.
Sure there is . . . the soon to be extinct middle class in the US.
This is what bothers me when politicians promise everyone a winged unicorn . . . and that higher taxes on the rich will pay for it.
They lie like rugs. Rich folks don't pay taxes. They have enough money to afford top notch tax lawyers who will come up with some scheme to move any profits onto the Cayman Islands. And politicians are rich folks, and know this. Hillary Clinton can show up at a Wall Street meeting and just yawn a couple of times, and then go home with millions in her pockets. The Donald? Hell, he brags about how rich he is.
So, the rich aren't going to pay for any tax hikes. The poor don't have any money anyway. Guess who gets to pay the tab . . . ?
In the good old days, when this Kid really was a kid, things were simple. The Democrats were the party for the poor folks, and the Republicans were the party for the rich folks. Now the Democrats are the party for both rich folks and poor folks. It will be interesting to see whether the US middle class and the Republican party survive the next 20 years.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Rich folks don't pay taxes.
Objectively false. In fact, they pay the vast majority of the income taxes. Overwhelmingly so.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.