Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (150332)	8/26/2002 2:05:19 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584169

With the environment, its mostly a feeling thing with only a little intellect required. The fact that many people respond in a similar way on this issue scares me. Tim, what scares me is the indifference of people like yourself. Maybe those who are concerned re the planet overreact due to their emotional ties to the issue. I am not sure if that's true or not. I do know that one feels a certain urgency; that things are worse than we think. Unfortunately, some of that is based on feeling rather than fact; however, there is enough fact to warrant concern. The earth had to cool by only a few degrees to end the dinosaur age It was more then a few degrees cooling. Apparenrly it was reduced sunlight as well, in fact that was more likely to be the most important component. Reduced sun may well have lead to the cooling of the earth but it would not have been the most important factor if dinosaurs were cold blooded as many believe. In any case, the three most prominent theories for dinosaur extinction suggest that the earth cooled during that period. While I was not able to find a website showing the average earth temps. that caused dinosaur extinction, I have a linked a site that says during the "Little Ice Age" of middle ages, the temperature dropped only two degrees. During that time NY, harbor froze over, Greenland and Iceland were pretty much uninhabitable, the Thames would freeze over regularly etc. During the Pleistocene Epoch, the polar ice cap reached as far south as Pennsylvania and Indiana. At that time the average earth temp. had dropped by only 9 degrees......considering the climatic changes it wrought, I don't see that as a big drop......especially since daily temps. can change by much more than 9 degrees in a single day. vehiclechoice.org [Edit.for some reason the link will not work. The article was from the Washington Post and was dated 13 Aug.,1997.] things are more delicately balanced then you seem to think... ...In same way, human errant behavior is putting nature into a kind of ecological pressure cooker that it can't keep up with. Given the way it works, its very unlikely that nature can sustain the assault on its fabric without at some point damaging it beyond repair. If nature was so delicate then we would have already had the disaster you are talking about. Within human history climate changes and emissions of gasses on a large scale by volcanos, extinctions of important species both human caused and otherwise all sorts of things that environmentalists complain will be disastrous. Sometimes these things happen on a larger scale or faster then the more recent human caused problems. I'm not saying that nothing bad will happen from human activity, or that we shouldn't take steps to avoid environmental harm, just that people get illogical about the possibility of disaster when they let their emotions override reason. Sorry, but through Earth's history many species have gone extinct......its not something that is a rare occurrence. Again during the Pleistocene Epoch, which is the most recent age next to ours, there were birds with 25 foot wing spans and huge mammals much larger than elephants. There is much speculation as to why they are gone. Some say man hunted them to extinction but I find that hard to believe since the human population was fairly small during that age. In any case the point is no one really knows what will tip the balance. You talk about things going wrong environmentally and nothing happening. I don't think it works that way..........that a species disappears and suddenly the ecosystem falls apart. I think its like most living things or like our immune systems. Each time the ecosystem experiences a setback, it hurts the overall system only slightly and the ecosystem goes on but lessened or weakened. Over time, I think the effects become cumulative and then a threshold may be reached where the degradation suddenly picks up speed and disaster results. Again, no one knows for certain but my philosophy is why fukk around and tempt the fates. Most equipment works better when it has ongoing maintenance and is not abused.......why should the earth's ecosystem be any different. Do you think we are invincible? I will not try to prove my point because I know you will not believe what I say. However, let me put it to you this way........are you willing to take the chance and not change our destructive ways when the result could well be our extinction? No we are not invincible but it would take a lot to cause our extinction. A nuclear war or an impact like the one that killed the dinosaurs would probably not do it. You don't know that.......the ice age of the Pleistocene Epoch would have severely diminished human populations and the ave. temp. drop was only 9 degrees. Any impact from the things you are talking about would be far less then either of those. Is it possible that continuing along the lines of doing what we are doing now could cause our extinction from environmental damage? Well I suppose it is possible but the possibility is so vanishingly small that it really isn't worth worrying about. Your not talking 1%, or even 1/10000th of one percent. What is worth worrying about is the far more likely smaller scale damage that could be done. Ridiculous apocalyptic scenarios just distract from dealing with real problems in realistic ways. I don't mean to start quoting the Bible but after reading your latest paragraph, all I could think of was........arrogance comes before the fall. Man is so sure he has all the answers and can do anything but the truth is that the ecosystem on this planet far outstrips Man's capabilities in terms of complexity, ingenuity and functioning ability. Man has studied the ecosystem for years and has just begun to scrape the surface of its dynamics and can only theorize on how it works. I don't know how anyone can underestimate its value and the importance of its impact on human life, and can not be concerned with its well being. ted