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Tangdoodles, have you seen "Escape From Suburbia"?
I think it was produced last year, so I might be a little behind the times , but I just watched it on the Sundance channel (it's On Demand right now if you have Comcast).
It's really more about Peak Oil, but the crossover of the Global Warming issues is obvious. Throughout the documentary they profile people who are looking towards the remainder of their lives in the context of these environmental issues...where they should live, how they should live, what needs to happen in the communities they currently reside in, what places will fare better than others in the coming years.....it's a really good documentary, I'm going to watch it again.
Tangdoodles, have you seen "Escape From Suburbia"?
I think it was produced last year, so I might be a little behind the times , but I just watched it on the Sundance channel (it's On Demand right now if you have Comcast).
It's really more about Peak Oil, but the crossover of the Global Warming issues is obvious. Throughout the documentary they profile people who are looking towards the remainder of their lives in the context of these environmental issues...where they should live, how they should live, what needs to happen in the communities they currently reside in, what places will fare better than others in the coming years.....it's a really good documentary, I'm going to watch it again.
I looked it up and watched the trailer on the website, it looks really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to watch it this weekend.
I looked it up and watched the trailer on the website, it looks really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to watch it this weekend.
Maybe we'll start a thread on it?
Oh, and "The Greening of Southie" about the LEED building that was built in South Boston is interesting too, a little drier than Escape From Suburbia, but still worth seeing.
Wouldn't worry about it at all. It's not like everything is going to go to hell overnight as it did in that ridiculously stupid movie "The Day After Tomorrow".
Wouldn't worry about it at all. It's not like everything is going to go to hell overnight as it did in that ridiculously stupid movie "The Day After Tomorrow".
True, and the current discussions around Peak Oil concur that, even in our worst case scenario, society will not collapse overnight but will radically change over a long period of time.
Some of the first changes we might experience are happening already - the high cost of gas affecting the cost of other items. Some people may also be rethinking their commute and whether they can move closer to work. The cost of food is rising and will probably continue to do so and more people might begin growing some of their own food (in a fashion similar to the Victory Gardens of past).
Me and the wife are looking to buy a house. One of our main desires is a home with a spacious backyard with a limited number of trees (or we may cut trees down if there are too many). We want to plant our own apple, pear, peach, and plum trees. We also want to grow our own strawberries, peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. THAT is how you get LOCAL produce! Your back yard!
Me and the wife are looking to buy a house. One of our main desires is a home with a spacious backyard with a limited number of trees (or we may cut trees down if there are too many). We want to plant our own apple, pear, peach, and plum trees. We also want to grow our own strawberries, peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. THAT is how you get LOCAL produce! Your back yard!
Yup! I'm working on kiwis, blackberries, passionfruit, lemon tree and a lime tree right now and plenty more on my "list" to come .
I doubt it. Even if human beings are not directly responsible for global warming, that doesn't mean the ice caps aren't melting. Haven't you read about all of the polar bears drowing because of the huge distances they now have to swim? I'm still not sure if global warming is caused by myself and other people and our actions but I'll try to lessen my impact, regardless. It's just good for the environment to drive less, waste less, and recycle even if you don't believe in global warming. If it turns out that the rise in sea level is really just a natural progression of the changes that have been occuring continuously throughout the history of the earth, then all I'll have done is pollute the air a little less and kept some trash out of landfills that will take a few hundred years to decompose.
I could argue that global warming and sea-level rise will be an absolute nightmare for the world's various governments, no matter what their politics. When you're displaced by sea-level rise, the easiest and most obvious solution to the problem of moving about would be to take to the new inland seas. Imagine vast water-towns and mobile cities, with tens of thousands of houseboats, and you get the idea. Imagine, then, the problem any government would have to keep track of such a fluid population (literally and figuratively) who can and will move when and wherever they will. Don't like your neighbours? Sail away over the horizon. In trouble with the law/Tax department/people hassling you for any reason? Same answer. Governments hate such chaos, as you can guess.
Also, I'd say that the second era of the great riverboats will be coming into full force when the sea comes up--the shallow seas of the flooded continents will be perfect for them.
I could argue that global warming and sea-level rise will be an absolute nightmare for the world's various governments, no matter what their politics. When you're displaced by sea-level rise, the easiest and most obvious solution to the problem of moving about would be to take to the new inland seas. Imagine vast water-towns and mobile cities, with tens of thousands of houseboats, and you get the idea. Imagine, then, the problem any government would have to keep track of such a fluid population (literally and figuratively) who can and will move when and wherever they will. Don't like your neighbours? Sail away over the horizon. In trouble with the law/Tax department/people hassling you for any reason? Same answer. Governments hate such chaos, as you can guess.
Also, I'd say that the second era of the great riverboats will be coming into full force when the sea comes up--the shallow seas of the flooded continents will be perfect for them.
Interesting take on the question .
Of course, the movie Waterworld comes to mind , but have you read anything supporting the idea? I read a bit here and there regarding Peak Oil predictions - and there is some sound reason and some not-so-sound - but I haven't read anything like what you describe above. If there's a term for it, some links or something, I'd love to hear more about it...maybe a new thread?
This came out a few years ago, but will give you an idea of worst case scenario with Global warming_
[
Pentagon's Worst-Case Scenario for Global Warming
SOURCE: Various News
Reports Last year the Pentagon commissioned a report on the potential global impacts of an abrupt and severe change in the world's climate and the worst-case scenario doesn't look good, according to the authors.
Since it has surfaced, the 38-page report has sparked controversy within political circles on the timing of the leak during an election year along with accusations of cover-ups from the liberal media. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials are downplaying the findings as an extreme situation based on a worst-case scenario of global warming with some critics claiming the leak was politically motivated.
The report suggests global warming is already approaching a threshold beyond which a sudden cooling will set in. The authors suggest a number of dire consequences in a scenario in which the current period of global warming ends in 2010, followed by a period of abrupt cooling. Some excerpts:
_ As temperatures rise during this decade, some regions experience severe storms and flooding. In 2007, surging seas break through levees in the Netherlands, making the Hague "unlivable."
_ By 2020, after a decade of cooling, Europe's climate becomes "more like Siberia's."
_
"Mega-droughts" hit southern China and northern Europe around 2010 and last 10 years.
_ In the United States, agricultural areas suffer from soil loss due to higher winds and drier climate, but the country survives the economic disruption without catastrophic losses.
_ Widespread famine in China triggers chaos, and "a cold and hungry China peers jealously" at Russia's energy resources. In the 2020-2030 period, civil war and border wars break out in China.
In a "world of warring states," more countries develop nuclear weapons, including Japan, South Korea, Germany, Iran and Egypt.
_ "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life? once again, warfare would define human life."
_ Europe and the United States become "virtual fortresses" trying to keep out millions of migrants whose homelands have been wiped out by rising sea levels or made unfarmable by drought.
_ "catastrophic" shortages of potable water and energy will lead to widespread war by 2020.
Sounds pretty grim, and the report goes on to warn that climate change may lead to global catastrophe costing millions of lives and is a far greater threat than terrorism. The authors of the report acknowledge in the introduction that the scientists with whom they consulted regard the gloomy scenario as extreme in scope and severity.
They said they were not predicting how climate change will happen but sought to "dramatize the impact climate change could have on society if we are unprepared for it." The scenario they sketched was patterned after a climate event - a sudden global cooling after an extended period of warming - that is believed to have happened 8,200 years ago and lasted for 100 years.
The Pentagon official who commissioned the study, Andrew W. Marshall, issued a brief statement saying it "reflects the limits of scientific models and information when it comes to predicting the effects of abrupt global warming. ... Much of what this study predicts is still speculation."
Marshall, head of the Pentagon's internal think tank, known as the Office of Net Assessments, said his intent was to explore the question of whether countries affected by rapid climate change would suffer or benefit, and whether the change would make them more or less stable.
"More pragmatically, what kinds of climate change might our worldwide forces encounter in the future?" Marshall said.
A spokesman for Marshall, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Hetlage, said the report, which was commissioned last October and finished earlier this month, did not fully satisfy Marshall's needs. Hetlage said the report would not be passed along to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Still, the authors, Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall, said their scenario was "not implausible" and would challenge U.S. national security in ways that should be considered immediately. Schwartz is a co-founder of Global Business Network, based in Emeryville, Calif., which says it uses "out-of-the-box" thinking in its consulting services to business and government. Hetlage said the Pentagon paid about $100,000 for the report.
Schwartz and Randall asserted the plausibility of severe and rapid climate change is higher than most scientists and nearly all politicians think. They also concluded it could happen sooner than generally believed.
"This report suggests that because of the potentially dire consequences, the risk of abrupt climate change - although uncertain and quite possibly small - should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern," they wrote.
Liberal British weekly The Observer suggested that the report was covered up by "US defense chiefs" for four months, until it was "leaked" to the media. It said the report has drawn angry attention to US environmental and military policies, following Washington's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and skepticism about global warning.
The controversial report drew commentary from political columnist and former California gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington who had a warning for those who may ignore the report:
"It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature."
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, but I just watched it on the Sundance channel (it's On Demand right now if you have Comcast).
.
, but have you read anything supporting the idea? I read a bit here and there regarding Peak Oil predictions - and there is some sound reason and some not-so-sound - but I haven't read anything like what you describe above. If there's a term for it, some links or something, I'd love to hear more about it...maybe a new thread? 
