Global meltdown

[Tsuchibuta]

Reading this thread it seems it is very one sided only a handful of people mentioning that there are many many many factors that affect weather. Let us not forget the gravity of the sun pulls us closer to the sun every day and the moon is drifting away slowly, and those are the two key elements in weather.. Oh and that same drift of the moon and the tides they form on the ocean slows the rotation of the earth a small degree which increases the length of a day by thousandths of a second every year. This all may seem small but I know I live in Ohio and when we get on the back side of the sun and the earth is not tilted in our direction it gets pretty stink cold and the opposite happens 6 months later. Don't get me wrong I think we do need to curb our pollution but most of us on this site grow orchids not native to our areas, that is not natural and ultimately wastes energy. They evolved to thrive in their enviroment not the one we build for them. I love the hundreds of orchids I keep but I understand to do so in Ohio means I have to use lots of energy to keep them warm and cozy when winter comes. As for those who think humans can't survive... wake up... we can keep people alive on machines, exchange body parts, oh and I almost forgot we did live through an Ice Age.. I thought that was a massive climate change that affected all flora and fauna.. I mean I haven't seen a wolly mammoth in Ohio in thousands of years.. Humans live because we adapt as do many other mammals. That is how we (mammals) survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.... which was yet another climatic event. My wife is currently midway though veterinary medicine school and we cherish the lives of animals quite a bit but none of us wants to abandon our lush lives to live were no other animal does so we don't upset it's habitat. I dare say that many of us here us mouse traps and antibacterial soaps, if you had termite you would probably call and exterminator, and of course pesticides on our orchids. All harmful to some creature.
That being said, I must say I'm not an expert nor should anyone here claim to be especially about weather, my local weather man is notoriously wrong all the time I don't know about you. I'm not going to hedge my bets that everything is going to be fine either. Personally I find it wasteful to use something that isn't renewable or free. I am always dreaming up new ways to make my greenhouse and home more efficient but unfortunately sometimes the costs to go green don't aways offset the savings. I grow a lot of my food not because of all the pesticides and "genetically altered" foodstuff but because it's cheap and I enjoy it. I would love to build a wind turbine to harness the energy of the eternal 30 mph winds that storm across my property from Oct to March (which happens the be the same time I have to heat the greenhouse). But they are well out of my budget to build one powerful enough to power 7000 watts of heaters all day. Nor would my wife appreciate the large size of such a creation. If I had all the money in the world I would buy the patent rights from dupot company of their new solar paint which can turn any surface into a solar panel. Those that speak of over population, as grim as it may be perhaps "global warming" is the way of the earth to rid itself of a large number of inhabitants bringing everything back into balance. By no means am I advocating the demise of the worlds flora and fauna population. We have more than enough food worldwide to feed everyone 30 times over, most of the US's fields lay fallow because the government pays them to be (I know because I live in the middle of hundreds of acres of fallow fields that were once corn). It's just politics, oddly people are equal, it seems those with the ability to lead often lack the knowledge to do so, and those with the knowledge rarely have the charisma. So I urge those that think they have the knowledge run for office and see how well you do.

[Tindomul]

I agree, humans will survive. But I'd rather not be chosen by mere chance and happenstance to survive. I want to have an idea of whats going to happen, and right now, all the clues point to drastic and dramatic climate change that can reshape our society as we know it and the earth upon which we live. Is global warming our fault? Is it the natural? Or a mix of the two? I don't know. But hey, it can't hurt to stop polluting or at the very least stop importing foreign oil. I believe yes, its mostly our fault. If human society had not reached the industrial age, this earth would be 100 times more stable than it is now. I see most folks here believe that Global warming and climate change is real and its here (regardless of why). So, what do we do about it? Do we try to change it, or do we plan for future survival?

[shakkai]

Originally Posted by Tindomul

So, what do we do about it? Do we try to change it, or do we plan for future survival?

I say we need to do both. Short of installing a wind turbine (though we're still thinking about it!) and/or solar panels (which are even more prohibitively expensive....) we've made our house as energy efficient as possible, so for example every light bulb is a compact flourescent low watt bulb. As far as orchids go, I don't provide any special heating or lighting, and I collect rain water to water them with. I don't use pesticides on my orchids, or in my garden. I do use specially formulated orchid fertilizer, but for the garden I use my own compost to feed the garden.

But as I said earlier, I think it is better to be prepared for the worst - just in case. I think that the population of the earth will be drastically reduced to a more sustainable level and I think this will happen within my lifetime, so I want to do everything I can now to try to ensure I'm not one of those 'reduced' if I can at all help it.

[Tindomul]

Some sad news.
Bangladesh cyclone death toll tops 3,100 - Yahoo! News

[quiltergal]

I would agree that we are leaving out other major contributors to climate change. I happen to believe that we don't talk about them because in today's world it's not PC to say global warming may be caused by something other than CO2. Don't get me wrong I think it's a factor but I hardly think it's the ONLY factor. It's an admirable goal to achieve greener living, and I strive to do that where and when I can. I pay more for wind generated electricity, I recycle, I carpool. It makes me feel better but ultimately I don't think it will have a significant impact on the environment. Living green is expensive. Realistically who will be hardest hit by required worldwide green living? Developing third world nations that's who. Nations that can ill afford going totally solar. Most don't even have clean drinking water or basic medical care. People are still cooking over open campfires, and practicing slash and burn agriculture. If we mandate green living world wide how are those people going to survive?

The other recurring thought I keep seeing in this tread is that if we go green worldwide then the earth will become static and nothing will change. Absurd! The earth is a living planet and living things are NEVER static. Things will change no matter what we do. It's ridiculous even arrogant to think we can make the earth stop changing. What we really should be thinking about is how to adapt to a changing earth, because it surely will change with or without us.

[Tindomul]

Those are great points Terri! Even if tomorrow we woke up and suddenly magically we all lived green, every one of us. Global warming would continue. Possibly unchecked. Hopefully however, if we do go green we can help the earth transition less drastically? The problem is we don't know how change happens. We don't know if change happens quickly naturally or slowly or both?

[quiltergal]

I agree Tin! We really need to develop better science with regard to climate change. I think right now we are just guessing. It's a tough thing to study since changes are measured in millions of years!

[Phantasm]

There is no guarantee that humans will survive future global weather conditions. In the past, there was a serious narrowing of the gene pool for humans due to climate change. Only a few thousand, perhaps, survived to perpetuate the species. The cause was probably a combination of warming and super volcanoes spewing huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere.

We are warming the globe in what should be a cooling period for the planet. If the earth experiences a global event, it will make things much worse.

Perhaps it won't happen in our lifetimes, but the Earth is constantly evolving and our species along with many others will either evolve or be exterminated.

[Tsuchibuta]

I agree there is no guarantees, however our distant human relatives did not possess the vast knowledge of physics and biology that we do today. I think we are all afraid of that we cannot control and currently weather is one of the few things that humans have not been able to conquer. It is that fear that makes us come to rash conclusions and quick solutions. I think pinning down global warming is like trying to find the cure for the common cold. There isn't one cure but many things we can do to try and prevent it from happening. Some of which make us feel better more than actually doing anything to help.

[Tindomul]

Natural disasters have quadrupled in two decades: study - Yahoo! News