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So just bear with me here for a minute. The Earth long ago was warmer, and supported an abundance of life that lived in tropical climates. It is in the tropical climates today that we find the greatest diversity, and abundance of life. The oil that we have today was caused by the accumulation of biomass that settled and turned to fossil fuels. This resulted in a significant amount of "carbon energy" that left the surface, and the Earth itself has cooled. Now that we are extracting the fossil fuels and burning them we are in effect re-releasing this carbon energy back into the surface environment, and this is warming the Earth, in effect, back to a tropical environment. Is that all that bad really?
Last edited by Oldhag1; 03-20-2015 at 08:20 PM..
Reason: That isn't allowed to happen in this forum
It's also funny that the large majority of us choose tropical locations to vacation in! I know my wife would disagree, but I would not mind it at all if we had 70+ degree temps in the winter. I love the warmth, the sun, and feel more comfortable in my shorts!
What is interesting is that most of the earth's history has been ice free, that means no ice at either poles. Technically we are still in an ice age, 85% of Earth's history has been ice free so this is abnormal for the climate of the earth. The ice sheets in both the southern and northern poles will melt and there is nothing we can do about it, the Earth is returning to it's normal climate. Humans only see a small spectrum of time, that which is viewed within our life time, however, the time scale on which the Earth operates is much greater than this, so we see a crises when no crises exist.
Back in the 70s there was talk of global cooling. Maybe by our fossil fuels providing global warming, we prevented another ice age. That to me is fitting for the human race, we F things up and somehow make it better.
The Earth's weather will do what it will do. We have no bearing on it at all. We can, however, screw up our way of life ATTEMPTING to do something....
Global warming is about climate, not weather, but I agree, nature will do as nature does, regardless of what we do to it, and it has no problem putting us back in our place.
It's causing some upheavals, no doubt. Agricultural yields will suffer in some areas as precipitation and seasons change. Rising sea levels will result in the loss of a number of cities in low lying areas around the world. Maybe most concerning is the effect on marine life as ocean temperatures continue to rise.
But personally, I'd rather be in a warming trend than on the cusp of another ice age.
The Earth's weather will do what it will do. We have no bearing on it at all. We can, however, screw up our way of life ATTEMPTING to do something....
Do you feel there is no consequence to mans daily use of 100 million barrels of fossil fuel?
I believe the consequence is abnormal amounts of greenhouse gasses and particulate matter is being pumped into the atmosphere causing a greenhouse effect that is producing an unnatural spike in the Earths normal cycle of heating and cooling a phenomena that almost all of the scientists studying atmosphere and climate are referring to as Global Warming.
Is it that bad? yes it is. Global Warming Effects Information, Global Warming Effects Facts, Climate Change Effects - National Geographic
For those thinking Global Warming is all a big hoax of some sort i say what if you are wrong?
Last edited by Oldhag1; 03-20-2015 at 08:19 PM..
Reason: fixed formatting
Since I'm not scientist of any type, and don't know all the scientific data on the issue, I'll just say change is always feared. Global warming, global cooling....either would produce some undesirable changes, and probably some desirable changes. Weather patterns would change, more rain here, less rain there, hotter here, cooler there etc...
I'll just say that I'd probably "fear" global warming less than I'd fear global cooling. The warmer it is, and the more CO2 there is in the atmosphere the better crops and all plant life grow, assuming they get enough water to grow. That being said, It's probably more feasible to move water to a warm dry area, than it is to move a warm dry area to where there is water :-)
And of course....the more plant life there is, the faster CO2 is filtered out of the atmosphere ! Perhaps this will result in a "self-correction" of the situation over time ?? We know the Earth has not been in a static climactic state for it's entire existence and has changed all by itself long before human burning of hydrocarbons took place on any large scale such as we have today. I would however guess we're speeding up the process quite a lot.
I'm not saying a warming Earth will be a bed of roses.....just that it may not be all bad in all areas. There will certainly be winners and losers.
And the earth's axis is not a constant tilt. It changes. And then there is solar activity cycles. They have predictable ups and downs. And the net effect is changes in the climate.
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Is global warming all that bad?
