If you're from the north...watch this!

[mike33]

My brother, who still lives close to where we grew up in Minnesota, sent me this YouTube video. It's absolutely hilarious

YouTube - Minnesotans For Global Warming Song (If We Had Some Global Warming)

[jdunford]

At every forum I belong to, there's a recent "global warming is a hoax" thread (not necessarily that title, but to that effect). I'm going to post my comment, and then copy & paste it at all the forums I belong to. Saves time.

I think the biggest misunderstanding is that it's not "Minnesota warming" or "Alberta warming" or whatever your local case may be; it's global warming. The global mean temperature is increasing. The polar ice caps are melting. Glaciers that are tens of thousands of years old are receding. Climate change (which involves changes in weather patterns... often exhibited by more or less annual precipitation and not just temperature in the month of December) is occurring. Those are facts. And it's also a fact that these types of changes occur over 10,000 year cycles (and longer ones as well); there's plenty of evidence for that in the fossil record.

Is humankind affecting it? That's a good question. There does seem to be a strong correlation between (post industrial age) human activity and mean global temperature. But we are between an ice age and a greenhouse era. The mean global temperature is expected to be rising regardless of human activity. However, it does seem that global temperature is climbing at a rate that's much faster than that predicted for such a point in geological history. There is lots of evidence to suggest that humans are accelerating the process. It's also of important note that large numbers of species (not just lots of animals, but lots of species of animals) tend to go extinct when the earth oscillates between ice age and greenhouse age. We're not doing ourselves - or any other species - a favour by increasing the rate of change of mean global temperature. If we expect to survive as a species, and if we want to leave as little footprint as we can on this planet before we go extinct, then we can do ourselves (and the earth itself) a favour and cut back on our consumption of energy and our conversion of fossil fuels to carbon dioxide.

As an aside, before life existed on this planet, the atmosphere was primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). After plants were here for a few billion years, most of that CO2 and CH4 were converted to solid biomass. Of course, much of that biomass now exists as fossil fuels. Its kind of disturbing (at least to me) when you start to realize that we're undoing billions of years of work (by the thermodynamics definition) by burning those fossil fuels and converting them back to CO2. Humans (and many other aerobic organisms) can only survive when the CO2 concentration in air is less than about 0.1%. If fossil fuel consumption continues to accelerate (not stay the same, but increase like it has over the past 100 years or so), there's a real chance we could be extinct before the current generation sees their great grandchildren. Of course, we're expected to run out of oil long before then, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[/rant]

As you were.

[mike33]

Thanks for the info, some of that I knew, some I didn't. My opinion aside, and I pretty much agree with you, I put the video up for a laugh, nothing more.

To go along with what you said, there's a theoretical point in time that will, for lack of a better phrase...decide the fate of humankind. And it has a direct correlation to man's consumption of natural resources. If we don't have the human species established and self-sustaining off-world before that point, then, as a species, we'll be stuck on Earth and will, after consuming all planet resources, go extinct.

Personally, I don't think of it as if we don't correct our mistakes, then we'll destroy the planet. I think that's already unavoidable and that we will destroy the planet as we know it. Earth will eventually recycle itself and new/different life will flourish. But, if we don't get off the planet soon, then we're done for.

[vjsteeler]

I'm not trying to get into a debate over climate change but I'm pretty sure CO2 is carbon dioxide. "Di" is a prefix meaning two. Carbon monoxide is CO. The prefix "mono" meaning one.

[jdunford]

Originally Posted by vjsteeler

I'm not trying to get into a debate over climate change but I'm pretty sure CO2 is carbon dioxide. "Di" is a prefix meaning two. Carbon monoxide is CO. The prefix "mono" meaning one.

WHOA!

Right. Thanks. Massive typo. I use a lot of CO at work; more used to typing "monoxide".

[beekeeper]

Originally Posted by mike33

Personally, I don't think of it as if we don't correct our mistakes, then we'll destroy the planet. I think that's already unavoidable and that we will destroy the planet as we know it. Earth will eventually recycle itself and new/different life will flourish. But, if we don't get off the planet soon, then we're done for.

I agree that we will destroy the planet because we're a stupid species. For evidence, I offer John and Kate Plus 8. I wish all debates that have to do with global warming, sustainability, consumption of natural resources, peak oil, etc. began and ended with over population and the need for global birth control. Instead we celebrate morons who overproduce.

By the way, I hope we don't find another planet to exploit and pollute (try The Martian Chronicles--Bradbury predicted this more than half a century ago). We don't deserve another planet after how we've trashed this one.

[mike33]

Originally Posted by beekeeper

I agree that we will destroy the planet because we're a stupid species. For evidence, I offer John and Kate Plus 8. I wish all debates that have to do with global warming, sustainability, consumption of natural resources, peak oil, etc. began and ended with over population and the need for global birth control. Instead we celebrate morons who overproduce.

I completely agree with you here. Doing so would definitely give us more time.

Originally Posted by beekeeper

By the way, I hope we don't find another planet to exploit and pollute (try The Martian Chronicles--Bradbury predicted this more than half a century ago). We don't deserve another planet after how we've trashed this one.

I don't think it's about deserving this or that, simply survival. And I, for one, hope that the human race survives for a long, long time. I also think, and hope, that we will eventually come to be a morally good species, preferably before it's too late. What's the over/under on that, anyway? Probably about 5%

[vjsteeler]

Sometimes I use a lot of methane at work but it depends on what I've eaten the night before. My colleagues are not happy when I work with methane.