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

To: combjelly who wrote (237171)	6/14/2005 6:43:26 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572779

Good question. Certainly we don't know all we need to know to have models with predictive power. And it very well may be that without some of the greenhouse gasses we are producing we might be headed towards another ice age. We have had a measurable impact on the atmosphere for well over a thousand years. Methane production in rice fields and slash and burn agriculture likely have had a moderating effect for quite some time. But when CO2 levels have been this high in the past, the globe has been very warm. And that is playing with dynamite. Look at the climatic requirements of major crops, their productivity goes way down, assuming they are productive at all, when you try to grow them outside of their requirements of temp., water and light per day. Blindly assuming that they will grow better in warmer weather shows appalling ignorance. True, I expect this from longnshort... I was looking at a chart that looked at CO2 concentrations in the astmosphere over a period of 60 million years. During warm periods, the CO2 concentrations tended to be higher and during cooling trends, concentrations would decline. However, whether in cooling or warming periods, CO2 concentrations would always remain with certain parameters.......roughly 180 parts per million during cooling trends and 280 parts per million during warming trends. That's for over 60 million years........then suddenly, during a cooling trend, CO2 concentrations started spiking high beginning in 1800 and now exceed 360 parts per million. To a layman like me, that sudden spike up speaks volumes and should be sending alarm signals to everyone on this planet. ted

To: combjelly who wrote (237171)	6/14/2005 6:49:57 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572779

'Earthlike planet' excites stargazers <snip> "This is by far the most Earthlike planet ever found," said Dr. Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California-Berkeley, a member of the team that made the discovery using one of the giant 10-meter-diameter Keck telescopes in Hawaii. <snip> At such a close distance, the planet could be tidally locked, keeping the same face toward its star at all times. One would expect the planet to be blowtorched. However, Gliese is small and dim, about one-fiftieth the luminosity of the sun. Marcy said that the temperature on the side of the planet facing the star would be 400 to 700 degrees. That is too warm for liquid water or ice, but it could be cold on the backside of planet. seattlepi.nwsource.com Interesting find.........the closest to an earth-like planet ever discovered; a planet which is 7 times bigger than earth and has temps at 400-700º F. What does that say about the search for an earth-like planet? What does it say about the uniqueness of earth? I know we've only been really looking for 50 years but I still find it interesting how difficult the search for an earth twin is proving to be. ted