Good thing we’re all typing and not face to face.

I kind of doubt it’s been people advocating for more equality and to have their voices heard that are behind all our problems. If not for the much more open cultural environment that has been created over the years it would be difficult to have an open debate about such important issues as Global Warming and habitate destruction.

It’s a sad fact that we still live in a world where a wealthy and powerful minority calls most of the shots. Stifling dissent would make it harder for positive change to occure, not easier.

There is one use for arms though and it is relevant to the original discussion (we are underestimating its importance) - population control. If we were civilized enough not to use them against each other, think of what the population of the World would be now.

p.s. I am also quite sure that we tend to over-complicate things

Unfortunately for the animals, they’re not civilized enough to take up arms and fight back. They can only do what is innate in them to do when we set up shop and go jogging in their back yard, case in point the rising number of ‘unprovoked’ bear attacks. And despite our human rationale, we do condemn them for it by shooting them in the head leaving their babies alone to die and featuring them on next week’s installment of “When Good Animals Go Bad”. Perhaps if the unprovoked attacks were for a good cause, like say oil, then it would be something worthy of our ‘human’ empathy.

And at many times we have proven to not be civilized enough when it comes to using them intelligently.

Similarly, my grandfather used to say that, “sometimes we get so caught up in building the perfect fire engine that we don’t notice the house burning down around us”.

So this morning, when I saw this post, I thought how funny and tragic.
How prophetic too.

25% eh.

I’m afraid that Entropy does not restore neutrality. Order is restored in one place while disorder reigns somewhere else to keep the balance in check - Second Law of Thermodynamics. I think this is why we cannot live in peace without an ongoing conflict :)

Volcanic activity is responsible for about 1 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere a year.

Humans activity puts about 40-50 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere a year.

CO2 transmits visible light and absorbs infrared. Therefore sunlight passes through much of the CO2 in the atmosphere and hits the Earths surface where some is reflected, especailly from surfaces with a high albedo like ice and some is absorbed, especially with dark surfaces like the ocean. Some of this energy is retransmitted as infrared which the extra CO2 in the atmosphere captures, raising the overall heat capacity of the atmosphere.

And while CO2 isn’t the major component in the greenhouse effect, water vapour is, it does help increase the amount of water vapour in the air by increasing evaporation.

More CO2 = high temperatures = more water vapour = even higher temperatures. There’s strong feedback in the system and we screw around with it at our our risk.

On a lighter note here’s a clip that is only tangentaly related to the environment, anyone who watched Hinterland Who’s Who as a kid will love this ( if you’re not too much of an arachnaphobe).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fzURXpftMo

This is a parable written by the most important author of our time, Daniel Quinn,

Sinking Ship

The ship was sinking—and sinking fast. The captain told the passengers and crew, “We’ve got to get the lifeboats in the water right away.”
But the crew said, “First we have to end capitalist oppression of the working class. Then we’ll take care of the lifeboats.”

Then the women said, “First we want equal pay for equal work. The lifeboats can wait.”

The racial minorities said, “First we need to end racial discrimination. Then seating in the lifeboats will be allotted fairly.”

The captain said, “These are all important issues, but they won’t matter a damn if we don’t survive. We’ve got to lower the lifeboats right away!”

But the religionists said, “First we need to bring prayer back into the classroom. This is more important than lifeboats.”

Then the pro-life contingent said, “First we must outlaw abortion. Fetuses have just as much right to be in those lifeboats as anyone else.”

The right-to-choose contingent said, “First acknowledge our right to abortion, then we’ll help with the lifeboats.”

The socialists said, “First we must redistribute the wealth. Once that’s done everyone will work equally hard at lowering the lifeboats.”

The animal-rights activists said, “First we must end the use of animals in medical experiments. We can’t let this be subordinated to lowering the lifeboats.”

Finally the ship sank, and because none of the lifeboats had been lowered, everyone drowned.

The last thought of more than one of them was, “I never dreamed that solving humanity’s problems would take so long—or that the ship would sink so SUDDENLY.

Part 1

OK, I give on the CO2. But here are some links that you should view which show the scientific data used to make a similar conclusion.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Based on 40 years of data collected. Very important for all to understand. Knowledge will allow to prepare for unimaginable possibilities. Never say never. Remember 2 planes into two skyscrapers. Now our collasping financial system. I never could have imagine.

What will take down our numbers?

Pollution, cancer, AIDS, dramatic weather (storms), starvation, wars/genocide, etc..

That’s pretty much what I can think of at this time. Everything that has killed us before, though with the precursor to the Black Plague being extreme weather pattern changes, dramatic shifts, and the rats carrying disease… I suspect something like that will drop our numbers. But I don’t think the people were to blame for it, just one of those balancing things that happens.

I hope my death is quick and painless, and that’s all I request.

Mother nature keeps things in balance, it is called Entropy. Everything tries to get to a neutral state, from electrons in energy levels of atoms to gravity to heat transfer to osmosis.

It has happened before, though I don’t think it was mother nature intentionally kicking Atlantian butt, the volcanic eruption destroyed what is believed to be Atlantis via a massive tidalwave. I was watching A&E/TLC/DISC and there was an awesome show explaining the technology Plato describes, found in ruins. It was amazing, their walls were earthquake proof. This is so cool I’m going to attempt to draw it with ASCII

_________________________________________________
—TOP-BEAM-OF-WOOD———————
__________________________________________________
—BLOCKS—-|B|—BLOCKS—|B|—BLOCKS—
————-|E|————-|E|————-
————-|A|————-|A|————
————-|M|————-|M|———–
//// repeat /// pattern

The Myan peoples suffered a similar fate. It’s amazing we’ve lasted as long as we have.

One thing I know, the rich will fight like hell to avoid being the ones to go.

Do we agree on this? That all living things have a predator? Or if they are plant-like they can be comsumed by another energy consumer?

If so, then Man being at the top of the food chain makes man it’s own predator.

All living things seem to have a way of balancing out without man’s intervention right? Eg. If there is an over population of deer in a certain area its because there isn’t a large enough wolf population to keep the deer numbers down. If the deer number are too high then they consume too much undergrowth, etc.

What will take down man’s population? man right? Unless there isn’t an asteroid to hit earth….we’ll slim the populous down via disease, mass crop failures and starvation which may be linked to environmental change…War on a very large scale….economics (depressions??) just some ideas…thoughts?

There is a huge DNA bank called the Frozen Zoo for endangered animals. I think it is in Ca.

It is in San Diego. They currently have samples from about 800 species. Their website CRES Projects: The Frozen Zoo is definitely worth a look

Thanks, that makes me feel a little better :)

That also means possibility of introduction and spread of foreign diseases. Ball just keeps on rolling…

Although I was a little shocked as well to read the term ‘population control’ right underneath it. NOT a good idea.