Let's look at the controversy from another angle - who says it's a bad thing?
The Bright Side of Global Warming looks at some of the advantages to a warmer Earth including a longer growing season and a reduction in cold-related diseases and death. Other tout the ingenuity of humankind and believe that a challenge will foster the development of new and better technology. Read "A Reason to Be Optimistic."
Is it happening? There are two questions here - one: is the Earth in a period of warming and two: is it caused by human activity, specifically greenhouse gas emissions? New Scientist.com has an article called "State of Denial."
There is evidence that ecosystems of temperature-dependent creatures are narrowing, moving north or moving to higher altitudes. One place it is being studied is in the Andes. Is this a good or bad thing? Yes, it may be considered bad for ecology or biodiversity reasons, but on the flip side, species that adapt and survive will be better suited for a future, warmer world if that's in our cards.
Finally, the Earth is an amazing regulator (although we humans may not be happy with some of its methods). Past warming trends have been negated by large outputs of volcanic dust from eruptions. For example, 1916 was called "The Year Without a Summer" due to the eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia.
While global warming may be the reason for the increase in strength of hurricanes as reported by scientists at MIT, this year was surprising quiet after the busy seasons of the past couple years. My personal theory is that they may find we are cycling into an ENSO, or El Nino Southern Oscillating phenomena, a warming fo the Pacific that is often accompanied by drought in the west, flooding in the midwest, and a supression in Atlantic hurricanes.
So, what are your thoughts? A warmer Earth means a decrease in cold-related deaths, but an increase in heat-related ones. Insects will thrive. Growing seasons will be longer, although grwoing zones may change. We will use less resources on heat, but more on cooling.
Are we smart enough to make our lives better with improved technology?
40 comments:
No, because if there is Global Warming, the Ice Caps will melt and most of the Earth will be flooded. That amount of damage to the ecosystem and to human population alone would destroy civilization. Realize that most of the United States and China's main cities are on the coast, as are many other country capitals, and their flooding would cause unbridled damage to human infrastructure.
I agree with Gabriel that Global waring can be destructive and that most of the earth will be flooded. Studies have shown that cities that are on the coast, the water has risen a few inches in a short period of time. Imagine what can be done over a long period of time.
But on the other side the flooding can be beneficial. We can use the water for hydroelectric power for houses, cars, etc.
we cant drive if there arent any roads to drive on... we will have to build houses on water that can withstand hurricanes and other disasters due to our carelessness.... GOOD LUCK WITH THAT
love-
gaby
p.s HOPE YOU LIKE FISH
well i agree with everyone in the sense that there would be some flooding, but we could use this to our advantage. hydrolic power, no one goes thirsty, our crops have plenty to drink, ect. yeah there would be definate problems but i thing we could cope. if it became serious enough, we could move more inland. No one wants to move out of their homes, but they may change their minds if it gets too complicated or becomes a life/death situation.
People are taking this way too extreme and seriously. They claim all these massive, deadly floods (which have been predicted for decades) and nothing muck has happened. Almost all of these predictions by environmentalists have been false, because of the effect of their bias on the facts. We haven't had any recent natural disasters on a large scale, yet people are screaming that we will all die. We could easily just move our people away from the coast if somehow there is a huge melting. It will all be gradual, very SSLLOOOWW. Notice how SSLLOOWLY we are warming now. This is the speed of climate change, no ridiculous "The Day After Tomorrow" instant climate change and destruction. A quick drive to Atlanta from Tybee Island is a few hours. A 30-foot rise in sea level will take hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. You could crawl to safety from the "deadly floods." You only really need to go a few miles inland, where the grould level is 100 feet higher, to be perfectly safe. That would be the speed of a notoriously slow seahorse moving 10 minutes a day for hundreds of years. There is no huge flood to come.
the water will be coming from alll sides....land is surrounded by water...we probabally could adapt with technology, but all the things that we would require would take endless amounts of time to create
gaby
hydrogen powered personal air car helium filled personal living blimp with solar panels the future is mine swim, u weasels swim!
Like Gabriel said, the ice caps are and will continue to melt because of Global Warming. We have done enough damage to the ozone layer that ice caps are melting and unless we can somehow reverse all the damage, they will continue to melt. Most people don`t care, about it because they think that they aren`t affected by this and never will be affected by it. Temperatures are rising meaning deserts are spreading( I`m talking mostly about the Sahara Desert here people).
yea ok so i seriously agreee with nick on this one. i mean, hundreds or thousands of years is SLOW and im sure we could figure out something. also, according to the movie mrs sneeds class is watching, were all gonna die from a supervolcano some time in the next few hundred years. so if well be dead anyway, who cares? and if we survive the volcano thing (by figuring out a way to live on the moon) wed be in outerspace so we wouldnt need the earth. =]
I think even if Global warming does create a longer growing seaon it wouldn't matter if the earth floods because the ice caps melt. I agree with Gabriel on a previous post, we need to create a car that runs on something other than gas like hydrogen.
I saw on a tv show two french scientists invented a car that runs on oxygen. That would be cool to see how that worked.
Nick, how can you say "We haven't had any recent natural disasters on a large scale" when there was a huge tsunami that started from a huge earthquake,also hurricane Katrina. Every day after that tsunami news reporters announced thousands of people dead. There was also a death toll to hurricane Katrina.
You keep stating that people could just move to higher land but some people are stubborn. Even though those people were warned what would happen they still stayed there. The Hurricane wasn't huge but the levi's couldn't sustain the flood and that's why people started to die. So why would you think people would move to higher ground if the water started to rise when they wouldn't do it when they were warned about a flood.
Just checking in to see how the argument is going - remember, if you disagree with a so-called fact or comment, find some proof online or elsewhere and refure it.
that's what makes this fun!
ack - refute...
Nick, do you have something against the enviroment? If all of our cities flood, even "VEEERRRY SLLLOOOOWWLLLY", it will make the population of the Earth have to crowd together, spreading disease and making life miserable. And besides, their HAVE been floods on islands, killing natives and unlucky civilians. Damage is damage, no matter what the time scale.
And like Allison said, the Supervolcanoe, Avian Flu, or Iran will kill us way before Global Warming anyway.
http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=1108&eeid=5090578&_sitecat=214&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne&s=sc
wow
so...is it still
'very SSLLOOOWW'?????? nick?
gaby
wahh they didnt work :(:(:( lol i actually looked stuff up too...
gaby
Will, Will...
I am talking about the 2006 hurricane season. It almost went by with no media coverage, there was that little of big hurricanes. The tsunami is different because an earthquake caused it, not humans. Even if people don't move, water rising even as much as a foot a year is obviously slow, and will not flood anyone's house. When the waves start lapping up on your lawn you have 5 years to move. It is not overnight. It is not a disaster. You have TIME. Even if you are stubborn it is not deadly. All it is is the slow rising of the ocean, foot by foot. It will be creeping up to your beachside house for 50 years before you would need to move because it is too close. Even then, if you don't move it will still take another few decades for it to reach your actual house and start covering your floor. Do you see any huge flood happening now, because the icecaps are melting.
It would take forever for Gabriel's idea of us being squished into a tiny space to happen. It will take 10,000 years for ocean to be nearing Atlanta.
Will, Will...
I am talking about the 2006 hurricane season. It almost went by with no media coverage, there was that little of big hurricanes. The tsunami is different because an earthquake caused it, not humans. Even if people don't move, water rising even as much as a foot a year is obviously slow, and will not flood anyone's house. When the waves start lapping up on your lawn you have 5 years to move. It is not overnight. It is not a disaster. You have TIME. Even if you are stubborn it is not deadly. All it is is the slow rising of the ocean, foot by foot. It will be creeping up to your beachside house for 50 years before you would need to move because it is too close. Even then, if you don't move it will still take another few decades for it to reach your actual house and start covering your floor. Do you see any huge flood happening now, because the icecaps are melting.
It would take forever for Gabriel's idea of us being squished into a tiny space to happen. It will take 10,000 years for ocean to be nearing Atlanta.
mrs.Q make a new debate thingy im getting agravated with the other one >:(
gaby
I also agree with nick that it will take a lot of time for it to flood but the main problem is the ice caps melting. mny of the species that live there will either go extinct or highly endangered. anyway, the ice caps are melting pretty fast!
guys seriously, just stop arguing. because WE ARE GOING TO DIE ANYWAY. just wait until we watch supervolcano in class!!
this flooding is NOT going to happen overnight, we have a few hundred years before it even could get close to being a problem. and by then WE WILL ALL BE DEAD. k?
=]
You seem to be rather morose, don't you?
I dont think global warming is good.mostly because i love warm weather where i am and that is part of the reason we live in the south.Also some of the animals that are known to be in someplaces could die because of the climate.
-Fatimah
Yes, a super-slow rising of the ocean in the least of our problems. Super volcanoes and terrorism should be way ahead on our list. The world has warmed in the past, and the world survived.
hmm..well, i think we'll be just fine with the warming. like nick said, we have survived in the past, so im sure that we could get through one in the future, especially with all of our new knowledge! as for the disease problems, scientists can now focus more on heat realated sicknesses. i know thats easier said than done, but im not sure global warming will have such a disastorous affect that some may think.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/12/12/meltingarctic_pla.html?category=earth&guid=20061212134500&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000
gaby
Heh I think its funny how the world can make games that record what you do and are a couple steps away from being virtual reality.Yet we can't think of a way to stop Global warming? Oh yeah, isn't there something called global cooling?
i think its called an ice age tommey. I find it so cool that scientist can actually find out what the world was like and what happened to it through rocks and other things! that was pretty random but o well!
The world has gone through several warming and cooling cycles in the past - what triggers them ALL is unknown, but there is strong evidence that shows at least some world-wide cooling can be attributed to the after effects of huge volcanic eruptions - like we saw in the video. Other possible causes include things hitting us from space and a weird reversal of global warming like you see in "The Day After Tomorrow."
The famous astronomer Carl Sagan proposed the concept of a "nuclear winter" - world-wide cooling as an after effect of multiple nuclear weapons strikes - it's funny, when I was in 8th grade, that was more of a concern than global warming.
State of Fear, indeeed.
Well, when you were a kid the Soviet Union still existed, although it had almost separated. We were in fear of a huge nuclear war, and now that threat is almost gone. We are more afraid of terrorism, small communist nations like North Korea and Iran, wars in the Middle East, and global warming.
Iran is not communist; it is an Islamic Republic. Check your facts.
Anyone worry about China? They have nukes, a big army, and a growing economy. We, on the other hand, are in economic recession.
Yes, China is a rising threat. Iran is a communist dictatorship, even though they are technically a republic. China is called a People's Republic, and that's trash, too. Anyway, China is a threat we should watch and make sure does not become too powerful to defeat if necessary.
IRAN IS NOT COMMUNIST. IT DOES NOT FOLLOW A SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COMMUNIST DOCTRINE.
COMMUNISTS HATED RELIGION. IRAN'S "REPUBLIC" IS BASED ON RELIGION.
Stop always saying I am wrong. Check Wikipedia if you want. Heck, check the Encyclopedia Britannica for all I care. Iran is not a Communist Nation; just because a country doesn't agree with our Fuhrer's policies (though Iran takes it to the extreme) doesn't make them communist.
Okay, its not a communism. But they do put forward very strict rules regarding your life as a citizen there, like communists do. Communists did not hate religion, the USSR had an official religion, it was a denomination of Christianity, and if you did not convert you were prosecuted.
OUR PRESIDENT IS NOT COMPARABLE IN ANY WAY TO THE HORRIBLE ADOLF HITLER!!!!!!
Just because you highly dislike George Bush and his decisions does not make him a vicious, killing dictator who ruined a decade and killed millions, not to mention starting a huge war, also killing more millions and making many nations put forth their whole effort into the war, wasting time, money, work, and lives.
I also do not think George Bush is a good President, but he is not as bad as you portray him. He has made some bad decisions, and has bad grammar, but that cannot compare with Adolf Hitler's atrocities.
Certainly some of them. Both have private prison camps. Both rigged their elections. Both start wars against other countries without any provocation (don't say "Iraq bombed the Twin Towers" because they didn't). Both monitored their citizens without their consent. Both warped the democratic processes of their nation (Now the Fuhrer has authorized Mail Searching without warrants. What's next, random Block Arrests?)
And the USSR did not have any religion. Lenin hated religion, and got rid of it the first chance he had.
OUR PRESIDENT IS NOT COMPARABLE IN ANY WAY TO THE HORRIBLE ADOLF HITLER!!!!!!
Just because you highly dislike George Bush and his decisions does not make him a vicious, killing dictator who ruined a decade and killed millions, not to mention starting a huge war, also killing more millions and making many nations put forth their whole effort into the war, wasting time, money, work, and lives.
I also do not think George Bush is a good President, but he is not as bad as you portray him. He has made some bad decisions, and has bad grammar, but that cannot compare with Adolf Hitler's atrocities.
In the first place, Bush doesn't have any more power than previous presidents, let alone a dictator like Hitler.
I AM GETTING VERY ANNOYED WITH YOUR COMPARISON OF GEORGE BUSH WITH HITLER. I DON'T LIKE SOME PRESIDENTS, BUT NEVER WOULD I DARE TO CALL ONE THE TITLE GIVEN TO HITLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George Bush is the most powerful president in the United States since Richard Nixon's Imperial Presidency. He is constantly giving the Executive Branch more power, especially in allowing random searches without warrants. He is following nearly the same path Adolf Hitler did in destroying Germany's rights to prevent Communists from "destroying" everything. Hm? What was that quote about "History Repeating Itself"?
With that reasoning, I believe George Bush is the Glorious Fuhrer of the Fourth Reich.
The checks and balances prevent him from gaining much power, although he can increase his own power a little, but not much. Our system of government doesn't let him be all-powerful, especially with the new left-controlled Congress. You are completely insane on this issue and I cannot continue to argue with you. George Bush is a relatively bad president, but i would never call him a "fuhrer." End of story.
Checks and Balances, what a joke.
A quote from Mr. Andrew Jackson when he was told he could not evict the indians:
"That may be your desicion, now lets see you enforce it."
Against the will of the Supreme Court and Congress, Andrew Jackson committed a horrific genocide/forced removal of the Native Americans. Since then, the Executive Branch has grown steadily stronger, until the President can legally search our calls, mail, and perhaps homes without a warrant on absolutely no basis.
HEIL BUSH!
Andrew Jackson was a very bad president, I agree. But, remember, the Patriot Act was created by a representative in Congress. It then got passed by both houses of Congress. Only then did Bush do anything, by signing it into law. He didn't make it, and he's not the one ordering any searches. It's a law Congress passed that he signed and is now in use.
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