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People should be able to conceptualize the impact this could have pretty directly. For instance, the low nightly temperatures in the core area of major cities are often higher at night than the surrounding suburbs due to the urban heat island effect, which is from differences in land surfaces between urban cores and outlying rural areas with more tree canopy and pervious surfaces.
Considering the effect of change in ground cover on even local climates, it's foolish not to take a major change in a physical issue that plays such a crucial role in keeping the climate of the world in check seriously, or to try to mock it and perversely politicize it. It's really irrelevant whether conservatives or liberals are concerned about this. What should matter is protecting public health and safety and life and property.
I just saw the forecast this evening on the national news - CBS. The meteorologist, also a self-proclaimed climate change expert, said that the loss of the Amazon rain forest would tip the planet past the recovery point. Of course, I cannot find a link to the broadcast but it was broadcast nonetheless.
Now, if this guy could just tell me what stock to buy to fund my grandkids' college education (assuming Bernie doesn't make it all free).
This thread is turning out how I expect. Some conservatives here are so busy trying to stick it to the liberals that they don't care what else happens. I will break down the situation.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. You depend on that oxygen to breathe. If the Amazon Rainforest is gone, that's a major oxygen source that is lost. Furthermore, the Amazon has some people living there, and it's their home. Of course, some people are going to look at it as "those are just uncivilized people, who cares".
Personally, I think some people would rather let the Amazon Rainforest burn just so they can "stick it to liberals".
This thread is turning out how I expect. Some conservatives here are so busy trying to stick it to the liberals that they don't care what else happens. I will break down the situation.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. You depend on that oxygen to breathe. If the Amazon Rainforest is gone, that's a major oxygen source that is lost. Furthermore, the Amazon has some people living there, and it's their home. Of course, some people are going to look at it as "those are just uncivilized people, who cares".
Personally, I think some people would rather let the Amazon Rainforest burn just so they can "stick it to liberals".
The ocean's plant life converts most of the CO2 into O2. The rain forest's contribution is about 20%. Still sizable. But we don't depend on the rain forest to produce even a quarter of the worlds oxygen.
None the less, I would like to protect the rain forest for all of the reasons you stated, but we are talking about foreign countries here. What are we supposed to do exactly? They are planning to use that land to grow soybeans for the Chinese. It is quite literally, none of our business.
But why do you think anyone here hates the native people of the rain forest? Do you think Americans hate people who do not have our same level of technology? I don't see people hating on the Amish. All human life is precious and valuable, no matter how civilized or uncivilized the people may be considered. Just the same, the lives of plants and animals are valuable, unless you area depraved human being.
It's pretty scary to contemplate. And never mind the Amazon, for some time now we have been closing in on any number of climate tipping points - the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers as well as the permafrost in the Arctic and the warming of the oceans to name just a few. The outlook for our planet is very bleak and as long as discussions about climate change are treated as political and abstract rather than as scientific and immedient, we will not effectively act to address the problem.
So even if global warming is real, the Paris Accord, destroying the entire economies of states, putting Americans out of work, and the war on coal in the US won't make a difference.....
So even if global warming is real, the Paris Accord, destroying the entire economies of states, putting Americans out of work, and the war on coal in the US won't make a difference.....
We can still head off some of the worst outcomes of continued global warming if we take action to substantially reduce carbon emissions within the next 10 - 15 years. The switch to renewable energy would actually create jobs. For example, coal mining is highly automated these days and that trend is only increasing. Peabody Coal is not going to create thousands of new jobs either way. The solar panel industry will, however.
The cost of continuing to do nothing will be enormous.
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