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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (5830)	2/4/2006 4:22:26 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 36917

Let’s remember where we live, Kenner was saying. We live on the third planet from a medium-size sun. Our planet is five billion years old, and it has been changing constantly all during that time. The Earth is on its third atmosphere. The first atmosphere was helium and hydrogen. It dissolved early on, because the planet was so hot. Then as the planet cooled, volcanic eruptions produced a second atmosphere of steam and carbon dioxide. Later the water vapor condensed, forming the oceans that cover most of the planet. Then, around three billion years ago, some bacteria evolved to consume carbon dioxide and excrete a highly toxic gas, oxygen. Other bacteria released nitrogen. The atmospheric concentration of these gases slowly increased. Organisms that could not adapt died out. Meanwhile, the planet’s land masses, floating on huge tectonic plates, eventually came together in a configuration that interfered with the circulation of ocean currents. It began to get cold for the first time. The first ice appeared two billion years ago. And for the last seven hundred thousand years, our planet has been in a geological ice age, characterized by advancing and retreating glacial ice. No one is entirely sure why, but ice now covers the planet every hundred thousand years, with smaller advances every twenty thousand or so. The last advance was twenty thousand years ago, so we’re due for the next one. And even today, after five billion years, our planet remains amazingly active. We have five hundred volcanoes and an eruption every two weeks. Earth quakes are continuous: a million and half a year, a moderate Richter 5 quake every six hours. Tsunamis race across the Pacific Ocean every three months. Our atmosphere is as violent as the land beneath it. At any moment there are one thousand five hundred electrical storms across the planet. Eleven lightning bolts strike the ground each second. A tornado tears across the surface every six hours. And every four days a giant cyclonic storm, hundreds of miles in diameter, spins over the ocean and wreaks havoc on the land. The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide. For these same apes to imagine they can stabilize this atmosphere is arrogant beyond belief. They can’t control the climate. The reality is, they run from the storms. Michael Chrichton – State of Fear – p.618 - 619

To: James Calladine who wrote (5830)	2/4/2006 9:53:30 PM
From: Triffin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Oh .. please .. -- the ability to read Kindly explain how the potential threat of rising sea level will cause "millions" of deaths by drowning ?? It won't be an instantaneous event if/when it happens .. Global warming may imply numerous risks for humanity .. Drowning isn't one of them .. Namaste !! Right back atcha .. Triff ..

To: James Calladine who wrote (5830)	2/7/2006 4:48:29 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

World has 7 years for key climate decisions: Blair By Katherine Baldwin 27 minutes ago The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday. Blair said the battle against global warming would only be won if the United States, India and China were part of a framework that included targets and that succeeded the 1992 Kyoto Protocol climate pact. "If we don't get the right agreement internationally for the period after which the Kyoto protocol will expire -- that's in 2012 -- if we don't do that then I think we are in serious trouble," he told a parliamentary committee. Asked if the world had seven years to implement measures on climate change before the problem reached "tipping point," Blair answered: "Yes." The European Union, Japan and much of the rest of the industrialized world are imposing mandatory cuts on emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels under Kyoto. U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing it would hurt the American economy and that developing countries were exempted. He favors asking U.S. companies to join a voluntary emission reduction program. Blair said targets were key to any successor to Kyoto. "This can only be done if you have a framework that, in the end, has targets within it. If you don't get to that point, the danger is you never have the right incentives for the private sector to invest heavily in green technology," he said. Environment ministers in Montreal in December agreed on a road map to extend Kyoto and to hold talks to include the United States and developing countries in a future framework. Blair said there were the "beginnings" of an international consensus and that Bush's comment in his State of the Union speech last week that America was "addicted to oil" was a sign of a change of mood but he urged Bush to move further. "I think there are real signs of change," he said. "I think if you could find a way of ensuring the right incentives were given without America feeling there was some desire to inhibit its economic growth, then I think we can find a way through." Blair also said he thought it was unrealistic to hope for an international agreement on restricting aviation travel to curb pollution and he dismissed the idea of Britain unilaterally or bilaterally slapping a tax on commercial flights. "I can't see myself that you are going to be able, artificially through mechanisms based on the consumer, to interfere with aviation travel. I can't see that you would get an international agreement for that and I'd worry about a special levy in the UK," he said. Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.